Why do I get a stuck case occasionally...

[Kilo Charlie]

Thanks for all the replies.....
What I find weird is, the bullets chamber and eject with no issues before being fired. After resizing them, I checked each one, load it and eject them all and they come out of the action easy...… Ejecting the unspent shell with the bolt is easy

I had the exact same problem with a Remington 721 in .300 H&H. It would feed and eject loaded rounds easily, but would not extract fired cases.
Factory ammo extracted and ejected perfectly after firing. My conclusion was that the brass had just been loaded too many times; it came with the rifle and was in the old green Remington boxes from the 1970's. In fact it was old enough that it was headstamped ".300 Magnum" instead of ".300 H&H."
Once I rid myself of that old brass, all 80 cases, the problem disappeared.

[Big Jack]

I had the exact same problem with a Remington 721 in .300 H&H. It would feed and eject loaded rounds easily, but would not extract fired cases.
Factory ammo extracted and ejected perfectly after firing. My conclusion was that the brass had just been loaded too many times; it came with the rifle and was in the old green Remington boxes from the 1970's. In fact it was old enough that it was headstamped ".300 Magnum" instead of ".300 H&H."
Once I rid myself of that old brass, all 80 cases, the problem disappeared.

This is good advice.

Clean the chamber as well, have seen lots of sticky problems fixed with a good cleaning.
Week ejector springs as well.

[Gun Nut]

You might check the cases that stick, to see if they come from a different manufacturer than the ones that didn't stick. I recall an article on the old Ross .303 where they had no problem with Canadian manufacture ammo, but would have sticking problems with British manufactured ammo. The problem was traced to the British ammo having thinner case walls than the Canadian ammo. Another possibility is the case that stick may have once been fully annealed so the brass is softer. Otherwise they are sticking because the powder charge is bridging on being to hot, in which case keep the sticking brass separate and load them with a couple grains less powder to see if they continue to stick, they may have a weakness in the lower brass of the shoulders.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

[fratri]

You might check the cases that stick, to see if they come from a different manufacturer than the ones that didn't stick. I recall an article on the old Ross .303 where they had no problem with Canadian manufacture ammo, but would have sticking problems with British manufactured ammo. The problem was traced to the British ammo having thinner case walls than the Canadian ammo. Another possibility is the case that stick may have once been fully annealed so the brass is softer. Otherwise they are sticking because the powder charge is bridging on being to hot, in which case keep the sticking brass separate and load them with a couple grains less powder to see if they continue to stick, they may have a weakness in the lower brass of the shoulders.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

I fired 4 rounds at a coyote this morning, all of them ejected well..........missed the coyote though

[Stu]

I fired 4 rounds at a coyote this morning, all of them ejected well..........missed the coyote though

So, what did you do to fix the problem?

[Gun Nut]

So, what did you do to fix the problem?

As he pointed out previously it does happen all the time. So it is not likely the firearm that is the problem, so maybe either a reloading clinch, or a shell brass problem. He may have a mixture of cartridge brass, I have a mixture of brass and sometime have tough time opening the gun to remove one. Winchester seems to have weaker brass than say Remington, and some of the foreign brass could be lighter as well, probably a good reason to sort and separate your brass into lots for reloading.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

[fratri]

As he pointed out previously it does happen all the time. So it is not likely the firearm that is the problem, so maybe either a reloading clinch, or a shell brass problem. He may have a mixture of cartridge brass, I have a mixture of brass and sometime have tough time opening the gun to remove one. Winchester seems to have weaker brass than say Remington, and some of the foreign brass could be lighter as well, probably a good reason to sort and separate your brass into lots for reloading.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

This may be the problem.... Like I mentioned earlier, a shell only gets stuck once in a while, it may have been 1 round out of 20 or so.... Next one to get stuck I will examine closely. Not sure if it has been helping but I have been wiping down the casings removing any oil film from them.... I will keep you posted when I get the next one jammed

[Stu]

This may be the problem.... Like I mentioned earlier, a shell only gets stuck once in a while, it may have been 1 round out of 20 or so.... Next one to get stuck I will examine closely. Not sure if it has been helping but I have been wiping down the casings removing any oil film from them.... I will keep you posted when I get the next one jammed

Wiping down the cases to get oil off is always good and certainly could have added to your problem. I would still strongly suggest to all that we pay more attention to the chambers of our firearms. As has been mentioned in several posts this is only one of many possible causes of your problem.
Good luck. I hope you have your problem solved.