Savage 111 .243 Hard to open bolt after firing

Hello gents, first post here. I have a Savage 111 in .243 that I just picked up for my son, the rifle doesn't appear to have been fired much, is super clean and topped with a Leupold 3-9x40 scope....perfect or my 11yr old son!

We brought it to the range after his birthday this past Sunday, and I took the lead on sighting it in (I have numerous other rifles I was sighting in as well on the lead sled). All went normal with loading the rifle, cycling the round in and actually firing, but good GRIEF it was hard to extract the spent casing. Thinking it was a fluke I repeated this 4 more times until the rifle was zero'd at 100yds. Each round was a beast to extract, bolt will rotate / lift and square up, but took alot of umph to pull the bolt rear ward (Im 6'3" 220lbs....Im no weakling)

Once the bolt is moving, it extracts and flings the cartridge just as it should without any damage to the base of the spent cartridge, thus rules out weak extractor. Looking at the casings, there is some minor scratching, and a small black ring around the tip of the spent casing. We were shooting Remington Core lok ammo, as that was the only thing we could find locally. Needless to say, the last round (6th shot, 3rd by my son) stuck so bad we had to bring the gun home from the range and tap the bolt with a hammer to get the casing out.

Has anyone ever seen this or experienced this? Perhaps I have a burr in the action? Is the barrel set too tight and the casing expanding into the throat? Perhaps a good polish of the action?


Gun shoots wonderfully, but just cant get the spent casings out.

Spent casing picshttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3144c92a8a.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3b26e0d16b.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3945c48b56.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6c30192c30.jpg


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If the scratches are on the same spot (relatively) then I would think there is a burr in the chamber. If not then perhaps there may be some trash in the chamber.
But I’m just guessing here.

Yeah, you have a sticky chamber. You said it’s “super clean”, but did you give it a SUPER cleaning yet? Get yourself a really heavy duty copper/lead/fouling cleaning solution and have at it with a brush & patches. Your spent case doesn’t look bad; no over pressure signs. Primer still rounded, no flattening. I think what olddav said is worth checking and I’m willing to bet you have some metal deposits... lead/copper.

I’ve fixed a sticky chamber or two using a chamber brush on a cordless drill.

You may have a primary extraction issue. Take a good look at the rear baffle where it contacts the ramp on the bolt handle. Sometimes an out of spec. bolt handle, or rear baffle can team up to cause hard extraction. This assumes the issue is not a cruddy chamber too but your statement that the bolt handle raises normally suggests it's not a fouled chamber, but an extraction issue.

I bought a Savage 12 action that had an aftermarket bolt handle, but was very hard to open the bolt with an empty chamber. The primary extraction ramp was contacting the bolt handle ramp too early and trying to move the bolt rearward before the bolt lugs had rotated enough to clear the bolt supports (I can't recall the name for that part of the action).

A little work with a grinder and it was soon working smooth as glass. But in your case, you may not be getting enough contact and therefore little or no extraction effort.

A close up pic of the rear baffle primary extraction ramp would reveal wear marks. To remove the rear baffle, remove the bolt from the action and then rotate the rear baffle so that the ball comes out of the groove and aligns with cocking ramp cut out in the bolt body. Slide it forward over the cut out and it'll come clear of the bolt body.

In case you are missing a rear baffle, it's C shaped and sits between the bolt handle and rear of the action body. If you have a large gap there, you're missing a rear baffle and that would explain your extraction issues.

Looks like you need to polish the chamber of the barrel. The case looks OK in relation to the barrel being head spaced correctly, so it sounds like you just have a rough chamber.

A lot of good suggestions. I didn't read if that was reloaded or not but I will throw in anneal your brass. It looks to me like the neck split in the picture. It also looks like you need to trim your brass. I can't be completely certain but it looks like there is brass flaring out at the mouth of the brass.

These were factory loads (rem core lok)

Here is a pic of the bolt of anyone is interested… a fresh round loads and ejects fine. Bore scope didn’t reveal anything that my un trained eye found…

Still on the hunt for a different type of ammunition, my small town doesn’t have many options.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3a5db17667.jpg


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Well, a picture of the bolt doesn’t tell us anything. Ok, AFTER firing, if the bolt handle LIFTS normally, but just hard to pull back, than your problem is primary extraction. Which requires measuring, FIRST. Not something a typical person would do, instead taking it to a smith. Now, you MAY want to try installing a new rear baffle. It’s an inexpensive “try”. Ya know? You can get one here. https://www.gunshack.com/savage-part...roduct_id=1988 If that doesn’t fix it, I believe your bolt body will need shortened. Not something I’d recommend doing unless you know exactly what you are doing. (Can’t just take a hacksaw to. It, LOL!)

