New rifle problems for a new Tac shooter

[Milano]

Hello,
I am having some issues with a rifle just rebuilt for me by a very reputable company. I would rather not say who it is right now. I will say later, but I do not want to tarnish their name before I give them the opportunity to repair the potential problems. The problems may be my over expectations or workmanship. I need you all to guide me down my thought process.

I had this rifle built for me a few years ago by a local gunsmith. The rifle is a Borden Alpine action, in a McMillan A5 stock, Badger DBM, 6.5x47 Lapua. Needless to say and it would not shoot well. (My handloads were a touch over 1 MOA. The Lapua Factory about 1.5 MOA.) 500 rounds of load development plus 60 rounds of factory. So, to alienate that I wasn't the problem in the equation was to shoot my older, 7,000ish rounds, SSG-69 against it. 0.75 MOA vs 1.25 MOA consistently. I sent the rifle away to get it repaired by the aforementioned rifle builder and I just got it back and am having the issues below...

1. Below the bolt face, when open, the Borden Alpine action has a slight bump. When you put a loaded magazine in, the top round catches this bump and will not feed. (I wish I had a camera right now, I would attach an image.) However, looking into the action before closing the bolt, the bullet it tipped up, while the head is tipped down. The bolt cannot catch the rim of the cartridge when closing to feed it into the chamber. After the first round is fed then the remainder of the magazine feeds smoothly. Is this a trait common to Borden actions? Am I not holding my tounge right?

2. The action is gritty. You can hear and feel it. I have cleaned the heck out of it! Blown air, oils, name it. Could it be the paint job that got behind the lugs?

3. Sometimes while cycling the action it will decock. Why would this happen? It has a Timney trigger. It is light but not oz's light like the set trigger on my SSG!

The company admitted, or pointed the finger, that the rifle was REALLY messed up before. They lost money on the work required to get it shooting. I have not yet shot it much. 3 rounds while breaking in the barrel and re-zeroing the scope. I will let you all know later how it is grouping. I took today off to shoot my new rifle and am getting discouraged.

Thank you for any help, even criticism of me, in answering these problems.

 

[T2CH]

Not familiar with Borden actions. Did the smith true the action? Have you talked to him about the "bump" on the bolt? Have you asked him about any of this first?
If you have not talked to him I would ask him first.

Pictures would be very helpful.

 

[Milano]

I have e-mailed them a few days ago and they have gotten back to me about some of the other issues. When my wife gets home I will take a picture of the "stove pipe" and post it.

 

[skeetlee]

the bumps are called borden bumps. they are there for a reason. the trigger sounds like it needs more sear pressure. sounds pretty simple. lee

 

[Oregonmuley]

the bumps are called borden bumps. they are there for a reason. the trigger sounds like it needs more sear pressure. sounds pretty simple. lee

Might be wrong but I'm pretty sure the "Borden Bumps" are only in his Rimrock series actions, not the Alpine/Timberline. I have a Alpine based .243 built by Karl Feldkamp and the action is nice and smooth even when dirty. No ideas on your other issues - hope you get them worked out though.

 

[Milano]

Maybe this question will help me with the gritty action issue. I was told that the original gunsmith either over tightened the barrel into the action, to fix the head space OR, he cross threaded the barrel into the action. (This is what I was led to believe and I couldn't get a straight answer about it.)

So, How would a gunsmith go about fixing either of these problems?

 

[buckey]

I would contact Jim Borden & arrange to send the rifle to him. He then can assess any damages or problems that the other gunsmith did to the action. Jim Borden knows his stuff & will be able to help you out!!

 

[deadly0311]

Cross threading the barrel seems highly unlikely. The grittiness can probably attributed to the paint job you speak of. If it was cerakote I can almost guarantee that there is alox behind the lugs.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

I would contact Jim Borden & arrange to send the rifle to him. He then can assess any damages or problems that the other gunsmith did to the action. Jim Borden knows his stuff & will be able to help you out!!

This is sound advice, I would send him the rifle and ask that he document all damage, cause of damage, and an estimate for full repair/replacement. Once you can prove the local smith botched the work, I would be filing a lawsuit. You would need to be able to prove that the work caused the problems, not bad parts.

As far as the current problems you are having, did they exist before you sent it to the second smith? #3 should be a straight forward fix as it sounds like there's not enough sear engagement. The other two aren't going to be as easy to fix. God only knows what is causing #1 without an inspection by somebody who knows what they're looking at and #2 is likely from a bad coating job.

Regardless the outcome, I would chalk this up as a lesson to only do business with known reputable gunsmiths that have a reputation to protect. You always hear of hit or miss work with local smiths and bad service but you rarely hear that of smiths on here. Do smiths on here screw up from time to time? You bet, but they bend over backwards to make it right because this is their livelihood.