Okieflatlander
FNG
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2022
- Messages
- 11
So after purchasing my reaper in 6.5 PRC I immediately noticed extremely difficult bolt closure and about 1 out of every 4 rounds would even leave the spent brass stuck in the chamber after firing, requiring me to stick a rod down the barrel and pound the brass out. This happened with both Peterson ammo and Hornady Precision Hunter. Regardless of how clean or dirty the rifle was this would happen. At this point I’ve got somewhere in the range of 30 rounds through it. Sent the rifle back to Fierce, after a couple months they called and said they chamber was too small and that they fixed the problem. Fast forward to this Saturday, I clean the rifle, using the entire KG cleaning process, brush it 60 times with each product, patch it out between cleaning products, so when I’m done I know this barrel is spotless (no carbon ring). I carefully use a larger poly brush and a large patch to clean the chamber and make sure the chamber is perfectly dry before heading out to the range.
By this part of the story I’ve installed a TBAC Ultra 7 Gen 2 can on the gun. I’m exclusively shooting Hornady PH for this part of the story. The first 4 rounds even though they’re basically fouling shots produce a .66” group. Great bolt close, and easy bolt lift. The next three rounds produce an even better sub .5” group, but on the last round I notice a very sticky bolt lift. I look at the back of the brass and there are clear ejector marks. I shoot another 3 round group, again stiff/sticky bolt lift, ejector marks on the back of the brass and one hell of a tight group. I take the gun to my 1000 yard range to true it’s velocity on my rangefinder and it shoots an amazing 4” group at 1000, but again each shot the bolt lift is getting a little stickier. I called Fierce back today, they said they’d see what their gunsmiths think, but that with a suppressor I’d of course need to clean the gun more often. Clean it every 4 shots? Should I insist on sending it back? I don’t have any reloading equipment to size brass. Happy to hear anyones advice. Pics of brass below
By this part of the story I’ve installed a TBAC Ultra 7 Gen 2 can on the gun. I’m exclusively shooting Hornady PH for this part of the story. The first 4 rounds even though they’re basically fouling shots produce a .66” group. Great bolt close, and easy bolt lift. The next three rounds produce an even better sub .5” group, but on the last round I notice a very sticky bolt lift. I look at the back of the brass and there are clear ejector marks. I shoot another 3 round group, again stiff/sticky bolt lift, ejector marks on the back of the brass and one hell of a tight group. I take the gun to my 1000 yard range to true it’s velocity on my rangefinder and it shoots an amazing 4” group at 1000, but again each shot the bolt lift is getting a little stickier. I called Fierce back today, they said they’d see what their gunsmiths think, but that with a suppressor I’d of course need to clean the gun more often. Clean it every 4 shots? Should I insist on sending it back? I don’t have any reloading equipment to size brass. Happy to hear anyones advice. Pics of brass below
It’s really got me scratching my head. The Hornady PH boxes were all the same lot #. I really don’t know what happened between shots 4 and 16 that’s caused the signs of pressure. Maybe a carbon ring formed that quick with the suppressor on, then when I took the suppressor off and shot it, the carbon ring went away or became less substantial? I’ll keep this thread updated as things progress.
