.308 Stealth Evolution trigger locks up

I have a brand new stealth evolution, heck it still has the tag on it, and has never fired a round. The trigger is set to 1.5#'s straight from the factory, I have done nothing with the gun. When I cycle the bolt and press the trigger, it fires as supposed to. If I rack the bolt slow, it continues to fire without an issue. But if I try to cycle the bolt fast, the trigger cannot be depressed, it locks up until I cycle it again slow. A friend that works on a lot of the guns at an armory in the Marines, seems to think the bolt is trying to "slam" fire and says if I were to take it out and fire it with actual rounds, if I racked it fast, it would fire when I closed the bolt. Has anyone heard of this and if so, what is the fix for it? Should I just send it back to Savage and have them fix it or am I doing something wrong? Thanks for any help and look forward to any responses.

Shoot and see what happens. Are you seriously going to send it back without even shooting it?

Am I mistaken or does the accutrigger prevent slam fires?

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Originally Posted by Robotaz

Shoot and see what happens. Are you seriously going to send it back without even shooting it?

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if I fast cycle it, and the trigger doesn't work, why wouldn't I? You don't feel there's a safety issue if it goes off when I ride the bolt forward?

This rifle and its trigger should be as good as anything you can buy from a factory. The trigger is probably the standard AccuTrigger with the silver blade in the middle. These will decock with hard closing when set at lower pull weights. You can adjust the pull weight and then test it to see if the pull weight is good, and if it decocks with hard closing. You can decock the trigger by pulling back on the sides of the trigger, without touching the center blade. That's a safety feature. Do not remove the middle blade. If the pull weight doesn't suit you, get a target AccuTrigger from somebody on this site. They have a red blade in the middle, and the pull weight can be set lower without decocking. They are usually available for $100-125. The trigger adjustment is done with the tool that came with the rifle, or you can use a cotter pin from an AR-15, the pin that holds the firing pin. Turn the screw to the right (in farther) to increase the pull weight, turning about 1/2 turn each trial, until it doesn't decock with hard bolt closing. As a disclaimer, I have to mention that you should take the rifle to a competent gunsmith, and not believe anything you read on the internet, including this post's information.

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Originally Posted by notacos4u

if I fast cycle it, and the trigger doesn't work, why wouldn't I? You don't feel there's a safety issue if it goes off when I ride the bolt forward?

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Because they will adjust the spring to a higher poundage so the trigger does not slide off the sear when slamming the bolt closed. They will tell you that it was set too light to be hard cycling the bolt. You can adjust it yourself and not have to deal with all the shipping and the gun being gone for weeks.

A 1.5 lb trigger setting is for target shooting, not rapid cycling the bolt. That is what AR's are for with their 4 lb triggers

If you want to bang that bolt open and closed you have to have a heavier trigger. Savage understood this is how people got shot with their Remington 700 triggers set too low by amateur gunsmiths (and their safety being of poor design), so they made the "Accutrigger". It has more to do with safety than it does with accuracy. The accuracy part comes in if you want to adjust it below 2 lbs for target shooting and need a safety when the sear slips off the trigger as you cycle the bolt closed.

Robinhood, thank you very much for your very well articulated response. That makes sense how you explained it.

Glad it helped. Jim the forum boss has made some really good articles available in the FAQ/Centerfeed section. Much of it will help you answer any questions you have as you need to know more about the Savage 110 series of rifles. Good luck

And you are not alone. My 12BVSS will 'lock up' when the bolt is driven home a bit too aggressively since I have the trigger set on minimum for target shooting. Just a simple matter to lift the bolt to cock and lower to lock before firing.

On some of these triggers you can also get them to lock if you put side pressure on the 'safety blade'. This can be fixed by shimming the trigger, probably best done by someone who knows Savage triggers. I just consider this a reminder that poor technique is being used.

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Originally Posted by Robinhood

Savage understood this is how people got shot with their Remington 700 triggers set too low by amateur gunsmiths (and their safety being of poor design)

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And the person holding the rifle pointed it at a person. Awful stories as a result but could have been avoided with good safe firearm handling practices that would have resulted in the Remi 700 trigger recall without deaths. My comments are not directed at Robinhood. Just a reminder of what the base root of the problem was along with the bad safety design.

No better way to ruin an amazing hobby than to have a tragic incident.

I really like this forum and visit it every day. Great info and great people.

I was curious so actually looked in the manual that came with my model 12. It is a generic one that covers all the 110 series. In the trigger descriptions it notes that the target accutriggers can be tripped by rapid closing of the bolt. It goes on to show a rubber bumper put on some bolts to cushion them so that this issue does not happen as often.

The Accu-trigger is built to lock up if the trigger is jostled (like when you drop a rifle) so it won't fire inadvertently. It can happen when you slam the bolt closed if the trigger is set close to the minimum setting. When they are close to the minimum setting, even pressing the Accu-trigger lever to the side also can lock the trigger. The triggers become more sensitive to jostling or side movement when the trigger is set close the trigger lower limit.

My one Precision Target trigger came set at 10 oz. with a 6 oz, lower limit. No issues with that yet after 4,000 rounds, but I reset that trigger to 1 lb. 2 oz. because 10 oz., although great for target shooting, was so much lighter than my other rifles that it made the transition between rifles during a shooting session problematic.

Out of 7 Savages I shoot, I have had two LE/Varmint Accu-triggers like yours start to lock up. In both cases, the triggers had dropped below the 'lower limit' for the LE/Varmint Trigger 1.5 lbs. after a considerable amount of shooting. One, a .308 set at 2 lbs. by me, after about 2,500 rounds and the other, a 6.5mm Creedmoor set at the factory at 1 lb. 14 oz., after about 1,500 rounds. Turns out the set spring had loosened on both of them (the only two that it occurred with). I just reset them both to 2 lbs., put a drop of loc-tite on the spring adjustment screw, and the problem went away. I generally set my LE/Varmint triggers at 2 lbs. and have had no problem with the other rifles. The other rifles include a .308, two 6.5mm Creedmoors, and a .223 so, while I think recoil may be a factor, three of the rifles with similar recoil and the same amount of use have not shown the same symptoms and the adjustment springs have not loosened up.

My last two Savages have come from the factory with triggers set below 2 lbs (one at 1 lb 11 oz. and the other 1 lb 14 oz). Four of my earlier LE/Varmint triggers all had triggers set over 3 lbs by the factory.
(Am I seeing a trend here? Is Savage reducing the factory settings on their Accu-Triggers?)