Quoted:
I have a State Arms Rebel, shellholder type bolt, and I too had extraction problems with the factory loaded Federal ammo. I had to tap the bolt handle with my hand and work the bolt a couple times to get the case out - I've only shot 10 rounds thru it but all were like this. I'm wondering if the brass is a little too stiff and causing it to not spring back enough or the load is just a little too hot ? I have yet to reload anything for my .50 yet so I don't have anything to compare it to. I do have a Geo Az case gauge that I will be using when I do get to reload some, the loaded Federal ammo fits the gauge proper but of course is larger after firing but doesn't seem extreme. I hope to be able to try sizing a couple of these cases soon to see how it does - I have the CH4D sizing die.
I have had surplus ammo make my bolt stiff to open also with all of my .50's. Surplus ammo is loaded with 235 grains of powder, it is just a little to hot for most bolt guns. I reload with 222 grains of 5010 or 860 and the bolt is easy to open. The Federal ammo is loaded by Lake City at Military specs, for the M2, that is why your bolt is stiff to open. Some of the hottest ammo I have tried came from Maine Cartridge Company, it was 647 gr ball ammo that was so hot that it was hard to open the bolt using a rubber mallet. I decided to shoot it through a chrony to see how fast they were going. I was going to shoot a 10 shot string and compare the deviation also. I only got off 7 shots and the last one was so hot I could not get the bolt to open at all, had to send the rifle back to Klauss at State Arms to open it. Out of the 7 shots I shot through a chrony the velocity was all over the place, from 2716fps (slowest) to the last round that stuck my bolt at 3241 fps (fastest) over 500 fps deviation in a 7 shot group. I had bought 100 rounds of loaded Amax from them at the same time and it was fine stuff, consistent velocity and not hot at all.
Ed