Can't chamber ammo on new Savage Stealth--Strange issues

[marlin795]

Hey guys,

Friend picked up a new 6.5cm Savage Stealth on my recommendation and has enjoyed is thus far until some issues today.

• Factory 6.5cm Savage Stealth
• Factory Scope Base
• Using Factory Hornady 140gr ELD-M
• No protruding action screws \ not in too far
• No protruding scope base screws \ not in too far

Sighted in the rifle with no issues, appx 50-60 rounds through the rifle without issue.

Started up today, and rifle locked up \ had issues chambering a new round right before a cease-fire. Range-master came by, smacked the bolt handle down and then back up very hard in order to get it to eject.

The brass and projectile was pretty well beat up, and the gun will no longer fully close on a factory round.

1) The rifle will still chamber and eject a spent casing (fired from this rifle) without issue.
2) The rifle will not close on a loaded round, and leaves some severe marks on the case and projectile when you attempt to force the bolt handle downward.
3) The ejector and extractor both move freely when depressed and seem to work properly when chambering a spent casing.

Here is the bolt face (looks like the ejector pin is sheared?):



Here is the chamber. The brass deposits seem to be the culprit, in my opinion:



Here is a loaded round that cannot be chambered \ after trying to lock the bolt handle down (note the ring on projectile):



No pressure signs on fired brass, which made me initially think it was unlikely the headspace was wrong \ chamber was fouled the point of obstruction:



Lugs look intact:





Any ideas from you guys on how to proceed? Could the ejector be wreaking this much havoc on the entire gun?

[NicfromAlabama]

Marlin,

I frequent another forum. A member there bought a Creedmoor Model 12LRP. He had pretty much the same issues as you did. I think his problem was only after about 10 rounds from what his post indicated. He could not eject the cases after firing. Unlike you, he was showing pressure signs with the primers flattening, and I think one blew. It was sent back to Savage. It ended up being too tight a chamber. According to his service invoice, Savage reamed out the chamber, and it stated on the invoice it was too tight. He never followed up saying how the rifle shot once it was returned. But, it certainly sounds like it could be the same issue with you.

[brut28481]

Unless you got a long load of ammo and based on the land marks on the projectile, looks like chamber is cut short. I'd return to savage!

[bearcatrp]

Send it back to Savage. Shouldn't have happened. But what is weird is you shot prior with out issues. Your primer looked good. Got a caliper to measure that ammo? When you shot prior, was it the same ammo? Were there case swipes along the brass? IF prior ammo was the same and zero issues then, sounds like a very hot ammo went off. Need more info but still contact savage.

[olddav]

I know you checked, but is the barrel clear?

[drybean]

Looks like the bullet is not seated deep enough or you have a short free bore

[orbitup]

Tag

[darkker]

Savage had let a bunch of Creedmoors slip out, that were indeed short chambered; and would suspect that is your root issue.
But a few things need answered & cleared-up.
1) "Signs". Pressure "Signs" only tell you whether or not you met the tensile strength of the brass, NOT if you are over-pressure. From the Pressure testing work we've done, typically you see "Signs" when you get very close to 75,000 psi. So in order to know your pressure, we need to know your velocities. What were your velocities?
2) OAL. Those bullets look like they have been stuffed into the lands. Can we assume you tested YOUR chamber prior to loading, or did you simply load to a book length?
3) What is your brass length? Do you FL size, and how often do you trim? What I found in one of my barrels, is that the shoulder area of the chamber is a little... roomy. So If I don't FL size every few loads they become hard to chamber. More FL sizing means more trimming needed.
4) Ejector. If that pin can't properly slide into the bolt face, then it in effect lengthens your OAL. The odd thing about it, is that it looks like it has "Crashed" on the face of the barrel; furthering the headspace possibilities.

[bearcatrp]

Big question is: are these reloads or commercial ammo? That bullet looks to be not seated enough IF a reload. Has marks around the ogive showing jammed.

[mike21]

Original post says they were using "Factory Hornady 140gr ELD-M".

[Zero333]

Like others said, little freebore grabbed the bullet and pulled it out a bit during extraction of the live round. You lucky it didn't pull it all the way out of the case and spilled powder all over in your receiver and chamber !

Anyone else notice anything weird with the ejector plunger and extractor ?

Plunger looks like it has a steep angle cut on it and the extractor looks to have a corner missing. Is this how they come from factory nowadays ? or am I seeing things ?

[keeki]

Looks that way to me also zero

[Keith_A]

"appx 50-60 rounds through the rifle without issue. Now - "rifle will not close on a loaded round". Clearly SOMETHING HAS CHANGED since the first rounds were fired. Now - "Leaves some severe marks on the case and projectile when you attempt to force the bolt handle downward." I'd suspect something has changed in the chamber...

[Hawaiian]

Just compared the picture of his bolt face to mine and they look the same. Not sure if this is atypical of Savage boltfaces since this is my first Savage. I do know that the bolt below has no issues chambering or extracting.

[RustyShackle]

That's really strange to have an ejector and extractor like that. I'm sure there is good reason, but the best I can come up with is less drag and friction?

[J.Baker]

That's the same ejector they used to use on the controlled round feed rifles as the beveled edge permitted the cartridge head to slide up over it when feeding from the magazine. The dog eared extractor mimics Fred's modified extractor that he offers in his kits, though Savage only knocked off one corner rather than both.

[Palmaris]

On my 10BA Stealth ejector and extractor looks exectly the same. First looks weird to me, looked through high magnification glass and found tool marks on suspected surfaces. So it is made that way.

