Hello - I had a small scare at the range yesterday.

My 111 270 fired a round downrange when I closed the bolt. It happened during a match, and was witnessed by a few friends.

Events: right-hand shooter; firing prone; fired one shot; ejected spent brass; closed the bolt; oops - experienced a "click" on the 2nd shot; rolled slightly onto my left side facing my friends who were seated to the right of my position; muzzle downrange; waited about 15 seconds; opened the bolt on an empty chamber. This was my fault: when cycling the bolt between 1st and 2nd shot while prone, I had failed to bring the bolt far enough back to catch the next round in the magazine, hence dry fire. There was a bit of laughing and talking as I pulled the bolt fully rearward so that it would catch the 2nd round. At this point the muzzle was downrange, but about 30° angle above horizontal, butt contacting the ground. I closed the bolt in my normal fashion and just as I completed locking the bolt down, the rifle discharged.

We stopped the match, checked the rifle, talked about possible causes, and eventually I finished the match with that rifle with no more problems, however I finished the day closing the bolt gingerly with the muzzle pointed directly at the berm for each shot.

A few comments about how I operate a bolt:
In the prone position, I function the bolt slowly and methodically with my thumb and two fingertips pinching the ball. My other two fingers are in the "closed-fist" position.
When the unintentional discharge happened, I was not "prone" per se. It was after the "click" dry fire. I was propped up diagonally on my left elbow & left side, therefore my right hand had a full range of motion, and I just habitually used my normal bolt operation, which is to open the bolt by pinching the ball between my thumb and the side of my forefinger, lift and pull back. That's when the empty chamber was discovered. To close the bolt "normally", ie not prone, I completely open my palm and fingers and use the heel of my palm to shove the bolt forward and down with mild-to-medium speed and force (not gingerly, but not overly forceful either, just normal). I offer this lengthy description because this open-palm method is how I was taught to operate a bolt in most situations (ie not prone). It keeps all fingers clear of the trigger area completely. One of my friends even said right after the UD that he had noticed my open palm when I closed the bolt on that round. Bottom line - I did not contact the trigger or even the triggerguard when closing the bolt over that round.

Other info: it was a 110gr Vmax over 50gr 4350, WLR primer, freshly trimmed Fed brass, 3.240 coal = 0.025" off lands for that bullet in that rifle. Loaded in a Lee Classic, with light crimp from LFCD.

I didn't inspect that particular round prior to firing because I was simply firing rounds at a match. So I can't say with 100% certainty that the round was perfect, but my years-long habits for seating primers, the lack of variation in coal in the other rounds from that match, the Lee seater and LFCD system, all make it unlikely that the problem is attributable to high primer or excessive coal. The UD brass ejected smoothly and did not have pressure indicators or a flatter primer than the other spent brass.

The rifle does not have an accutrigger. Last year, I lightly stoned the sear surfaces and set the adjustable spring for ~2.75lb pull. The trigger has a small amount of creep. I've fired approximately 200 rounds through it since that time.

After the UD, two experienced fellas pulled my trigger, and both agreed that because of the small amount of creep and reasonable weight, the trigger mechanism itself was not the obvious cause. We banged the stock around, and we did some hard bolt-slamming-shut testing to see if we could jar the rifle into failure, but it didn't fail, so as mentioned above, I finished the match with it and even went on to win one relay. (For those who might be interested, Burris 3-9x40 FF on Burris 2-piece steel base with Zee Sig rings with 10° & 5° inserts front and rear resp. With this load, it's 0.7moa at 200yd before and after beating on the rifle to test for trigger failure.)

I've been firing bolt action rifles and all manner of firearms for 29 years. I'm habitually careful. This is the 1st time I've ever experienced a firearm discharging without my intent.

It puts me in a curious position: In the past, hearing others tell tales of UD, I never listened for long or entered the conversation. I always just assumed that since firearms don't fire themselves, the handler clearly did something wrong. Now I know what the other side of the fence feels like. I didn't fire that round, but it sure went downrange.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to try to get all the salient information out up front.

I'm interested in finding out if any other shooters have ever experienced this with a Savage rifle? I would love to identify a cause, remedy it, and thereby regain my 100% trust and confidence in the rifle.

Welcome any comments, suggestions, questions, etc.

Thanks.