Sticking spent cases in receiver

[Turkeyfeather]

I know you old pro's will clear me up quick and it is probably something simple. I have a nice Turkish mauser action that was barreled in 244 Remington some years ago. It was done by a respectable gunsmith and the fit and finish seems very well. I purchased the rifle at a gentlemans personal gun collection auction. I am not sure of the barrel manufacturer but the gun shoots very well at 100 yard targets with 75 and 90 grain bullets with various loads. It is an older style 244 with the slow twist and thus heavy bullets drop in accuracy but they still shoot well. My problem is with any load, light charge or heavy. The cases stick in the chamber after firing. The brass is sized trimmed to the trim length and full length sized. The cases are tumbled clean and shinny and show no signes of distortion. The chamber shows no notable sign of machining problems in chambering or any clear signs of a problem. The headspace checks out fine. They chamber well but upon firing, they just don't want to come out and I have to lever hard on the bolt handle to remove the spent case. The extractor seems normal and I even tried a different one from a know rifle that has no problem. The problem still remains. Help!!

[Dee]

I suspect a dirty chamber. I have had many such cases brought to me with the same complaint. Solution? Get a dow rod, and wrap fine steel wool on it. Put the whole thing in an electric drill. Soak the chamber and steel wool in gun oil, and insert the steel wool wrapped dow rod into the chamber, and polish for a few seconds (about 15). DON'T push the thing past the neck of the chamber into the lands and grooves. This almost always cures the problem.
There is no telling how long the gun sat dirty and unfired.

[gunnut69]

Most likely the dirty chamber answer is correct but I have seen chambers very lightly bulged that gave the same problem. Not sure how it happens but am guessing an overpressure load??maybe a pressure excursion?? The cases are usually marked a bit as the primary extraction cam has to swage the case down a bit to get it extracted.  Unfartunately there is no good fix other than a re-barrel..
Another thing to check is a galled or damaged extraction cam itself. These can sometimes get annealed when the bolt is bent or welded and if not re-hardened can create extraction difficulties. It can usually be fixed by re-hardening and lightly lapping it in.. Just the pre-extraction cam..not the lugs.. Anther possibility is that the action has 'set back' or 'impreinted'. This means the locking recess(es) have developed dents from the locking lugs. This usually happens to one lug if they bear unevenly and these actions will check out just fine for headspace but when fired the pressure will force one lug back and into the dent. The camming of this lug out of engagement cam produce difficult extraction. If the action is printed there is no fix. The best way to tell for certain is to unscrew the barrel and check the abutments for denting with a depth mike..  The maker may not be at fault as this can happen from high pressure loads. If both lugs are set back it can sometimes be felt by pulling rearward as the bolt is opened. I saw a beautiful European light weight mauser sporter in 30-06 that was nearly inpossible to open when fired with factory loads. I had claw mounts attached and I always wondered if the heat needed to mount the bases damaged to hardness of the action  or if it just failed..  There are other possibilities but they are less common. One way to determine if its printed or a sticking case is to remove the extractor and load and fire a round. If the bolt is really hard to open with not extractor present I would strongly suspect a damaged locking abutment. The cases will have to be tapped out with a rod from the muzzle.. Caution! it's best to remove the extractor retension ring to avoid it hanging up the action,..