I am baffeled and need some help please

[earl39]

Would like to know what happened with this also

[Trapper]

Hood, My friend the gunsmith, took the bolt apart ,cleaned it his way and put everything back together. We had 2 FTF in 25 rounds, He took the bolt back out and told me to pull up a stool and shut up. He cleaned the bolt again and ran Qtips up through the inside of the spring over and over and each time he did it, a small piece of the cotton would stick in the same place on the spring. He dremeled the burr off the spring, and put the bolt back together. We went out to the bench and shot another 25 rounds with no FTF. I don't know how that little burr messed with the firing pin, but so far no FTF's. I'll be at the range tomorrow for 50 rounds of the 6.5 and we shall see. By the way, he took the PTG head off the bolt and measured it from every angle and said that they do good work. He's retired from the military where he was an armourer for many years. I would have ended up replacing the spring, for no apparent reason except just because I couldn't figure it out. Helps tp have you guys like ya'll making suggestions and being lucky enough to have a friend that knows rifles like he does. Thanks to all for their suggestions, I'm lucky I am already bald, cause I would have pulled my hair out.
Thanks everyone again for all their input,
Trapper

[Robinhood]

Glad to here it is functioning like it should.

[sharpshooter]

I wouldn't be surprised if it started doing it again.

[Trapper]

Sharpshooter, I will defer to your diddy at the bottom of your profile. I will be replacing the firing pin, just for peace of mind, but this rifle is to heavy to hunt with and tote around, and I am not good enough to be a serious competitor with. I built it to try out the 6.5 Grendel in a bolt gun, as I already had an AR from Alexander Arms. Thanks again for all the help
Traper

[Texas10]

I am no gunsmith however, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Hotel last week when I began tearing down the bolt on my new 12FV in 22-250 because of stiff bolt lift. Once I had it down to bits, set the firing pin protrusion to .045, I set the pin with spring into the cocking sleeve, tip up on my bench, put an appropriate sized punch into the cocking piece hole, and began compressing the spring to check for any roughness or hangups. I found plenty.

Forgive me if I don't use exactly correct terminology here, but I'll try to identify the areas of concern on MY bolt.

The rear lock washer, that star shaped do-dad at the rear of the firing pin spring, is made of some really hard stuff. It appears to be 3D molded, having very fine detail, no punch or die marks, but a granular appearance and the color of nickel alloy. Did I mention it is really hard? Difficult to blend sharp edges.

It's purpose is to compress the spring and slide over the firing pin, presumedly smoothly slide over the firing pin. It doesn't.

The lock washer has a flat on the inner diameter that follows the flat that is poorly machined on the pin. It also slides over the threaded rear portion of the pin and that is where the trouble lies, in the junction of the threaded portion and the machined flat portion. There is a sharp edge on the last thread that catches the lock washer, especially if the lock washer isn't rotated just right during assembly.

I beveled this area just below the last thread, rounded and smoothed. I sanded the roughness off the flat area being careful not to under size anything, and polished everything with 800 and then 1000 grit wet/dry paper. I also polished the rear cocking nut and checked for smooth operation within the cocking sleeve. I check the operation again as before, no hangups this time.

I then added a .38 cal brass head with ball bearing lift mod, and unscrewed the rear nut a turn and a half to lessen spring tension.

I used a Cratex bullet https://www.riogrande.com/Product/CratexBulletRedFine/332277?gclid=CIivnLbxys0CFQ6PaQodYGsAGg on a dremel tool and polished the cocking ramp, which was rift with dips and uneven edges, and rounded off the sharp edges on the inside of the bolt body, cleaned everything up, lightly oiled and reassembled.

Bolt lift is much, much lighter, and smoother too. Not quite as smooth as my well used and similarly modified BVSS, but workable.

This is the third one I've done this way, and results have been very good on all. I Hope this helps.

[Trapper]

Texas,
Being the third one you've done, you need to send a copy of the fix to the Savage service guys. I went to that website and almost choked when I saw the cost of that little dremel tool part. $52? I think those are the same guys that made those $10K toilet seats for the military. I actually printed out your response and gave it to my gunsmith friend. He said that everything you did was spot on and you put a lot of time in the fix. He also commented on your write up as being excellent, and very straight forward. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to send that to the thread.
Trapper

[Texas10]

Sorry, I know I couldn't use up a 100 of those, must be some where else that sells by the each or dozen. The one I used I've had for about 40 years, since my days at United Air Lines, so.... lasts a long time. I put that link there more as a reference in case someone didn't know what a Cratex bullet was.

Regarding the firing pin, I've had problems before with poorly manufactured firing pins. Last time I ordered a half dozen just so I could pick through them and get one that fit the bolt head well enough to stop cratering and piercing primers. Good news is that I've got lot's of extras if I want to modify one.

Happy you appreciate my write up, and hope that your action is running smoooooothly now.