Federal gold medal match 308, came apart in chamber!

I posted this on a Savage Facebook page just in case it looked familiar to anyone. Just curious if anyone here had a similar issue.

I got a brand new Savage 10fcp i put about 60 rounds through. Fired 10rds All of a sudden the bolt is jammed. I get it to release, the casing ejects, gunpowder goes flying and the bullet is still in the chamber. I pushed it out it wasn't stuck. I figured bad round. Shot 5 or 10 more it happens again, then swapped ammo boxes and shot a few more. It happens a 3rd time. WTH.

It's Federal gold match 168gr. It's really odd. Bolt gets stuck, get it to move, casing Flys out, bullet in chamber. No markings what so ever in bullet or case. When I pulled the trigger the firing pin clicked also . No strike on primer.

So i get home clean gun and lube it all up. I measured several rounds from the boxes all measured 2.80. I loaded up the mag and cycled 49 rds through with no problem. Only difference is that I didn't pull trigger.

Called Savage, they say nothing other than send it in with a 6 week wait wth i just got it lol.

I called Federal, they want me to send 2 unfired boxes and the 3 that this happened to for them to inspect. I'd rather it be an ammo problem for obvious reasons.

So I'm going to range with 2 other savage owners this Saturday to try the same ammo {we split a case} just to see if was the ammo. I bought some Hornady to try as well. I sure hope it's not the gun. I'll soon find out.

Kind of sounds like the misfires I saw when I used to shoot trap. The progressive loader would occasionally not drop the powder charge. The detonation of the primer is enough to push the shot out of the barrel but the wad was usually stuck in the barrel and would have be pushed out.

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Originally Posted by Haiku_Rodney

Kind of sounds like the misfires I saw when I used to shoot trap. The progressive loader would occasionally not drop the powder charge. The detonation of the primer is enough to push the shot out of the barrel but the wad was usually stuck in the barrel and would have be pushed out.

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No misfire.. Primer wasn't even struck. Casing ejects with a good pull of bolt and bullet stuck in chamber.


I had that exact issue when reloading 9mm with a lee progressive.

Short headspace. Some are acting like a no go gage. Bullet is stuck at this point.

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Headspace is fine , short throat

Forgot to mention, used go no-go gauges and it tested out fine. Now that I've been searching more and more the short throat seems to be what people are complaining about. So what's my choice switch to another ammo. That sucks because I get FGMM 168gr for $15 box. I'm calling savage tomorrow and mention this throat issue.

The lack of primer strike is the accutrigger tripping on bolt close. Adjust the trigger to a slightly higher poundage, little bit at a time until it no longer happens.

This thread is well timed. I've had my new 10 FCP to the range twice and had a couple of times when I thought the bolt was unusually hard to close. Happened a couple times each trip and did it with Hirtenberger's 147 milsurp as well as Federal 168 OTM ammo. It did close with a little extra effort then fired, extracted and ejected fine. Still felt weird though like the round needed to be pushed further into the chamber. I attributed it to a new rifle that needs to be broken in but I'll pay closer attention to it next time out.

I also just adjusted my trigger as light as will go so I'll be wary of it tripping inadvertently.

Are you absolutely sure there are no marks on the bullet? My 12FV has a tight chamber and throat. On FGMM 168 gr, the bullet is engraved by the throat when I chamber it. I occasionally find the bolt difficult to close. The gun has failed to fire a few times over 1000 rounds and recently I noticed the bolt had not been closed all the way when that happened.

I have never had a round come apart in the gun though. On one occasion I asked for help and someone at the range used a cleaning rod to help get the round out and bolt open, but in retrospect I think I could have just used a little more muscle, I was just a bit spooked.

I've meant to update my thread on this gun, so I will do that soon. I did spend some time measuring the bore and it turns out to be a .306, not a .308.

Maybe try some more effort to make sure the bolt closes? It shouldn't be really hard, so if you have a build like Paul Bunyun that may not be a good idea.

Next time it misfires, check to see if the bolt is all the way down.

Seeing that your bore is a 5 groove it makes it very difficult to measure. It should measure like this. Minor diameter .300 and Major Diameter or groove diameter .308. Again the dimensions would have to be done radially as the number of groove prohibits accurate measurement.

First you do not want to fire any of those. Close to and into the lands, high pressure.

What you are getting is a bullet stuck into the lands as you push forward. . As noted above, short throat.

Bullets are not perfect, some are longer than others even on the Ogive.

If you reload you can adjust. You can try another brand of ammo. All diecy as they may be so close to the lands as to cause a pressure spike.

Any round you use I would pull the bullet on one, remove the powder, then use it to determine where the lands are.

That takes a bit of equipment you won't have unless you reload.

If the bullets came apart in the gun they had to be gripped by the throat in the barrel. You could try to rotate or remove some bullets from the cases in the box of ammo with your fingers to get an idea of how much that would take. On my gun it leaves a ring of scuff marks around the bullet just outside of the case mouth. You may need a magnifying glass to get a really good look.

I measured a half dozen Sierra match bullets and they were right on at .3080 down to .3078. I didn't see any over .308.

