tons of fail to fire on new model 305

I recently bought what seems to be described as a 93 WMR (actually listed as a Stevens model 305). This is my first Savage firearm, and may likely be my last. I don’t get any issues with feeding, like I see posted on many forums. My problem is a nearly 50% fail to fire. Using Federal ammo, not that cheap Winchester series-X (notoriously bad ammo, with lots of videos on YouTube about it). I was hoping that it was just due to a long break-in period, but seeing threads about people sending the whole gun back to Savage because of a bad firing pin in the bolt, I’m not confident the problem will go away. It also seems bizarre that any time something is wrong they want you to send them the whole gun, rather than just the part that has the issue (in this case, just the bolt, because of a sticky firing pin).

What is the typical break-in period for one of these guns? Or does it sound like I just got one with a bad/weak firing pin, out of the box?

I have had a marlin and a savage both in 22wmr do exactly what your describing. This may sound a bit odd but I noticed if I cycled the bolt lightly it would sometimes fail to fire, but if I cycled it with some authority it would fire every time. I would take a good look at your bolt and clean it very well especially the firing pin channel and give it a small amount of lube. Take it to the range and give it another try, see what happens. if all else fails, replace the firing pin and spring.

I had the very same problem three years ago on a new 93 WMR. It took two trips back to Savage to get "corrected". I still have an occasional FTF, but not enough to send it back. I recently removed firing pin, stoned it slightly on sides and bottom, lubricated, and reassembled. I haven't had it to the range since, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Thanks for the info. I'll try putting a small amount of lube on the pin, and will take your advice on being more aggressive on the action when loading. Hopefully that will help.

I just wanted to do a follow-up to this thread. Your advice helped a lot. I cleaned up the bolt the best I could (without removing the spring) and put a SMALL amount of gun lube on it. It did much better with the Federal ammo. I also picked up a few boxes of CCI MaxiMag, and shot that all afternoon with only 1 FTF. So it could have also been just a bad batch of ammo. But still certainly didn't hurt to get any old lube out of the pin that might have been causing it to stick a bit.

I had a similar problem with a MKII, removed the bolt, saturated it with WD40, blew it out with compressed air. Did this a couple times, problem went away.