Im currently awaiting response from Bergara but here's my problem. Looking for anyone with similar issues. November 2019, purchased a brand new Bergara HMR Pro in 6.5 CM in hopes to getting involved with PRS matches. As with all brand new firearms, I cleaned out the manufactures grease and oil. I settled on factory Hornady American Gunner 140 gr HPBT ammo. After initial break in then sight in(25-30 rounds), I cleaned the rifle after that range session. I was quite impressed with this combination as I was grouping .33" groups at 100 yards. Velocities(through chrono) revealed 2718 FPS highest reading, 2705 FPS lowest reading, 2711FPS average. Pretty consistent velocities. Initially, I thought that maybe Hornady got match ammo mixed up with my 200 round bulk ammo sale. Next range session, things get a little interesting. Shooting 100 yards then every 100 yards out to 500 yards, I get to round count 30-35 and the bolt begins to become very tight chambering a round, but will chamber a round. After the shoot, once I notice this occurring, the bolt will not extract the spent casing without a blow to the bolt rearwards. I then chambered another round and same stiffness as previous. As I extracted that live round, I noticed that the lands and grooves are imprinted on the bullet. I ceased that session, went home and thoroughly cleaned the firearm again. After cleaning, a tested and a round chamber smoothly and extracted smoothly. No land and groove imprints. Today's ranges session, same story, after shooting 30+ rounds, chambering stiffness and extraction is extremely tight. On 2 occasions today, after chambering a live round, then attempting to extract that live round, the bullet got stuck and lodged in the chamber while the brass was extracted. See attached pic. Round on the right is a chamber round with markings on the bullet. Middle is one of the bullets that got stuck in the chamber and last round is spent casing from today. Anyone else having these issues with the Bergara HMR Pro and Hornady American Gunner ammo or is this ammo/firearm not a good combination? I have not tried match ammo yet as I still have a bunch of this ammo left. There maybe 120 rounds through this firearm and I've never had one act like this especially with factory ammo.
Issues with Bergara HMR Pro 6.5 CM or Hornady Ammo?
- Thread starter gunnysargent12
- Start date
Will do and have also read some other forums to seat the bullet 0.10 deeper, but...that doesn't explain why chambering and extraction is easy after cleaning and no lands/groove imprints on the bullet with a clean firearm.
Bullets measure dead nuts at 0.264. I picked out 6 random rounds out of the bulk pack and measure COL as followed: 2.793, 2.791, 2.803, 2.795, 2.796, 2.790. Hornady reloading manual advises 2.800"
Are you cleaning it with a nylon brush? If so you might not be cleaning out all the fouling and it just continues to build up in the throat. Use a bronze brush.
I agree with the carbon theory. I would guess the free bore is to tight and a thou of carbon (for example) is enough to stick it. I've seen a savage with a similar problem. It would pull 175 FGMM. Gun Smith said it was tight and touched up the chamber, been great since. A tired reamer in production could give you this result. I'd get with the manufacturer first. If you take it to a smith it's yours! Let us know what fixes it.
On another note, I pretty much disassembled the gun for a thorough cleaning. Leaning towards carbon build up but again, why after so many shots, it's carboning it up that bad? Yes a question for Bergara or independent gunsmith. Here's what else I discover last night and don't know it it would have any bearing. The firearm does have a muzzle brake to tame muzzle jump for follow through. I removed that last night to soak the barrel of loosen the carbon. On the recessed crown, the carbon was so thick and harden, it took me over and hour just to get the carbon off the crown. Honestly, it's a Precision armament brake and I hate it. Doesn't reduce muzzle jump at all. My spotter yesterday also noticed that the bipod jump off the bench. Would a muzzle break accelerate carbon build up throughout the barrel to include the throat? I know the Bergara is far from being a custom firearm with tight and close tolerances but should this be firearm need to be treated, as far as cleaning, any different that one of my other factory firearms?
Worn or resharpened reamer is undersized in the freebore. Going off memory here but I think the SAAMI spec is 0.2645" for freebore diameter so it doesn't take much if you have a reamer that's cutting a 0.2643" hole, and it's fairly typical for bullets to run a couple of tenthousandths over nominal.
#s are just for example. A proper cerrosafe cast and mic might show what's up.
#s are just for example. A proper cerrosafe cast and mic might show what's up.
I have the exact same rifle and ammo combo. I picked mine up in August. I have not the issue that you have had with the ammo. But I can say your gun likes that ammo way more than mine does. Best I can get is MOA. However, it really likes the S&B 140gr stuff for practice ammo. Certainly 1/2 MOA to 300.
Well....spoke with Bergara this morning and it's heading back.....4-6 weeks before I find out what is going on.
how many rounds in 1 session are you sending downrange with the American Gunner? I haven't tried other ammo as I saw no reason to. As of this morning, I spoke with Bergara and it's headed back for inspection and wait 4-6 weeks to determine. Do I think that time frame is unacceptable? Sure, but I also want it fixed and fixed right. This is the first Bergara I ever purchased so this is leaving me bad taste. Heck, I have several $400 Remington bolt action rifles that never gave me fits or issues like this. My dad has a Remington model 760 gamemaster that is 50+ years old and you could grow a garden of veggies in his receiver (never cleans it)and it still shoots great with no hiccups
I used 5 rounds in a box to get velocity out of, then I sent the rest of the box down range in practice once I had my offsets. That particular day I shot about 160 rounds of multiple types of ammo. This is my first Bergara also. No issues so far. Good luck with yours. If I have learned anything about Bergara, their customer service is exemplary. As a side note, mine really like the S&B 140's for practice ammo. Super accurate for practice out to 400yds (the furthest distance at that range).
I just got the same rifle but haven’t tried that ammo through it yet. No issues with mine but I wanna watch this thread to see what caused it. I’m curious why
I shot about 400 rounds of that ammo down the same setup - typically 40-50 rounds per session. I bought two bulk pack of 200 rounds and I had that happen to me with 2 of the rounds on one day. It freaked me out when I had a really hard time getting the bolt to close on 2 bullets in a row. I was able to extract them and there was a very similar looking mark on the bullets. Probably not smart, but I went ahead and shot them anyway. I went home and cleaned the chamber really well and did not have the issue again. I don't think it was the ammo - I think it was a cleaning issue with the rifle and maybe a carbon ring.
For reference, my MV was around 2740 consistently with the 24" HMR Pro with Area 419 Hellfire brake. I love this ammo and it worked great out of the Bergara.
gunnysargent12, what did Bergara say the issue was? I have a new Bergara Premier LRP 2.0 chambered in 6.5 CM and I am having the same exact issue with Hornaday American Gunner and Hornady Match ELD. No issues with Sellier & Bellot....all are 140gr. I'm interested to see what Bergara says the issue is. Thank you.
I am also interested in hearing what Bergara has to say about this. The stickiness of the bolt happens with Hornady ELD in my recently purchased HMR Wilderness as well. I have not been shooting it as much due to this and the fact that it shoots fairly poorly with most of the other ammo I have tested with it. It really only seems to like Hornady ELD, Norma whitetail and 140 and above bullets. I have tried good chamber scrubbings and using specific chamber cleaning tools but the issue persists.
