Problem with Savage bolt gun. Any ideas?

[IEShooter]

Bought a 10FCP-K about 6 months ago. First two times out, the chamber was very, very tight. About 20% of the time, fired cases would stick in the chamber requiring me to whack the bolt to eject them. I was shooting Federal GMM and Black Hills match along with some Hornady match in an effort to find out what it prefers.

Finally, the bolt would not close fully on a freshly chambered round, or even without a round in the chamber. Something had broken.

Sent it back to Savage and their repair order said "replaced mis. bolt parts and polished chamber".

Took it out yesterday for the first time and now, the gun chambers FGMM and Hornady Super Performance match and ejects them smoothly. No problems there.

However, after about 30 rounds it did the same thing where the bolt would not fully close on a fresh round in the chamber. Tried about 10 times and no go. Bolt slides home and the handle rotates down about 1/2 way, then no further.

Brought it home intending to ship it back again, and while cleaning it, noticed that the bolt will now close on a chambered round. I'll probably take it out again today to see if it is okay.

<span style="text-decoration: underline">My question is, what is the likely cause of this? Is it something that I can fix or perhaps buy a replacement part for?</span>

Worst case is I'll send it back to Savage a second time and once I get it back just sell it. I'd really prefer not to as the gun shoots very accurately and I like the set up with the brake, fluted 24" bull barrel and soft felt recoil.

Any ideas?

 

[chakup]

Re: Problem with Savage bolt gun. Any ideas?

It's getting dirty either in chamber and sticking, or I wonder if somehow it's getting build up on the bolt face effectively turning your rounds into no-go gauges of sorts. Only a guess and could be way off.

 

[rrflyer]

Re: Problem with Savage bolt gun. Any ideas?

Bad batch if ammo?

How many cases did you try while it wasn't working?

 

[RotARy15]

Re: Problem with Savage bolt gun. Any ideas?

Check the ammo that you are trying to chamber for severe marks on one side of the bullet.

All the recent FGMM ammo I have run into has had totally unacceptable amounts of off-center concentricity. To the point that the rounds physically couldn't chamber.

The amount of off-center was visible from visual inspection.

 

[Bbob]

Re: Problem with Savage bolt gun. Any ideas?

my .243 was doing the same thing. cleaned the chamber and fine . havent shot enough since cleaning to see if it repeats.

 

[AXEMAN]

Re: Problem with Savage bolt gun. Any ideas?

do the cases youve already shot stick? can you try one after you get a round that wont chamber? set aside the ones that dont chamber, they could be out of spec. do you have calipers?

 

[IEShooter]

Re: Problem with Savage bolt gun. Any ideas?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: AXEMAN</div><div class="ubbcode-body">do the cases youve already shot stick? can you try one after you get a round that wont chamber? set aside the ones that dont chamber, they could be out of spec. do you have calipers? </div></div>

No. When it was new, both 7.62 and match .308 would stick in the chamber after firing.

Now, after coming back from Savage, .308 doesn't stick in the chamber at all, before or after firing. Only problem right now is where the bolt wouldn't go all the way down on a fresh round.

I guess that means the round wasn't fully seated in the chamber, which sounds like a dirty or tight chamber.

It could have been that particular round. Who knows. Didn't get it out again today, but it now chambers and ejects both FGMM and Hornady match just fine.

I checked the fired rounds and they look fine with the exception of a missing primer cup on one of the Hornady rounds. Could have just fallen out as the case was ejected onto the concrete pad.

I measured both spent and new rounds with dial calipers and they are all concentric, so I don't think it's the ammo.

So far, I've shot Priv, FGMM and Hornady (all in .308) without trouble until the bolt wouldn't go down on a fresh round yesterday.

I cleaned and scrubbed the chamber really well, so hopefully that will do the trick.

 

[6brshooter]

Re: Problem with Savage bolt gun. Any ideas?

That missing cup could be in the raceway or lug recess. That superformance is junk, way too many issues that i have read about. Brass is soft, if you have crud somewhere, it will close difficult, but it will close. I would look at the cocking piece, trigger, and raceways for an issue.