After firing 30 rounds of GGG m193 with no stoppages, I switched to 75 gr Hornady factory match ammo. Fired 40 rounds Hornady with no stoppages, then on the last box of 20, I started having repeated failures to extract.
Each time, I found the fired case stuck in chamber with next round jammed with its nose in the chambered case's primer. Cleared by dropping mag, manually cycling bolt to drop the extractor on the chambered case, then manually cycling bolt to clear the chambered round. This worked every time except for the last time, when the extractor wouldn't hook onto the spent case. Other interesting note is that some of the last rounds of Hornady caused a small cloud of gray smoke to puff out of the seam between the upper and lower.
Gave up after 5 failures, came home, pushed the chambered case out with a cleaning rod (came out easily), and disassembled the bolt. Out of the bolt and carrier dropped these tiny pepper-like shards that I assume came from the ammo. I found one lodged between the extractor and the bolt, which explains why the last round couldn't be grabbed.
Barrel is Noveske CHF chambered in 556 NATO. Less than 500 rounds total and reasonably clean.
Can anyone help me make sense of this?
Thanks
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