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Old 05-08-2007, 01:18 PM
Dan C Dan C is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Cheyenne, WY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DittoHead View Post
What is this “clicking” problem?

I think I have seen someone mention it before but I have never read an explanation of the cause. I assume the culprit is pressure, but exactly what part of the bolt or brass is making the clicking sound and why?
The 'clicking' at the top of the bolt lift, which means when the primary extraction occurs, is usually caused by the cases getting tight at the base and resisting the start of extraction. It can occur with normal, acceptable loads in a chamber that is a little snug at the base for the brass.

Normally when loads are just 'too hot' for the rifle, the bolt lift will be stiff right from the start of the lift. Like montdoug mentioned, on Coopers with their steep cocking ramp this can be hard to feel at times if it's minor.

Personally I've never had a rifle resist primary extraction (causing the 'click') unless the chamber was too tight for the brass. If the body or FL die will reduce the base enough, the click can be made to disappear for a couple of shots with FL sizing but will come back eventually.

I can't imagine a factory Cooper chamber being tight enough at the base to cause this, but my Cooper with it's tight custom chamber is a little snug for my taste and will show the same symptoms as Scootertrash's rifle. Compounding the problem is the poorly designed primary extraction ramp of the Cooper action, it just doesn't do it's job very well.

Scootertrash, I've had QuickLoad for several years now and I just haven't had very good results with the small weird stuff we shoot. Anything very far from the 'standard' (like a 30-06) causes problems with QL. For predicting results it's been practically useless for me. When I plug in tested loads, the velocities are usually not very close unless I adjust the powder burn rate by 10% or more! What good is that? It is a fun tool to play with but hasn't been very useful to me. Perhaps you are just better at running the program and I'm missing some critical piece of information?

Good thread....
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