Problem with 25-06

Last week I did the unthinkable. While swatting mosquitos that were about to drain me I inadvertantly hit my 1010 scale and moved my charging bar to 40 instead of 30 without noticing. I was loading 117gr Bergers with 49gr of Varget rather than 39. After about 5 rds downrange my trigger stopped working correctly. When cocking the bolt I noticed the safety would move and the trigger wouldn't trip, but I could recock and most times it would fire. I realize there is no excuse for being stupid but those *^#%$@* mosquitos were eating me alive and kept me from paying more attention to what I was doing. So before I start taking things apart do you think my problem lies in the bolt or trigger group? It's a Stevens action bedded in a wood stock with factory sporter barrel. There was a slight bit of cratering in the flattened primers. I'm going to start working on it tomorrow night and hopefully find/fix the problem with plans on hitting the range wearing heavy mosquito repellant this weekend. Any thoughts?

Are you sure that varget is the right powder because I dont find it listed for the cartridge.I would have it checked over by a competant gunsmith and maybe magnaflux it at an engine shop.I doubt they would charge much.Magnaflux will find cracks etc that could cause catastrophic failure.

On Hodgdon's website they list Varget with a starting load of 37.0 and max of 41.0. The magnaflux check is a good idea and I'll do that after a thorough inspection. I hope I haven't ruined a good action.

Yes you messed up, but being the same action/bolt is used for the .270 and 30-06 I don't see how it would have messed up your gun. Furthermore the your trigger assembly is the same used on all Savage centerfires from 223 to 300mag. I could see how the pressure messed up your barrel but not the rest of the gun. Obviously it did, please post when you find out what happened. Hope it's a easy fix for you

The trigger group symptoms don't make sense to me as well, answer of course you'll know once you take it apart and see. Best I can figure is there was a shift in the stock that has influenced the trigger/safety. If it were mine the very first thing I'd be wondering about would be checking the headspace just to see if it has indeed changed. If it hasn't then you may well have dodged the bullet. Varget does funny things like lower in pressure on some compressed loads. 8 grs over max though is a "pretty gross" over load though. If the headspace checks out I'd probably disassemble it and check it out the rest of the way. If the headspace has increased over what it was then the concern level increases exponentially. If you can't do the work the gunsmith check is a good idea.

Ron

Did you happen to blank a primer?

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Originally Posted by sharpshooter

Did you happen to blank a primer?

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Please pardon my ignorance but not exactly sure what you mean.

Speedrat, I didn't have time tonight to remove the stock to see if any damage occured in the bedding. After I caught my mistake I fired a few more rounds with 39grs of Varget and had no trouble chambering the rounds. If I don't find the problem in either the trigger group bolt or stock bedding I'll recheck headspace. As notedpreviouslyI did see some cratering and flattening of primers but no other problems with the brass. I did sonic clean, anneal and trim the brass before shooting which may have helped save the brass from any splits.

What is meant by "blanking" a primer is, the primer is what most people refer to as pierced by the firing pin. On a hot load, the tip of the firing pin indents the primer cup, and the resulting excess pressure will cause the dimple to reverse itself, essentially shearing the cup against the bolt face leaving a small slug the same diameter as the firing pin hole. This slug sometimes stays inside the bolt head, blocking the firing pin from direct impact to the next round. I seen instances where the slug is lodged right up against the firing pin tip when the rifle is cocked, and when the trigger is pulled, the firing pin has nowhere to go, giving the impression that the bolt was not cocked.

Thanks for the explanation but there were no pierced primers. When it would malfunction the trigger wouuld move with no resistance like it had never cocked. Also the safety would move forward just a bit when racking the bolt. The primers were flattened and I could feel some cratering that would just catch a fingernail but none were pierced. I did stone the sear a very slight amount but nowhere near a slamfire and up till now had worked perfectly. The too hot charge possibly didn't cause the problem but I feel as it did. If time permits I'll pull the stock this evening and do some checking. Thanks for all input on this matter.