Axis II precision multiple issues with new rifle out of the box!

[Mr.Snerdly]

I got some CCI primers that come in a white box with black lettering. It says No. 41 primers for 5.56mm Ammunition. Are these military primers? I have had a few misfires with them in the 223 Axis. The same primers in the 783 Remington have never failed. I don't believe I have had any failures with my other CCI primers but they come in a different looking box.

[charlie b]

Yes, they are the milspec primers. Many folks look for those specifically for their AR's.

I agree about the stock screws. I am especially surprised that MDT does not supply the shorter screws with their stocks. Or, maybe they usually do, but, it would cost Savage a few extra cents to include them so they don't.

[celltech]

I am especially surprised that MDT does not supply the shorter screws with their stocks. Or, maybe they usually do, but, it would cost Savage a few extra cents to include them so they don't.

If you buy an Oryx chassis from MDT (which is what the Precision chassis is) they do come with multiple sets of screws. Obviously Savage has ordered a custom setup and saved every penny they can.

[Racegunz]

I got some CCI primers that come in a white box with black lettering. It says No. 41 primers for 5.56mm Ammunition. Are these military primers? I have had a few misfires with them in the 223 Axis. The same primers in the 783 Remington have never failed. I don't believe I have had any failures with my other CCI primers but they come in a different looking box.

If you are asking me, I do not know the answer. Seems weird to call out the caliber on a primer box.

[bhsurf4]

If you are asking me, I do not know the answer. Seems weird to call out the caliber on a primer box.

They are made for use in AR platform rifles. Harder primer cup.



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[ninner]

They are made for use in AR platform rifles. Harder primer cup.



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The primer is hard to reduce the likelihood of a slam fire. Which means that the inertia of the firing pin coming forward is enough to detonate the primer, I’ve never seen it personally on an AR but I once had an SKS dump a whole mag of Winchester white box 7.62x39.


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[Mr.Snerdly]

I just came in from shooting the 22-250. I also have some CCI primers just like the ones pictured in the above post, No. 41 for 7.62mm Ammunition but it doesn't say "Large Rifle Military Primers". I had a misfire on 1 out of 12 rounds. First time that has happened in the 22-250 but also the first time I have used these primers.

[Racegunz]

I just shot a few groups after cleaning the bore and no impressive groups so far with any ammo, the best being about .75" and the worst nearly 2". When looking things over I noticed off center firing pin strikes on the primers. My critical thinking tells me this is not a good thing as the firing pin hole doesn't look to be off center in the bolt and if it is not off center then that means potentially the bore is off center of the bolt. Also noticed all shot brass has a flat side on the mouth inline with the short side of the offset primer strike........ I think a call to savage is in order on this.
Has any one else noticed this in their AXIS?

Note Savage closed my online warranty service request without ever talking to me or commenting.

[titus123]

Yes the CCI 41s are mil-spec primers

[Racegunz]

I wanted to close this thread out with the solution I came up with. I was very reluctant to send back to savage as far as I know they do not guarantee accuracy, so maybe they would fix the light hammer strikes and I would be out shipping and insurance and a lot of time. So since I do have some gunsmithing experience (1911s mostly) I decided to deep dive this rifle and accuracy issue.
I bought the necessary tools to rechamber and if necessary to set the barrel back and headspace. I have a Grizzly gunsmith lathe and a mill and the tooling and indicators to do most of the work. I bought the following for this specific task.
.223 Wylde finish reamer
.223 Rem go and nogo headspace guages
Savage barrel nut wrench
Before I started I measured the headspace and it was in limits so that was not an issue. I bore scoped the chamber and to be honest it looked ok visually centered and uniform no chatter. My expectations were low that re-chambering would fix anything since it looked ok. I measured the bolt to breech endplay or freeplay whatever you may call it I read it should be around .006-.008 on a precision rifle. This one was .0195 so pretty sloppy (maybe contributing to the light hammer?) I actually was happy to find this as that gave me .012 to rechamber without having to set the barrel back and still be in the range for a precision fit for the bolt to breechface.

I disassembled the action from the barrel, this was a job as I did not have an action wrench and used some hardwood block and c-clamps for a barrel vise with heavy tape to protect the finish. All that said it took some work to get the barrel to break free. Once that was done I set the barrel on my lathe and measured the go gauge protrusion it was .120 on the dot the bolt face depth was around .108 with my calipers. This gave me a range I could ream the barrel at around .012 again. I decided that I would ream to .009 by checking the go gauge protrusion with my .0005 resolution dial then assemble and check everything out.
The reamer took most of the metal off the upper sidewalls and moved the depth .000 for several cycles, once I saw shavings on the shoulder and throat I knew I was close and took light passes till I hit my mark, going well I decided to continue to .010.
After reassembling I set the go gauge in the chamber and played with the action and bolt until I was sure it was a near perfect fit to the go gauge without resistance and locked it down and torqued to 35 ft lbs. The bolt closed with no resistance on the go and was not even close to closing on the no go gauge. Success!

Now for the actual test, shooting for accuracy, note this rifle had never shot a sub moa group with any ammo period. My first group at my 80 meter home range was a four shot group with the military green tip. M885 a good test of the Wylde reamer design as this ammo had shown pressure signs in the rifle before (when it would actually fire them). The first four shots (yes they all fired) were just over .500, 3 were touching and I know I pulled one of them a bit. Since I have already voided my warranty I can now freely shoot reloads without worry. My first four shot group with 23.5 grs of H335 and 68 gr hornady match bullets went again 3 in the same ragged hole basically and a "flyer" that opened the group to just over .500 again.

I think I fixed this rifle and can only assume that the chamber was the main culprit and the bolt freeplay also a contributing factor.

[prdatr]

Nice job Racegunz.

[GaCop]

Excellent explanation and fix, Bravo!