Can't chamber ammo on new Savage Stealth--Strange issues

[zach_]

I am curious as well. I had 1 "Winchester 140 grain match" do something like that. The ammo looked like the one in the post when I took it out. It only happened once. 12 lrp in 6.5. I have not bad a problem with anything else before or after. I would say it was within the first 300 rounds on the rifle. I am at about 480 now.

[marlin795]

Anyone figure out what the problem was or is? Hopefully was.

I know this is raising the thread from the dead, but I noticed this thread was ranked pretty highly on Google and figured I'd update everyone.

First addressing the questions other people raised:



The ammo was factory Hornady 140gr ELD-M, not reloads. With calipers, the ammo was seated to/within correct / uniform spec amongst all the ammo used to test.
The ejector pin is indeed how the Stealth rifles are made, it is supposed to be like that.
The rifle is a friend's who is relatively new to shooting bolt action rifles. He shot the first 60-100 rounds when I wasn't there, so he very well could have been jamming the bullet into the lands unknowingly every time and he didn't notice until the chamber / lands accumulated enough material to make closing the bolt near impossible as opposed to just "harder than normal".


After making this thread and giving the chamber a thorough scrubbing, the problem still existed. Savage support was contacted. They kindly sent a label to us, we returned the rifle, and they confirmed that the rifle had a short (or bad) chamber and either replaced the barrel or hit it with a new / different reamer. The rifle previously shot very, very accurately, and the rifle is still very accurate. The service was timely and they were very professional and I suspect a batch of these guns is out there with short chambers and they are taking care of them. Not sure if it only crops up with heavier (and therefore longer) projectiles, but regardless, they addressed it with no cost to us which was nice.

[gbflyer]

Could be wrong but looks like from the pics that there is a wear mark on the barrel and matching on the front of the lugs. I suspect that there was inadequate clearance between the bolt and barrel. There is supposed to be .125-.130 "stick out" on the go gauge. I think if everything is right, that should yield .008-.010 end clearance. My suspicion is they went in a little too far with the reamer and the barrel had to be screwed in a little more for it to headspace, eliminating the required clearance.

Just my theory. Only because I've done it. [emoji12] glad it got fixed and you're happy with the service.

[Zero333]

I know this is raising the thread from the dead, but I noticed this thread was ranked pretty highly on Google and figured I'd update everyone.

First addressing the questions other people raised:



The ammo was factory Hornady 140gr ELD-M, not reloads. With calipers, the ammo was seated to/within correct / uniform spec amongst all the ammo used to test.
The ejector pin is indeed how the Stealth rifles are made, it is supposed to be like that.
The rifle is a friend's who is relatively new to shooting bolt action rifles. He shot the first 60-100 rounds when I wasn't there, so he very well could have been jamming the bullet into the lands unknowingly every time and he didn't notice until the chamber / lands accumulated enough material to make closing the bolt near impossible as opposed to just "harder than normal".


After making this thread and giving the chamber a thorough scrubbing, the problem still existed. Savage support was contacted. They kindly sent a label to us, we returned the rifle, and they confirmed that the rifle had a short (or bad) chamber and either replaced the barrel or hit it with a new / different reamer. The rifle previously shot very, very accurately, and the rifle is still very accurate. The service was timely and they were very professional and I suspect a batch of these guns is out there with short chambers and they are taking care of them. Not sure if it only crops up with heavier (and therefore longer) projectiles, but regardless, they addressed it with no cost to us which was nice.

Thanks for the update !
Always nice to see things work out.

I assume the freebore was short and/or the freebore diameter was too tight.

I have (had because barrel is toast and installed different barrel now) a FCP-K in 308win where I had the same exact thing happen with certain factory ammo. After the first few hundred rounds things loosened enough not to have any issues ever again, and the rifle always shot very nicely. I wish barrels lasted forever.