[Rondogg]

Hey guys,

Friend picked up a new 6.5cm Savage Stealth on my recommendation and has enjoyed is thus far until some issues today.

• Factory 6.5cm Savage Stealth
• Factory Scope Base
• Using Factory Hornady 140gr ELD-M
• No protruding action screws \ not in too far
• No protruding scope base screws \ not in too far

Sighted in the rifle with no issues, appx 50-60 rounds through the rifle without issue.

Started up today, and rifle locked up \ had issues chambering a new round right before a cease-fire. Range-master came by, smacked the bolt handle down and then back up very hard in order to get it to eject.

The brass and projectile was pretty well beat up, and the gun will no longer fully close on a factory round.

1) The rifle will still chamber and eject a spent casing (fired from this rifle) without issue.
2) The rifle will not close on a loaded round, and leaves some severe marks on the case and projectile when you attempt to force the bolt handle downward.
3) The ejector and extractor both move freely when depressed and seem to work properly when chambering a spent casing.

Here is the bolt face (looks like the ejector pin is sheared?):



Here is the chamber. The brass deposits seem to be the culprit, in my opinion:



Here is a loaded round that cannot be chambered \ after trying to lock the bolt handle down (note the ring on projectile):



No pressure signs on fired brass, which made me initially think it was unlikely the headspace was wrong \ chamber was fouled the point of obstruction:



Lugs look intact:





Any ideas from you guys on how to proceed? Could the ejector be wreaking this much havoc on the entire gun?

The bolt looks like it has been in a fire. And I believe the ejector is not sheared off.

[Hawaiian]

Anyone figure out what the problem was or is? Hopefully was.

[minnesotamulisha]

Any update on what was wrong with your rifle OP?

[zach_]

I am curious as well. I had 1 "Winchester 140 grain match" do something like that. The ammo looked like the one in the post when I took it out. It only happened once. 12 lrp in 6.5. I have not bad a problem with anything else before or after. I would say it was within the first 300 rounds on the rifle. I am at about 480 now.

[marlin795]

Anyone figure out what the problem was or is? Hopefully was.

I know this is raising the thread from the dead, but I noticed this thread was ranked pretty highly on Google and figured I'd update everyone.

First addressing the questions other people raised:

• The ammo was factory Hornady 140gr ELD-M, not reloads. With calipers, the ammo was seated to/within correct / uniform spec amongst all the ammo used to test.
• The ejector pin is indeed how the Stealth rifles are made, it is supposed to be like that.
• The rifle is a friend's who is relatively new to shooting bolt action rifles. He shot the first 60-100 rounds when I wasn't there, so he very well could have been jamming the bullet into the lands unknowingly every time and he didn't notice until the chamber / lands accumulated enough material to make closing the bolt near impossible as opposed to just "harder than normal".

After making this thread and giving the chamber a thorough scrubbing, the problem still existed. Savage support was contacted. They kindly sent a label to us, we returned the rifle, and they confirmed that the rifle had a short (or bad) chamber and either replaced the barrel or hit it with a new / different reamer. The rifle previously shot very, very accurately, and the rifle is still very accurate. The service was timely and they were very professional and I suspect a batch of these guns is out there with short chambers and they are taking care of them. Not sure if it only crops up with heavier (and therefore longer) projectiles, but regardless, they addressed it with no cost to us which was nice.

[gbflyer]

Could be wrong but looks like from the pics that there is a wear mark on the barrel and matching on the front of the lugs. I suspect that there was inadequate clearance between the bolt and barrel. There is supposed to be .125-.130 "stick out" on the go gauge. I think if everything is right, that should yield .008-.010 end clearance. My suspicion is they went in a little too far with the reamer and the barrel had to be screwed in a little more for it to headspace, eliminating the required clearance.

Just my theory. Only because I've done it. glad it got fixed and you're happy with the service.

[Zero333]

I know this is raising the thread from the dead, but I noticed this thread was ranked pretty highly on Google and figured I'd update everyone.

First addressing the questions other people raised:

• The ammo was factory Hornady 140gr ELD-M, not reloads. With calipers, the ammo was seated to/within correct / uniform spec amongst all the ammo used to test.
• The ejector pin is indeed how the Stealth rifles are made, it is supposed to be like that.
• The rifle is a friend's who is relatively new to shooting bolt action rifles. He shot the first 60-100 rounds when I wasn't there, so he very well could have been jamming the bullet into the lands unknowingly every time and he didn't notice until the chamber / lands accumulated enough material to make closing the bolt near impossible as opposed to just "harder than normal".

After making this thread and giving the chamber a thorough scrubbing, the problem still existed. Savage support was contacted. They kindly sent a label to us, we returned the rifle, and they confirmed that the rifle had a short (or bad) chamber and either replaced the barrel or hit it with a new / different reamer. The rifle previously shot very, very accurately, and the rifle is still very accurate. The service was timely and they were very professional and I suspect a batch of these guns is out there with short chambers and they are taking care of them. Not sure if it only crops up with heavier (and therefore longer) projectiles, but regardless, they addressed it with no cost to us which was nice.

Thanks for the update !
Always nice to see things work out.

I assume the freebore was short and/or the freebore diameter was too tight.

I have (had because barrel is toast and installed different barrel now) a FCP-K in 308win where I had the same exact thing happen with certain factory ammo. After the first few hundred rounds things loosened enough not to have any issues ever again, and the rifle always shot very nicely. I wish barrels lasted forever.