Hey guys, I am new to the group and appreciate all the great topics on this forum. Seems like a great community of shooters. I have enjoyed Jim’s videos for years and wanted to help support the channel and learn from others. Ok, introductions aside, here is what I have for you:
I have a Bergara B-14 Ridge Carbon Wilderness that I just bought a few months ago. It is chambered in 300 Win. Mag. The rifle is shooting great groups (at least for 3 rounds because that all I can get right now), but I am having an issue with the brass getting stuck. If I shoot 3 or 4 rounds it works great but anything more than that the bolt becomes VERY difficult to cycle. I have to “mortar” the gun to get the spent casing out (it hurts my soul when I have to do it). I have tried multiple brands of ammunition and checked the chamber for burrs or blemishes.
I know the answer is to send it back to Bergara and have them fix it under warranty, but I am curious if this is a known problem and what you guys think is causing it. Has anyone else run into this issue? I am assuming the chamber is sized too tight, but I can’t figure out why the first few rounds cycle fine. Maybe the tolerances are close enough that the heat causes the chamber to swell and cause the problem?
I also have a Bergara, but I am not having, nor ever had, this issue. I think we have the same barrel and action, though. It sounds like once the barrel starts to heat up, its swelling. I think your answer is the way to go, send it back. Assuming you have cleaned and oiled your action, feed ramp and barrel.
I assume you are shooting factory ammo so high pressure is not a factor?
I would clean out the chamber well before sending it back. You could also “polish” the chamber with a mild abrasive polish and/or steel wool, just to make it shiny and slick.
A friend of mine had one and the headspace was wrong causing over pressure problems with factory ammo he had the extractor break after 10 rounds. You can get a headspace gauge and check your chamber and if it’s good maybe try a different brand of ammo.
My son has the Wilderness HMR in 300 Win Mag and was having the same issue with certain brass. Peterson, Norma, etc. did fine, but Hornady, Federal, etc. would stick randomly. We contacted Bergara and they asked us to send it in so they could see what was going on. They were going to shoot different brands of brass through it and try and replicate the problem. The technician I talked with said that it could be that the “softer brass” could be expanding like normal but then not contracting enough upon cooling. When we get his rifle back I’ll post what they found.