I had a custom rifle built on the Borden Alpine action. This action looks simple and attractive. The bolt looks like a remington bolt but doesn't have a groove in the cocking piece to help disassemble the bolt. I don't know what is inside the bolt since I couldn't get it apart,but after I soaked the whole thing in kerosene for a few days, it fired reliably in the cold, we are talking minus 20 to 30 Celsius. I had regular light strikes before that. It is very smooth if I push the bolt the right way, but I never had a grabbier action to start the bolt moving , it would not move until I pushed the root of the handle, no kidding, although it is better now. I am not a guy who really gets off on smoothness, the only action I ever had that distracted my with effort to cycle was a cz 550. It isn't exactly the same height as a remington although it is supposed to be, the bolt rides over my hs precision mag in hs precision stock, although I put a remington action in that same combo and it picks up shells fine. So I now have the Borden in a bdl stock. I at first tried it with bdl mag and bottom metal but the shells just popped out the top, the feed rails wouldn't hold them. So now it has a quick klip. I found the 243 bullets would hit the feed ramp and stall, so I filed the mag lips toward the front so they would let the shell tip up sooner. I never had to do this on a remmy action with my quick klip. Phew! Believe it or not I still like my borden it seems so well made and basic, and if I hold the bolt so it starts good every time it works nice.when I bought it it came with the cg jackson trigger which was a selling point with me and I could write much longer about learning to adjust the first one I had but probably I shouldn't. Borden fans what are your experiences with these actions?
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I have a Borden Alpine that Karl Feldkamp built for me in .223 Ackley. It has to be one of the smoothest bolts I own and also one of the tighter fitting bolts. I've had this rifle ~15 years and never any of the issues you're experiencing. You should probably contact Jim Borden and inquire with him.
No I have not talked to anyone at borden I live in canada and can't do much about it. Anyway I will keep shooting it till it hopefully breaks in. It seems to me the metal is just sticky and even with lube the bolt doesn't want to move till the bolt head gets past the rear receiver bridge. Maybe it's the particular stainless steel I once had a model 70 in stainless that was kind of sticky and one in carbon steel that was smooth
I'm pretty sure Jim speaks Canadian if you make the huge effort to call. My gunsmith has spoken to him before so I know he speaks Australian.
I believe all three are similar
I believe all three are similar
Built a heap of rofles using Borden actions - never had an issue with heavy bolt lift or report of this from end users
If the bolt is heavy to lift then there are a few possible explanations :
Lugs galled from dirt ingress / lack of lubrication
Cocking piece galling in bolt shroud
Bolt handle galling in secondary cam area perhaps
Fire control mech catching in the bolt tube - you mentioned light strikes in original post ,,
Personally I’d strip down the rifle to component parts - barrel off too and check all contact surfaces - something isn’t right
Jim very approachable either direct dial or email
If the bolt is heavy to lift then there are a few possible explanations :
Lugs galled from dirt ingress / lack of lubrication
Cocking piece galling in bolt shroud
Bolt handle galling in secondary cam area perhaps
Fire control mech catching in the bolt tube - you mentioned light strikes in original post ,,
Personally I’d strip down the rifle to component parts - barrel off too and check all contact surfaces - something isn’t right
Jim very approachable either direct dial or email
I had email exchange with Jim Borden, it is true, he is all ears if you are in any grief over his actions. I didn't have any lube on the back of the lug raceway, the lug was running dry, after lubing it my action runs fine.
A simple fix is the best fix!