Read this. It explains Primary Extraction and includes a video.
https://www.savageshooters.com/conte...ion-What-is-it

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Originally Posted by longdude17

These were factory loads (rem core lok)

Here is a pic of the bolt of anyone is interested… a fresh round loads and ejects fine. Bore scope didn’t reveal anything that my un trained eye found…

Still on the hunt for a different type of ammunition, my small town doesn’t have many options.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3a5db17667.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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looks like you have a burr of some type in the chamber, if you have a local guy with a bore scope to check it out or get a Teslong for small money and have a look.
you could call savage and perhaps send it back because once fired brass shouldn’t do that

It’s not once fired brass. The OP said is Remington Core Lok (Factory) ammo.

Yes seen that’ and forgive the confusion but once you pull the trigger on factory brass it becomes once fired right ? Regardless of once fired or once reloaded you should not record enough radial expansion at the .200 or the case shoulder junction to create those marks, now after a couple more reloading and depending on how hot of a load you could notice clickers at the top of the bolt lift however I don’t believe that’s what we are seeing in this case.

just my take on it.

What's your cocking pin/ramp and locking lug greasing routine? Not running it dry are you? If all the fired cases have those marks I'd absolutely smooth that chamber up.

There are scuffs on the casings in the pictures above. Where they there prior to chambering? If not, your chamber probably needs a little polishing (at least).

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Originally Posted by Balvar24

There are scuffs on the casings in the pictures above. Where they there prior to chambering? If not, your chamber probably needs a little polishing (at least).

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The scuffs may possibly be evidence of surface rust on the chamber walls, this could also cause the sticky extraction. A good cleaning with KROIL may dissolve any rust. Follow with a good polishing with jb paste.

The second case photo appears to show a gouge in the neck/shoulder area from what I can tell. Do they all have that? Could be where it's sticking if there's a burr digging in to the case.

Well my vote would be a primary extraction issue. You could always put a feeler guage between the baffle and bolt ramp and try to open the action and see if it fixes your problem

DING, DING, DING, DING... Now that sounds.... Oh wait.., would be too easy to try thaaaaat. Much better to let people keep saying how they “see some abnormal mark/scuff/dent or such, on the case... clearly pointing to a BURR of some sort in the chamber.” Yet in no way accounting for the bolt rotating/lifting easily, as indicated by the OP. Nah..., taking a .030” feeler gauge, stick it between Action & Rear Baffle to check. Crazy talk man, LOL!:black_eyed:

J/K Merry Christmas everyone

Well I guess I should have prefaced it with not discounting the primary extraction issue. Never meant that couldn't be the problem, but was merely being observant of something I saw in the picture that could be another possibility. Excuse me.

I was just having a “yeeuk-yeeuk” moment efm77. Wasn’t at you directly. More so, how most all of us are in way of thinking.
Me included! :( That’s all.

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Originally Posted by efm77

Well I guess I should have prefaced it with not discounting the primary extraction issue. Never meant that couldn't be the problem, but was merely being observant of something I saw in the picture that could be another possibility. Excuse me.

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The initial mechanical advantage of primary extraction in a savage should/will overcome any surface irregularity in the chamber. Wear on the rear baffle or bolt handle could cause this unless the baffle is missing or has been swapped out with one from a different bolt. I remember an article where I fellow lost one at the range and was looking to replace it. A simple twist of it when the bolt is out of the action can cause it to dislodge and fall off. The photo of the bolt above does not show it or its location. A good closeup photo could show the two related wear points.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mnbogboy2

The initial mechanical advantage of primary extraction in a savage should/will overcome any surface irregularity in the chamber. Wear on the rear baffle or bolt handle could cause this unless the baffle is missing or has been swapped out with one from a different bolt. I remember an article where I fellow lost one at the range and was looking to replace it. A simple twist of it when the bolt is out of the action can cause it to dislodge and fall off. The photo of the bolt above does not show it or its location. A good closeup photo could show the two related wear points.

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Speaking from personal experience, that's not always the case. I have a Ruger M77 MKII that I re-barreled myself. I used a brand new, never used, finishing reamer to get the headspace right. It left the chamber rough enough, that I had to hit the bolt handle pretty hard to get the case to break loose from the chamber. The extraction cam on it works perfectly fine. After a little polishing of the chamber, it got a lot easier. He very well could have an extraction cam problem, no doubt. But a rough chamber can cause difficult extraction, I've seen it first hand.

Well Phooey! Just when things were getting more interesting the OP went away.