New 10T-SR owner with issues

Hi all,

I've been doing research for nearly two years on getting a budget rifle for mid-range target shooting, and settled on Savage early on. I just found this board this week, but I've already been going through to get myself up to speed on the Savage system and what people are doing to build and maintain their rifles.

I just took the step this week and picked up a 10T-SR in 6.5mm Creedmoor from Bass Pro Shop, and just got it out to the range today.

As far as shooting it goes, it was a great experience. I shot semi-competitively in the army and tried out for the AMU, so I've got a little experience with the M24 in 7.62 and .300 Win Mag. The recoil and overall feel of the 10T was a pleasant surprise after that.

Once I got the scope dialed in and had some breaks in the wind, and after a dozen rounds knocking the dust off my skills, I was making dime-sized groups at 100m from the bench.

That said, there are a few operational issues I ran into which I was hoping for some advice on next steps. I called Savage, but they're on break this week and nobody is answering the phones.

First, I'm getting a high number of failures to eject. The casing clears the chamber, but the bolt just loses its grip while pulling through the barrel nut area. The casing ends up "dropped" on top of the magazine, and a quick twist dumps the case out the side of the ejection port.

I saw a lot of threads about failing ejectors, but they seem to be a different set of failure conditions than I'm seeing, and I'm hoping this is just a lubrication or break in issue.

Second, the bolt release is very finicky. When I first got the gun, I believe it had the action screws improperly torqued, as I was having issues engaging the safety, the trigger would sometimes not pull and require a cycle of the bolt, and the magazine wasn't quite seating well. I took it down, lubricated according to the manual specs, and reassembled with the incremental tightening to get the action bedded, and it seemed to function much more smoothly.

Today, at the range, the bolt release "stuck", where the bottom bolt release button was just floating back and forth, and it seemed like the sear/bolt stop were stuck in the full rear position. I was unable to easily insert the bolt to the action, and almost left early because I didn't want to break a critical fire control part out of impatience. But a rap on the side of the stock seemed to unstick it, and the bolt slid right in.

After shooting, I again had difficulty getting the bolt to release, and it seemed like pulling the trigger and pressing the bolt release were not contacting the sear, and that it was jammed again. It eventually popped free, but I'm concerned that this will continue to be an issue.

Could this be an issue of stock fittment, a lubrication issue, or could I have possibly overtorqued or otherwise mucked up the reinstall of the action to the stock and caused this? Or should I bring it to Savage?

I actually live about 40 minutes from the Savage factory, so hopefully it wouldn't be too hard to get them to take a look, but I figured I'd ask here first and hope that it's something simple I can address.

Thanks for any advice you can provide,

-Jared

I've never had a problem like you describe with a Savage and I have a 10T-SR in 6.5mm Creedmoor and 5 models.

The fact that you could rap the side of the stock and clear the problem would make me think that there may be some detritus in the action that managed to jam the trigger mechanism.
I see you pulled the stock off and reassembled it. You might not have noticed anything loose in there.
You might do it again to see if anything is floating around in the action that doesn't belong in there?

Just another thought. I have one Savage .308 that, after a lot of use, locked up the Accu-trigger if I closed the bolt aggressively.
Turns out the Accu-trigger, that I had set at 2 lbs., had loosened up and was at the lower limit of adjustment. Any movement or slight pressure to the side on the trigger tab would lock up the action.
It didn't keep the bolt release from working, in fact, I pulled out the bolt when I removed the stock and adjusted the Accu-trigger back to 2 lbs. - this time with some Loctite on the nut.

It hasn't loosened again after more than 3,000 rounds.

Are you sure you are pulling the trigger first then the bolt release second. If so, have you pulled it back apart and made sure you have not bent or tweaked the release mechanism in the trigger guard?

OK. I think I'll pull it down tonight, see if I can see anything obvious. I'm leaning towards having Savage or another gunsmith check it out, just to be on the safe side.

I've been cycling the bolt gently, the shells which eject are still landing on the table within a foot or so of me.

I may have pulled the release before the trigger a couple times, I wasn't aware the order was important. So I'll be sure to check the release/sear assembly and hope I didn't goof it up.

Thanks for the help.

As for the fte problem, either the cases are sticking in the chamber or you have an issue with either the extractor/ejector. I’m betting extractor problem as they are notorious. All of us gunsmiths/rifle tuners replace the extractor ball bearing & possibly a modified extractor. Also make certain your ejector isn’t sticking, has good compression strength. Your other problem is kind of a head scratcher because it was working fine...you took it apart to clean & back together...and now have a problem. What Robin mentioned makes sense. Also, what did you torque the action screws to? Check for foreign material in the screw holes. Between action & stock? Just so many variables and difficult to diagnose without seeing it. I know many of us hear could take a look a likely zone in on the problem in minutes. Are you close to any other members?

To check your ejector take a punch or other tool and push down to see if the pin is sliding in and out smoothly. If not it needs to be cleaned. The extractor has a detent ball underneath it so be carefull(or work in a box or gallon bag) but it should move to and fro easily. If not look up a video on how to remove it and clean the spring and pocket under the extractor. There is a upgrade to a 9/64 detent ball that helps in some situations. At least that's what I read.