When you think everything is fine😔

[dennisinaz]

Took my 308 to the range after work to check zero for a mountain host/ deer hunt.i shot it in May, put it away and thought all is well.
I chambered a round from a box that i had fired most of in May with great results. First round had a little hard bolt lift, obvious brass flow into ejector port. Tried a round from another box with same load. Round extracted but did not eject. Brass shaving jammed the ejector flush. I scraped out the brass and freed up the plunger. Tried again. Same thing.
Cleaned brass out and tried a factory round. Smoke came out the bolt shroud. Only difference between now and when I shot it in May is latitude. I don't have my bore scope.
I cleaned the carbon last night, I'll try again today and see if it's back to normal. July was a bad month. I hope August isn't more of the same.

 

[NW Hunter1]

That’s a tough one for sure.
When you say the only thing that is changed is altitude, does that include the air temperature?
If you last shot in May, was it not warmer in August?
This could be part of your situation if warmer temps caused more velocity.
When you cleaned carbon, did you focus some work in the throat?
A possibility is your barrel has a carbon ring in the throat causing over pressure.
Being you don’t have your borescope, do you have a way to measure catridge base to ogive? If you know your CBTO #, you can measure to see if your distance to the lands is a shorter dimension showing that a carbon ring is indeed still there.
You could then work on the throat and remeasure periodically to see when your CBTO# returns to normal.
Hopefully you have already got out the ring and it shoots great again.
Good luck!

 

[dennisinaz]

I didn't say " altitude " i said " latitude". I put the first 70 rounds down range in Arizona. I'm in Kodiak Alaska now.
I cleaned the throat really good with Carbon Off. I shot a couple of rounds tonight and they were fine. I'll shoot more tomorrow.
Only thing i have limited experience with is Benchmark powder.

 

[Lance Kenyon]

I have found Benchmark to be very temp stable.

Did you make sure your chamber was clean? Even a minute amount of solvent or moisture can cause bolt lift problems if the case doesn't grab the chamber and slams back into the bolt face.

 

[dennisinaz]

I literally fired my last 10 rounds, put the gun in the case and drove to Alaska. I haven't needed it until recently so i got it out to go shoot a deer. I wanted to check zero so i fired some of the leftovers from may.
This is when i noticed all the pressure problems.
I've never had a carbon ring cause pressure like this. I'm going to shoot more this morning so I'll know if I've found the cause for sure or not.
I suppose the suppressor could be too blame so if i get another hit round, I'll take the suppressor off but this does change my POI quite a bit

 

[dennisinaz]

Loaded some potential goat loads. First load i tested shot really good. In spite of being a Barnes TTSX, it shot same point of impact at 200 as the ELD-X loads.
I came home and loaded 40 more.
Time to hunt!

 

[MECA]

Break shoulders with that Barnes.
THAT's how I want to get "oil leaks". With "secondary projectiles" from bone fragments, NOT from bullets coming apart.
Forget about angles and brake that off shoulder!

 

[dennisinaz]

Worked great on goats.

 

[MECA]

Worked great on goats.

Congrats!!!!

 

[Lance Kenyon]

Awesome!!! Congrats!

 

[dennisinaz]

I crawled to 120 yards. Kind of an easy shot

 

[MECA]

I crawled to 120 yards. Kind of an easy shot

That had to be great!!
You did the work and, SCOOORRRD!!!!

 

[-CRASH]

Congrats! That pic is amazing. Great background. Looks like an amazing hunt.

 

[dennisinaz]

Good times
For once i had amazing weather. Dropped off on Saturday afternoon, glassed up 3 good bucks from camp took off after them. Climbed straight up 800 feet. I need more practice at high angle shooting.
Followed them off the mountain where they bedded in some rolling grass. Crawled to 300 and dumped 2 bucks. Mine was hard- horned, my buddy's was velvet. Got back to camp at 11pm. One more load of meat Sunday morning. Quick lunch and hiked to other side of bowl. Quickly found 3 goats. Waited until they climbed out of the cliffs and onto my side of the ridge. Crawled until i had the high ground. Dumped the goat at 120 yards. Never moved. Packed back to camp by 10 pm. Marathon hunting!
Fog rolled in. Didn't get out until Wednesday night. Ate fresh venison and goat every meal

 

[dennisinaz]

I saw this post and thought I would freshen it up. Checked my zero on the 308 a couple weeks before I was to go hunting. It was dead nuts on with the 168 TTSX.
Somehow I ended up with some of my leftover 178 ELD-X loads in the magazine. I had a buck at 400 yards in an easy spot to pack out. I dialed for the distance and shot him. Found the bullet just under the skin on the off-side. The mushroom was pretty much photo- perfect.
When I recovered the bullet is when I noticed it was the ELD-X. My Kilo 10K is set up for the Barnes.
I loaded up the Barnes and kept hunting. A couple days later we found a buck that was real heavy. Decided I couldn't pass him. A 1 ½ mile stalk and I could only get to 600 yards without losing the ability to see him. I dialed what the Sig gave me and dropped him. I hoped he would tumble down to me but only came 50 yards closer. I actually recovered the TTSX from his spine. Bullet penetrated at least 24" . Reason he was so massive was he was still in velvet. Didn't have nuts either.
So far the Kilo 10K has been spot on
600 yards with an 18" barrel 308 is about the extreme limit for expansion velocity on the Barnes.

 

[dennisinaz]

I could not get the photos to attach.

 

[dennisinaz]

I guess one at a time

 

[Willys]

600 with 18” 308 is impressive.

 

[MECA]

Haa! Kinda did the same thing yesterday morning!
Went out to test some "reduced" loads in the 224 Clark for a night time PRS match we have locally!
Took the 25 Creedmoor along to check at 200 since I hadn't fired it since last deer season. I noticed I had a round in the magazine and it was a "huh, I guess I put one in already" senior moment. When I pulled the trigger on the 1/2" square the Garmin read 3147fps. HUH?? Then I popped the mag out and actually looked! It was my Coyote load with 110 Hornady ELDX's!
It hit exactly 1 1/2" high so I ran another one and it landed 1/2" below the first.
I shot a couple 101's and they dotted dead nuts on the right edge of the 1/2" square @ 3024 fps. That's more like it!
The Clark ran three three-shot groups with 85.5gr Bergers that averaged .683 but the star was the very first group that printed a .127" Mickey Mouse! At 200yds! Think I'll shoot this one!

I

 

[dennisinaz]

I'm still using the Benchmark/ TTSX load.
2655 from an 18" barrel. Dumped a small buck at 250 opening day. Knocked him down and he slid down the mountain to within 50 yards.
Just got back from Brooks range. Hoping to use this load on a sheep or bear but 11" rain kept the creek too high to cross. Never found anything to shoot.
Elk hunt in November but I'll probably use something else for that