Savage 111 LRH 338 Lapua Jamming

Ok I am a dealer my buddy has purchased this rifle. The first one had 2 rounds through it and you could not open the bolt. I send it back to my supplier 6 months later I finally get a replacement. So today we go out to shoot it. The first round same thing. We finally get the bolt open and the empty case is stuck in the chamber. Has anyone else had this problem or heard about same problem? I have been around firearms since I was five I know a lot about guns but this puzzles me since it is 2 different guns. I will be calling Savage on Monday morning but I am curious if he just happened to get 2 bad guns or this is common:mad?

Shooting Hornady ammo I'll bet? It's a common problem with Hornady, but with Lapua and Norma, there are not many problems.

Agree , ammo is the problem

The Hornady .338LM factory ammo has a bad combination of soft brass and warm-ish loads. Sticking cases in that caliber/cartridge in Savage actions is not uncommon.

not to knock savage but I have been seeing several issue pop up on the internet with the 338LM from savage. One in piticular I read about today with a 338LM being chamber to big and was out of round in the chamber. The gun was air-gaged by a gunsmith and the owner and the smith is reporting all the findings to savage. I'm sure with savages reputation if there is an issue with there product they will fix it. also at a small business gun store the owner ordered a 338LM from savage and it came chamber in a 338 win mag. He had to send the rifle back to get it fixed. I've been looking at the 338LM myself but it has left me a little worried if there are some issues with this piticular line. Now like I said I am not knocking savage because I love my 6.5x284norma in the 116flutted stainless. Its a tack driver with 140 bergers. its my best shooting rifle and i'll take it to a gun fight before any thing else because I have confident I can set back and pick off what ever at 600yrds with this gun. But just fyi if there are other signs of "smoke" I think I would be calling up hornady or savage and asking a few questions.

Combination of things:

- Hornady Ammo/brass as mentioned above

- Chamber needs polishing (my 110BA was returned and polished)

- Hot Loads, even Lapua cases gets the stuck case in chamber issues once in a while

so I have heard over the past year of some problem with the savage LRH as the ones mention above and a few others. So I'm going to ask has anyone heard of Remington having any issues with there 338 Lapua that they are now selling. I have seen it in a few gun store but the price is 2K, and I don't think they are coming off the shelves very fast. Also if this is loaded ammo from Hornady then Hornady should be getting notified as well. If this is handloads then I would think someone is tring to make an ALLEN Magnimum out of 338 Lapua and is creating some extremly high chamber pressures. I was on another site and someone was talking about getting 3100fps out of a 300grain bullet in the standard Lapua. Someone chimed in with all the tech knowledge and figured out the case pressure would have to be reaching about 71K to do this. I though the max on average of allot of cartrages is 62k to 63k. It was also stated Lapua brass is notorious for not showing the signs (brass damage, too much pressure) that weaker brass will show. It sounds like there are some unresolved issue going on and I was looking at possibly making a purchase on one of these but I may be waiting for a while till I find out more info.

I have a new 338 LM LRH. Mine is working and shooting great. All handloads only. I am also running 10 rounds ea of Lapua, Nosler, Norma and Hornady brass. I've loaded 90-92 grains of H1000 with Berger 300 OTM's and now that I'm out of those I'm shooting 285 Hornady. The Hornady 285's has better accuracy. Sticking with them. Speaking of "sticking", the brand new Hornady brass did stick a bit. Not bad though. Just had to slightly bump the bolt lever with my palm to cam open and eject. Second time full length resizing I had only one case stick. Third time with Hornady brass I had no issues. I anneal every time and full length resize, even the new brass got fl sized. Next batch I've got loaded has 89 grains H1000 and 285's (CCI 250 primers).

Let us know what they find wrong with your LRH.

I had the same problem with Hornady factory 285 grain match... mic'd the case rim and found that it's on average .002" smaller in diameter than Lapua cases are. Never an issue with Lapua brass.

Another thing to check is the scope base screw that goes in over top of the bolt lugs... a few folks have found that the screw is too long, reaching into the bolt lug recess on the receiver. The tell-tale sign is a scratch mark on the outside of the left bolt lug.

The first 338LM's that Savage built had very tight chambers, with the lands very close. Pressures ran high. Hornady's match load was supposed to go 2650 fps from what Hornady says... but I was getting over 2800 fps from it. Just a simple issue of too much pressure... :o

More recent 338LM's from Savage seem to have more "ample" chambers. My friend's 111FCP (fcp I think it is) shows an extra .010" to the lands from what my early 110BA has.

That all said, his rifle and mine both shoot like customs... no kidding, super, super you-wouldn't-believe-it accurate. The same load works in both, an OCW load I developed about a year ago... 300 grain Sierra Matchking, 89.3 grains of Retumbo, in Lapua brass. CCI 250 or Federal 215 primer... this load gives 2700 fps almost exactly in both of our rifles...