Bad day at the range.......

[JAM66]

I just got home from shooting my Handi .223 Survivor, .17 HMR, and my .280.  The first shot out of my .280 was way low and when I ejected the case only the head of the case came out leaving the rest of the case stuck in the chamber. To make matters worse when I went to lock up the barrel there is now daylight between the barrel and receiver. I can wiggle the barrel up and down when its locked. Now, these were no where near what I would consider a hot load. I have shot these same loads on previous outings.  The only difference this time was before I went out I used Flitz on the barrel to "help" my groups. I thoroughly cleaned this out prior to shooting. Is the receiver bent or just the front lug?. How much is this gonna cost me?[/table]

[MSP Ret]

Perhaps nothing, did the .280 barrel come on that reciever? Is it the proper SB2 reciever for a high intensity caliber? Were you shooting factory ammo? Have you shot this exact ammo out of this gun before? De[ending on your answers, you might consider either removing the stuck case or leaving it in and and returning the gun to H&R for evaluation, and repair/replacement...Good Luck....<><....  :cry:

[JAM66]

yes this barrel came brand new on the gun.

[riddleofsteel]

Was this a reload? Many factors can cause pressure spikes. I was reloading for a 1896 bolt action rifle chambered in 6.5x55. I resized the cases and reprimed them. My normal procedure is to throw a powder onto the electronic scale tray from a powder measure and weigh them for accuracy, adjusting them with a trickler. When I threw the first charge I noticed the powder did not "look" right. I inspected the powder measure and discovered that I had left some Blue Dot in the measure the last time I used it.
MISTAKE #1
Then I had dumped H4831 in on top of it without looking to confirm it was empty.
MISTAKE #2
 :oops:
If I had been throwing charges directly into the cases I might have ended up with 50 grains of Blue Dot in a 6.5x55 case. Believe me in an 1896 Mauser that might have been a disaster.

Another time I misread the loading manual or was dyslexic or something and tried to load 87 grains of IMR 7828 into a 7mm STW case instead of 78 grains. Thank God it would not fit!!!!!!

The point here is that very minor mistakes reloading can cause very BIG problems. I have a buddy that ruined a TRC 87 rifle in .270 by switching from regular primers to magnum primers and from Noslers BT's to Barnes X bullets all without starting the load process all over again and working up a new load. The load was already near max and the mix of a harder bullet and a hotter primer spiked the pressure and ruined the rifle. It stretched the frame and blew the case. He was OK but scared. TC actually replaced the frame for free.

[JAM66]

I have shot these same reloads before without any problems. Could using the Flitz beforehand cause the problem
?

[riddleofsteel]

Anything that causes resistance to the bullet can raise pressures but I doubt a little Flitz would be enough to blow a case and damage the rifle.
When you finished cleaning out the Flitz was it all out? Were you getting white patches?

Perhaps the case was ready to seperate anyway. Case seperation is dangerous and can damage a firearm. How many times had the case been fired? Examine the rest of the loading lot and search for signs of impending seperation.

[Ditchdigger]

The case's may very well be the problem.I bought some 7 mag ammo in Rem. corloks and noticed the necks were splitting after fireing,after checking the gun over,I examined the rest of the new ammo,and about half of the 18 rds. left had the necks already split. I called sporting goods store were I bought it,and took the remaining ammo back. They had already checked the rest of the ammo and had 4 box's ready to send back.  So you might check the rest  of your brass.  Digger

[Nightrain52]

Check the rest of your handloads for a shiny ring about 1/4 inch above the head of the case. If this is where your case split at you have a condition known as insipiate head separation. Another way to tell is if your reloads have this shiny ring around case just above the head pull the bullets and powder out of 3 or 4 of them and take a piece of a coat hanger that is straight and bend one end of it at a 90 degree angle and then put the bent end thru the case mouth all the way to the bottom. Slowly work the wire up and down past where the bright ring is. If you can feel any kind of a catch or hang up that case is getting ready to separate. In that case you need to check all your cases if they have all been reloaded the same amount of times. Cases like this are dangerous and should be discarded. Crush or smash them so no one else can use them.  

[riddleofsteel]

If a case is improperly sized for a chamber the cartridge can move all the way forward until the case shoulder rests against the shoulder of the chamber. When the firing pin moves forward it helps to hold the case forward by the primer. When the round goes off the base of the case moves to the rear to meet the breechface in an attempt to fireform to the chamber. As this happens it can cause case seperation in one fireing. I had a TCR rifle in 7mm STW that was not properly headspaced. I had some cases that seperated in one firing, some took two firings. This was all with an SSK custom barrel. I will not go into my dissatisfaction with this whole process as this thread is on a similar problem in a Handi-rifle not SSK customer service.

[jeff223]

if you send the rifle in to NEF i wouldnt tell them you were using handloads in the gun.NEF and other gun companies dont like handloads being used in their firearms.keep that info to yourself.im not telling you not to use handloads either,i only use handloads in my rifles

i think you had a bad piece of brass