Good Morning Fellas,
I encountered something I haven't experience before while shooting and I thought i'd share and see if y'all have ever encountered something similar or have some insight.
I picked up a Ross model 1905E in .303 British and loaded up some of my cast for them. boolit is a NOE 311-180-RF (K31), i've got them sized to .314 which is exactly the groove diameter, it's what i've got available so I decided to see if it would work. I've got them above 11.5gr of Red Dot and a CCI #34 primer.
Upon firing the bolt was very hard to open, had to bring the rifle down and hit it pretty hard with the edge of my hand. These rifles are a bit infamous for lacking primary extraction, but they definitely shouldn't be having this trouble.
Upon examining the brass the primer was quite noticeably protruding. Definitely not flattened in the slightest, very much rounded. I decided to fire 4 more, similar results although the degree of protrusion varied as did the difficulty in opening the bolt, although a very firm hit was required in all cases. I measured the protrusion to be over .010" from flush on a couple of the pieces. Some pictures are included for your consideration.
Thoughts?
I'm leaning towards being far from a dangerous pressure situation, in fact the opposite being the problem and increasing my charge of Red Dot by a grain to see what happens. But i'm also curious if there's something else that could have caused the primer protrusion and how exactly it would lead to the bolt being so hard to open before I proceed.
Or just if anyone has experienced similar on any other rifle.
Maybe the magnum power primer contributed? I've standardized on the CCI #34 for everything I load.
Of slight interest you can also see how the shape of the shoulder has changed after firing. I doubt that's related, and it's typical for these particular rifles but I guess i'm going to neck size from here on out.