I see the scuff ring on rounds I hand load when I am trying to figure out the seating depth for bullets. With the tipped Match King bullets the rifling doesn't engage but the throat does. When I chamber factory FGMM, I get a scuff about half way around the bullet right outside the case mouth. Since it is half way around that must mean that the chamber and throat are slightly non-concentric. Nothing is perfect so the FGMM is also occasionally non-concentric and also probably varies in bullet seating depth too. Very small amounts here, but sometimes a round is more difficult to chamber.

I did measure another brand of match bullet (Nosler) and they were about .3075"-.3077", consistently smaller than the Sierra pieces. It was enough to notice the difference in feel pretty easily when seating them.

You could try some other brands of ammo, maybe more hunting oriented and see if you find something with a slightly smaller size. Then you can send your gun in to Savage over the winter ( do you have winter? ) with more info about ammo that works and doesn't etc. They would fit a new barrel.

Savage is afraid of a little free bore room. My model 12 factory barrel was tight like this until I eventually put an aftermarket barrel on it. But I also reloaded 168s to fitness. Savage is tight on the reamer and will stand by it unless you document otherwise.

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Thank you all for your time replying.

Federal asked me to send in the 3 rds and 2 boxes for inspection. I did use a magnifier and noticed very very slight marking on bullets. I let Federal determine if it's anything important.

Robinhood, funny you mention that about Accutrigger. Today savage told me same exact thing. I did adjust the trigger all the way down, so I will be adjusting that.
As far as my ammo issue and short throat, the tech has never heard of this issue.
I purchased some Hornady 160gr I'm going to try this weekend. I did run 40 rds of fgmm thru mag and it all cycled, so I be shooting those also. Fingers crossed!

People have been calling them complaining about short chambers for years.

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Originally Posted by culpeper

People have been calling them complaining about short chambers for years.

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So of course they won't tell me that.

Same here on my 12FV. I have always had difficulty measuring to the lands using the partial crimped case and bullet method to measure oal. The throat has a tendency to grab the bullet as I am slowly retracting it, and slides out of the case a bit sometimes. It will rub ink off of the bullet when I chamber a dummy round and then eject it.

This is what I have come up with and works well, you do need to reload

1. Fully resize a case.
2. Seat the bullet of your choice well long.
3. Very gently move the bolt forward and stop when it stops.
4. Likely to stick a bit, light tap on the handle back out with a screwdriver handle.
5. Based on how far the bolt close, seat the bullet .020 to .050 deeper.

The Hornady comparator as long as you have a Micrometer works well, but it under measures.

With todays narrow front bullets they all tend to stick.

Just add .020 to its reading and if you don't get a bit of a stick on the bullet, you will know you are very close.

You can extend a seated bullet .005 at a time until you get a sticky pull or just accept that.
6. Repeat until a clean bolt handle close. Not spot on but very close.

I'll definitely have to try reloading.. A buddy of mine has a setup. I will try that.

60 rounds is pretty quick but check for a carbon ring. It will not affect the go/nogo gauges as the ring is in the free bore.

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Originally Posted by Arky 223

60 rounds is pretty quick but check for a carbon ring. It will not affect the go/nogo gauges as the ring is in the free bore.

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I did give it a good cleaning and lube afterwards. That's when I cycled the 40rds without a problem. Heading to range this weekend!

Paint the bullet with black magic marker and chamber the cartridge. If it is in the lands it will show it. BTW, check a SAAMI schematic before seating too far back. There is a minimal COAL.

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I skipped through all the posts so forgive me if I missed something but...

This Happened to my brother several years ago when he got his new FCP-K. I remember even one of the cases had a split neck after being fired. It was a beautiful rifle and unfortunately the barrel doesn't last forever. Fluted with the Savage muzzle brake looked very nice for sure.

Problem is the Freebore/lead of the chamber is VERY tight and needs some loosening. After a few hundred rounds everything was good. I also polished the chamber a little on that rifle to make extraction a little smoother.

Few years later after I took the barrel off I still found powder kernels in the action.

Well. so far so good. Went to range had no issues.. Federal inspected the 2 full boxes and the 3 rounds.. All was fine. They said they couldn't find any marks on bullet or case.

Well. so far so good. Went to range had no issues.. Federal inspected the 2 full boxes and the 3 rounds.. All was fine. They said they couldn't find any marks on bullet or case.

The problem is the fellas cutting the chambers don't inspect the reamers often enough and end up chambering some barrels with a worn out reamer.

A worn out reamer will cut a tight chamber with tight freebore/leade making bullets jam in there when being chambered.

Like I said.... After XXX amount of rounds fired in the chamber, the freebore/leade will loosen and all will be good as it should have been from the beginning. Not a big deal. Just don't try ejecting live rounds if you can avoid it.

On the other hand you could have a chamber with short freebore, hence the bullets jamming in the rifling. Only way to fix that is have a Smith run a throater in the chamber to extend the freebore, or send it back to Savage.

A chamber cast is not hard to do by yourself and not expensive. Cerrosafe is the name of the chamber casting product and Brownells and Midway and other places sell it for about $15.

With a chamber cast you will find out for sure what the deal is. Any Gunsmith can also do a chamber cast.