I think I had a "bad" round yesterday

[RUGER]

CBU, man and myself were hunting yesterday morning and had 3 does come out.
We decided that they weren't coming any closer so I got set up and was gonna try a long shot.
I didn't have my range finder, and even if I would have, I have found them to be useless in long range situations.
Anyway, we guessed her to be about 450 yards so I laid the rifle on a branch and got my crosshairs 6-8" above her back and let it fly.
I noticed little to no kick from my .300 win mag and the bullet hit the ground about 30 feet in front of the deer.
CBU said, "Dude, that didn't sound right at all."
He was commenting on how quiet the shot was.
Then when I went to cycle my bolt it was jammed up and I had to pull pretty hard to get it to eject.
We looked at the spent casing and everything looked ok, other than some, for a lack of a better word, gald marks on the sides of the case, near the base.
Not sure if one had anything to do with the other but it just seemed weird.
I had just taken a doe at 350+ yards the morning before.
First time I have ever had any reason to blame anything on my trusty ole corelokts.
The only other thing that I saw different about the case was around the end of it where the bullet was it was really black looking about a quarter of an inch down the neck.
Anyone had anything like this happen?

 

[.444 Marlin]

Just a bad round.

Take up reloading and you wont have that problem ever again.
Now you may funk up and do like I did....put a primer in backwards, mix powder, load 20gr LESS than I needed....

 

[Locksley]

Just a bad round that did not seal the neck and throat of thee case. Yet it had to much pressure at the base of the round so much that it stuck the case to the action and was hard to extract and had gald marks on the sides of the case, near the base.
It sounds like the wrong powder was used and there was not enough of the quick burning powder to get the pressure up in the entire case. A fast pistol powder might do this cause to much pressure at the bottom of the case yet not seal the rest of the case. if it is factory AMMO do not shoot anymore of that box send it back to the manufactor let then test it out. You do not want to ruin your rifle with bad AMMO.

 

[megalomaniac]

I didn't have my range finder, and even if I would have, I have found them to be useless in long range situations.

Huh? No way I could shoot past 400 without mine. Are you just inferring your particular model does not work well at longer distances? Amazing the difference just 25 yards makes in bullet drop past 600.

In any case, it does sound like an undercharged round. Interestingly enough, an undercharged round can cause a paradoxical pressure spike resulting in a sticky case or even complete case failure. Were they factory rounds or handloads?

 

[Cull Buck Hunter]

paradoxical --- 5 dollar word :grin:

 

[Tiny]

if it is factory AMMO do not shoot anymore of that box send it back to the manufactor let then test it out. You do not want to ruin your rifle with bad AMMO.

Good ideal they will replace it or send you a check for it.

 

[RUGER]

I have never had any luck at holding a rangefinder steady enough at ranges over 200 yards to get a dang reading on them.

It was indeed factory Remington Core-Lokt ammo.
Might send it back to them.