I have a 6.5prc. shot a few hundred rounds through it no issue. typically Hornady eldx.

I did some shooting then moved to another box. but the bolt closing was stiff. I try to cycle the unfired round and the bullet gets stuck in the barrel and the case pops out and throws powder everywhere. get the bullet out then start testing other rounds from the same box. same issue. try another newbox of eldx and same issue. try some federal and a few other brands, no issue.

I try a few rounds of eldx from another box my uncle had. no issue.

the stuck bullets are in the pic below.i checked COAL and look good. but I can't figured out what's going on. I switched to federal fusion and shot fine.

thoughts? other things to check?

Do you have other boxes of ELDX to compare it to? It looks like those bullets have rifling marks on them. Perhaps there was some issue and they got loaded incredibly long and were jammed into the lands hard enough to get stuck.

Do you have calipers to measure the overall length of some rounds from that box and compare it to other rounds?

just got home and tried a new box of eldx. same issue. one round felt really stiff so I didn't fully cycle it. I tried another round from the samebox. it went in, but not smoothly and took some pull to eject it. I cycled a few federal fusion rounds no issue. attached are pics comparing the eldx vs fusion from cycling. you can see the marks on the eldx.

this was the round I didn't fully cycle because it felt so stiff. you can see where it was contacting.

Didn't have these issues with ELDX but I've had consistent accuracy issues with them on both 6mm ARC and 7-08. Nasty groupings. Had to go with the BLACK IN MY 6ARC and back to the trusted Core Lokt in my 7-08. Not sure if that helps but I just don't have confidence in that ammunition.

the rounds i had issues with cycled fine in my uncles 6.5 (both are ridgeline models,identical except barrel length)

tried a different box of federal fusion and norma: all good. tried a box of eld match and same issue.

could the gun be that picky and peculiar on its tolerance stackup?

A quick google search of " christensen ridgeline prc bullet stuck" is turning up quite a few folks who've experienced this.

Just dive in gently, bc Christensen gets a piss poor rap on a lot of LR shooting/hunting forums.

Their QC is not good.

As said above, the bullets are being jammed into the lands in that particular rifle. The leade is not long enough for that particular load, probably by just a few thousands. The COAL is not the critical measurement. Have to use a bullet comparator to measure from a data point near the junction of the ogive and compare to your chamber dimensions. Your chamber dimensions are slightly different than your uncles. Your options are either to seat the bullets slightly deeper or find a different load/bullet to shoot.

edit: If you have, or know of someone that has, a press and 6.5 bullet seating die, it would be simple to seat these bullets deeper (say 20 tho or so).

NRH ag 10 said:

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Do you have other boxes of ELDX to compare it to? It looks like those bullets have rifling marks on them. Perhaps there was some issue and they got loaded incredibly long and were jammed into the lands hard enough to get stuck.

Do you have calipers to measure the overall length of some rounds from that box and compare it to other rounds?

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This is what it sounds like to me, or the barrel isnt correctly cut for this length of bullet.

I have better luck with Barnes 127LRX. It is a shorter bullet.

This is what scared me away from Christensen was the massive amounts of QC issues they seem to have when researching them in forum after forum.

Good luck to OP on getting this issue solved in a timely manner!

100% on using a comparator, I was guessing the OP doesn't have one so using COAL for loaded rounds with the same bullet would at least tell him if the box with problems was loaded differently than the ELDX ammo that had worked earlier.

agrams, do you leave near a gunsmith that could inspect/ream the chamber if needed? That might be a less frustrating route than dealing with Christensen.

fortunately i have several boxes of federal fusion that I've shot a few groups with to get the issue resolved to get through hunting season. Ill dig into the issue more after hunting season is over.

So tales like this is why I stuck with 300WM over PRC. The reason PRC is more accurate is partially due to tighter tolerances. Tighter tolerances have more issues. YMMV

This is not a tight tolerance issue and is not a Christenson Arms issue (exclusively).

There are two different reamer specs floating around for 6.5 PRC. The older has .130" freebore and the later has .188" freebore. That is a huge difference, but both have a ton for use with high SD bullets.

Unless this really is a QC problem, I would bet your chamber was cut with the old PT&G reamer. That would be advantageous for a handloader as magazines limit OAL and cannot take advantage of the longer, .188" freebore.

Hopefully you can seat a little deeper and take advantage of the shorter freebore.

I have a lot of Hornady factory 143 eldx. Bought several cases over the last couple of years.

They've been great and accurate out of my Ridgeline until last week. I hit a lot that started flowing brass into the ejector and I had to really work on the bolt to get the case out.

Clearly too much pressure. Switched to another lot and no problem. So, I'm looking at Hornady for QC as much as Christensen.

I have three ridgelines and they're all accurate. This 6.5 PRC doesn't bolt and feed very well if you're short on the stroke at all. Has to be done very deliberately and we all know that sometimes doesn't happen when you're in the mix.