Bolt won't close after head swap

Hey guys,

I'm new here, so if this has been discussed in the past, please forgive me.

The problem I am having is that I have a Savage Edge in 25.06 and about 10 years ago the ejector broke. I put it in the closet and didn't do anything about it until recently. About a year or two ago I bought a kit to replace the extractor and ejector and when I removed the head to get the he ejector out, the broken part was permanently stuck in the hole. I tried everything I could think of to remove it and finally admitted defeat and bought a new short action head from Gunshack shortly after. I also bought the new improved ejector and extractor kit from them as well.

Now, this morning I finally got around to replacing the bolt head and when I put the bolt back in the gun and tried to close it, it won't close. It feels very much like when you try to close the bolt on a cartridge that isn't sized properly and won't allow the bolt to close.

I checked the new bolt head dimensions against the old one and everything seems to be identical except the recess that the cartridge goes into is .004 shallower than the old bolt head. All exterior dimensions are the same though.

Any ideas why the bolt won't close?

Mike

It definitely needs to be headspaced. And that may be all the problem is. However, the new bolt head may also need to be fit to the Action. It’s not something you can do without some knowledge & tooling.

While Savages are quite DIY friendly to the home Gunsmith/Builder, they are not AR15’s or Glocks where all parts fit all guns more or less.

Thanks, I wondered if it might be something like that. I am definitely capable of the headspacing, but if machining is needed then I'm SOL and will need to visit a gunsmith I guess. The old head works fine to extract the casing, but I have to manually remove the brass since the ejector is broken off inside.

Mike

cover the head in magic marker and see where it get rubbed off

With the 0.004" difference in depth you're going to have to re-headspace no matter what. Curious though where the difference is that's causing the bolt not to be able to be closed if the measurements between the new and old are the same everywhere else. For what you are describing either the lug thickness (front to back) would have to be a bit thicker, or the measurement from the bolt face to the hole for the bolt head retaining pin is a little longer on the new one.

This is why you always, ALWAYS have to check and usually reset the headspace after changing bolt heads and/or bolt bodies. There's just too many stacked tolerances in the bolt assembly that can affect the overall length of the assembly.

I agree completely. Headspace regardless.

the marker won't fix anything. Just tell where it may have been tight. Very slim chance it is touching scope mount or stock screws also.
If you have a caliper, stand the bolt heads on a hard surface and measure from the back of the lug to the table surface. new one should be a larger dimension to cause you problems.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blue Avenger

the marker won't fix anything. Just tell where it may have been tight. Very slim chance it is touching scope mount or stock screws also.
If you have a caliper, stand the bolt heads on a hard surface and measure from the back of the lug to the table surface. new one should be a larger dimension to cause you problems.

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Great advise! I will check it out and report back, just in case someone else is having this same issue.
I ordered a barrel nut wrench and headspace go/no go gauges, so I will headspace it as well.

Mike