BA110 .338 Bolt Issue

Hi Guys,

Greets from Las Vegas, NV. I just found this forum and am looking forward to being part of the SavageShooters community.

I have a Savage BA110 .338 Lapua Magnum. I bought it new from Sniper's Country PX in April. I shoot only factory loads.
I know....$$$$. Going to start reloading real soon.

Anyway, after approx. 250-300 rounds, the problem with my bolt started. I'm shooting Hornady 250gr. BTHP.
The bolt was very hard to work to extract the spent cartridges. This continued for the rest of the box.
Fast Forward...

I then wound up sending the rifle back to Savage to be inspected. This is what they did.
The Front Baffle Assembly on the bolt was replaced.
The Rear Baffle Assembly on the bolt was replaced.
Polished the chamber.
They test fired 5 rounds, said it was good to go and shipped it back to me.

I took my .338 out to the range today. After a couple of mags, the problem was back. Very hard to extract the spent
cartridges...Again! >:(

I contacted Savage. After a few phone calls the rep said they were sending out an extractor, spring and pin or ball bearing
(please excuse my ignorance). They said to replace it on the bolt and see what happens.

So my question (finally) is:
Has anyone else with this model had similar problems? Is this something that is minor/major?
What could be causing this? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Again, looking forward to being a productive part of this forum.

Best.

mdslammer

You sure those are factory rounds? I don't have experience with the .338 round, but it sounds like you are having a pressure issue. I had the same thing happen on a 7mm rem mag.
My best suggestion would be to try a different brand of ammo and see if the problem persists.

Let me know how everything works out as I am planning to get the same rifle myself.

Eric

When we tested some of the very early pre-production 110BA rifles, they had some issues w/ extraction. The engineers had twiddled something (that didn't need fixed) on the rear baffle cam angle that resulted in the situation of the bolt being easy to lift, but since there was almost no primary extraction, the bolt was almost impossible to move to the rear w/o the aid of a small dead-blow hammer... swapping the rear baffle out for one from my 12 F/TR 'fixed' the problem, and AFAIK the factory changed things back the way they should have been. Very mild handloads didn't show the problem, but warmer hand loads and the fairly warm Hornady 250gn BTHP loads definitely did (at least the box I bought). From the sound of the first fix by the factory (polish the chamber and replace the rear baffle) that might have been what they thought might be happening. The second fix... sounds like easter-egging to me.

Other people continued to have the same issues after the production models came out, even with the bolt baffle fixed. Some did, some didn't. Those that did all had one thing in common, and so do you: Hornady brass. Their loads tend to be warm (at least in the .338LM), and their brass tends to be fairly soft - not a good combination. Almost every case I've heard or read of was 'fixed' by switching to harder Lapua brass. Yes, its expensive $tuff... but honestly if you've gone thru over 300rds of Hornady .338LM (the one box of 20 I had was nearly $100 out the door) I don't think it'd kill you to order a box or two of .338LM ammo loaded using Lapua brass to try and see if it helps your situation any. I think the problem is that as a factory action, the primary extraction on a Savage is a little on the weak side... and the .338LM is a big honkin' case, combined w/ warm loads and soft brass, makes for a scenario where the extraction on the Savage just ain't quite up to snuff. Harder tougher brass may be an easy fix.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eric_monster

You sure those are factory rounds? I don't have experience with the .338 round, but it sounds like you are having a pressure issue. I had the same thing happen on a 7mm rem mag.
My best suggestion would be to try a different brand of ammo and see if the problem persists.

Let me know how everything works out as I am planning to get the same rifle myself.

Eric

---

Yes, these are brand new, from the factory, Hornady ammo. This didn't happen during the first 250 or so rounds with this
ammo. I have also had this problem with a couple of other factory loads.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by memilanuk

When we tested some of the very early pre-production 110BA rifles, they had some issues w/ extraction. The engineers had twiddled something (that didn't need fixed) on the rear baffle cam angle that resulted in the situation of the bolt being easy to lift, but since there was almost no primary extraction, the bolt was almost impossible to move to the rear w/o the aid of a small dead-blow hammer... swapping the rear baffle out for one from my 12 F/TR 'fixed' the problem, and AFAIK the factory changed things back the way they should have been. Very mild handloads didn't show the problem, but warmer hand loads and the fairly warm Hornady 250gn BTHP loads definitely did (at least the box I bought). From the sound of the first fix by the factory (polish the chamber and replace the rear baffle) that might have been what they thought might be happening. The second fix... sounds like easter-egging to me.

