First flaw

[jameson2]

Well, I can't claim to be nearly as experienced with Savage as a number of you guys out there - only been at this for about 5 years now... Anyway, today I was working up some loads and actually managed to have a primer pop out - another first. The inevitable happened - a bunch of crud got forced into the ejector and messed up the spring.

From the posts on this forum, I take it I need to remove the retaining pin, pull out the ejector and replace the spring. Shouldn't be a big deal, I managed to get the ejector worked free with some Kroil, forced air and elbow grease. As long as the retaining pin is in the hole perpendicular to the ejector and about 1/4" from the bolt face I should be fine... Provided I can get the busted spring out...

This is a known "issue," I guess it's an issue only when you make high pressure loads, but is there a work around so that the ejector/spring are not likely to be damaged in the future should I develop another hot load?

As a side note, I was working on a load with 130 gr Barnes TTSX in .270 Win, changing only the seating depth when I encountered the problem. I'll be making a separate post in the handloading section on that if any of you are curious.

Thanks in advance!
Jameson

[sharpshooter]

The only way to prevent ejector damage is to remove it.

[jameson2]

Thanks Fred! I'll take that as the definitive answer and just go ahead and fix the spring! I guess if that's all that breaks when I cook up a load that's too hot I should just consider myself lucky and move on. The gun obviously wasn't even rendered inoperable, I just had to reach up with my lazy hand and manually remove the empty brass. Oh bother!

Thanks again!

[hunter2]

In the past I have had guns that shoot the Barnes quite well, but if more than 10 rounds were fired at one time pressures would spike. Barrel, bullet, whatever, the fouling was so bad it would create pressure problems. Just another suggestion...

[jameson2]

Thanks for the tip, Hunter. This is the first time I've used anything at all from Barnes. I fired 20 rounds yesterday and haven't cleaned it yet. I guess I probably should have been cleaning between sets just to keep things consistent, but I didn't.

If you're curious about the loads I was working on, feel free to check out my other post over in the Ammunition/Reloading forum for Standard Calibers.

Thanks again,
Jameson