Other people continued to have the same issues after the production models came out, even with the bolt baffle fixed. Some did, some didn't. Those that did all had one thing in common, and so do you: Hornady brass. Their loads tend to be warm (at least in the .338LM), and their brass tends to be fairly soft - not a good combination. Almost every case I've heard or read of was 'fixed' by switching to harder Lapua brass. Yes, its expensive $tuff... but honestly if you've gone thru over 300rds of Hornady .338LM (the one box of 20 I had was nearly $100 out the door) I don't think it'd kill you to order a box or two of .338LM ammo loaded using Lapua brass to try and see if it helps your situation any. I think the problem is that as a factory action, the primary extraction on a Savage is a little on the weak side... and the .338LM is a big honkin' case, combined w/ warm loads and soft brass, makes for a scenario where the extraction on the Savage just ain't quite up to snuff. Harder tougher brass may be an easy fix.

---

Thanks for the reply and info. Not ALL 300 rounds were Hornady though. HSM was used in the beginning and come to think
of it, I don't remember having any extracting issues. I will swap out the new parts being sent from Savage and continue
testing.
I did shoot 10 more cartridges later in the day. They were from Tactical Ammunitions in St. Helens Or.
300 gr. / 2750 fps. They seemed to extract a little easier than the Hornady but maybe I was still a bit "gun shy" from
earlier in morning. I'll keep trying. I really love the rifle and hope to have it resolved soon.
Regards.
Mark

Monte... hope you can advise...

Recently got a 110BA in 338LM, came with about 80 rounds of the Hornady 285 BTHP stuff, and 100 fresh Lapua cases... dies (Lyman), a Leupold E/RT 8 to 25X Mk4, a Dewey rod and a Harris S bipod with the notched legs... :) For just a smidge over 3K, which I think was a pretty smokin' deal. :)

This rifle is having issues with extracting the Hornady cases, both on the first (factory load) firing, and also on my initial reloads. Using Retumbo and 300 SMK's.

What is happening with this gun is the case is staying in the chamber, as if the extractor hasn't even gotten hold of it. I don't really feel the extractor slipping off the case rim... the bolt just lifts easily, then slides back easily without bringing the case with it. You can close the bolt and try to re-extract, but it never gets hold of the case. You have to punch it out with a cleaning rod.

This happens about 25% of the time, it seems. It even happened on a fired case I was using to check bullet seating depth (slipped a bullet into the case mouth and chambered it, so see what the OAL would be when extracted).

I have not tried the Lapua brass yet... but is the problem I'm describing one you've seen before? Savage said they'd send a new extractor, and I'm going to order it, just wondering if this may be the actual problem or not.

Dan

Dan,

Like I said... most (but not all) problems with these guns seem to go away once you ditch the Hornady brass. It might be worthwhile to mike the case rim between the Hornady and Lapua cases and see if there is a significant difference - in the past people have noticed a difference in case extraction between say, Winchester .308 and Lapua .308 because the Winchester cases are grossly undersized and the extractor sometimes has a hard time hooking and hanging on to them reliably. If the soft Hornady brass is sticking in the chamber a little and the extractor is not getting a good grip on the case rim, I can see there being some problems.

Sometimes swapping out the extractor parts fixes things; some people have had luck with taking the extractor and doing a little filing to enhance the undercut on it so it can get a better bite on the extractor groove. Or you could just try it with the Lapua brass and see if the problem goes away on its own...

Monte

Thanks Monte. The Hornady is about .002" smaller than Lapua in case head diameter. Rim thickness is the same, but the diameter might be the issue. I'm going to get another extractor from Savage anyway, since they offered it. I'm sure you're right, the Lapua cases will probably solve the problem... I'll post back here in a week or so with an update.

Dan

This seems to be a reoccuring problem with Savage rifles. Are the engineers working on a fix for an otherwise excellent rifle? ???

It's not just the Savage. I had the same problem with Hornady 338 Lapua brass in a full custom Bernard PL/Bartlein Barrel rifle and these were pretty light loads. At first I though there was a problem with the action/extractor, but decided to try some Lapua Brass first. To make a long story short, I never had another fail to extract with the Lapua Brass. I've never had a problem with Hornady Brass before, but I guess it's too soft for the .338 Lapua.

Just switch to Lapua Brass/Ammo and you should be fine.