Bergara rifle issues and solution

[338 dude]

I would be livid if I purchased a premier hmr in 6.5 creedmore that needed repairing from the get go.
Too many good rifles out there in that price range to waste my time and endanger my health with a Bergara.

I know exactly how you feel and I would be equally as upset but it did not happen to me as I would not buy a Bergara rifle a friend of mine did get one for Christmas it would not fire a single round out of three boxes of Hornady ammunition it was sent back to Bergara and was repaired and returned they said they knew what the problem was and it could be fixed in 10 minutes then why did you let it get out the door in the first place it just makes you look bad

 

[Bergara-Hunter1]

In late 2018 Bergara changed the firing pin diameter from 2.00mm (0.07874 inches) to a smaller diameter (1.7mm or 0.06693 inches). Also the gap between firing pin and bolt is tighter. New rifles produced in 2019--> has no problems with cratered primers in my experience (I have the B14 HMR in 6.5 Creedmoor). I have tried lot's of different bullets and powder, and so far the one that is the absolute best performer is the Hornady 130 grains ELD-Match. All 123 grains to 140 grains ELD-Match bullets performs excellent in my Bergara. Also the Sierra 120 grains Match King is excellent, this one has a short boat-tail part. The Sierra 123 grains Match King has a much longer boat-tail and did not function well in my Bergara, same story with the Norma 130 grains Golden Target match bullet. Seems to me that the Bergara does not like bullets with a very long and tapered boat-tail part. I use Norma brass (LR primer). My Bergara has a long "throat" as the Hornady 130 grains ELD-Match touches the lands at 74.35mm (2.927 inches). I did seat it at 72.5mm (2.8543 inches). At 200 meters (219 yards) I do get around 1.5" groups on a calm day (bearly seeing the grass moves by the wind). In my experience the Bergara rifles is excellent. I did replace the trigger with a Trigger Tech Primary (R70-SBS-14-TBC) just a couple of months ago. I removed the Remington Bolt release part, easy done in 2 minutes. It is an excellent trigger, but I suspect the Special version fits the Bergara B14 better regarding trigger weight, as I had to adjust my Primary trigger weight screw almost fully out to reach a low enough weight for my preference (around 750 grams I guess).

 

[Bergara-Hunter1]

By the way, the new Bergara HMR Pro has the Trigger Tech installed at the factory. It is an all stainless steel design (bolt, receiver, barrel). Looks like a superb rifle.

My B14 HMR has the machined/milled bolt shroud, no issues with that either.
The Bergara factory has adressed the flaws this rifle had prior to autumn 2018. If you have the cast (aluminium/zink?) type of shroud on your bolt, contact the dealer or Bergara and they will send you a new shroud for free (they did so with several others I have heard of).

Old cast Bolt shroud.

 

[DaveBerg]

Good Morning, just purchased a Bergara B14 HMR in 6.5 PRC. And I finally found some ammo.. First thing I noticed is that it won't eject live rounds cycling during initial test. Hitting the range to see if it will eject spent round casings, Will update shortly.

 

[Starlite]

I would imagine that other people may be having this issue so I thought that I would share my findings.

I started doing a break in procedure with a light load of H1000 and some 175 Gr Sierra matchkings in my Bergara B-14 Ridge in 300 win mag. Got through most of the rounds but I noticed that the firing pin was cratering the primer pretty badly. And upon firing one round (I don't remember how many it was that I had fired), the bolt shroud broke off at the threads. I also noticed that the primer had been pierced. The shroud looked to be made of cast metal and very brittle.

I called Bergara and they said that they know of the problem and they had made a new bolt shroud and this time it was machined and not cast. They sent me one and I put it on and it indeed felt better made than the old one. So I started doing load work up and all seemed to be going well except for the part where the primers were still showing cratering. No signs of pressure anywhere else. Then I got a pierced primer but the bolt opened easy, the case was not stretched beyond normal means and the velocities were still with the other two rounds fired. The group was even good. I started to think that I had a bad batch of primers as on the next group I had another pierced primer but again all the velocities were good and no other pressure signs were visible. On this pierced primer, the back of the bolt shroud broke off.

View attachment 130625



I stopped what I was doing and took out the firing pin assembly and took off the bolt shroud to take a look at things. I looked at the back of the bolt shroud and I found markings of where the back of the firing pin assembly had struck the back of the bolt shroud and thus breaking the bolt shroud.

View attachment 130626

I got to wondering what could be causing this without being over pressure and came to the conclusion that the firing pin hole was made too large and allowing the firing pin to protrude too far out upon firing and piercing primers. The gas blowback through the pierced primer was pushing the firing pin assembly backwards and smacking the back of the bolt shroud.

View attachment 130627

View attachment 130628

As you can see, when the firing pin assembly gets blown back by the gas from the pierced primer, it goes back farther than the back of the bolt shroud. That little round piece above the red indicator is what was smacking the back of the bolt shroud.

I called Gretan Rifles and spoke with him about it and he said that this is a pretty common problem with Bergara rifles and that the firing pin hole needs to be bushed and a new firing pin installed because the Bergara firing pin can't be worked on.

The rifle shoots GREAT but this is a problem and needs to be fixed. I called Bergara but they gave me the normal run around about reloads but the guy was really nice and did in the end send me another bolt shroud. I will be sending the bolt to Gretan Rifles to get bushed and a new firing pin installed. Mr. Tannel answered up on the first call and was awesome to deal with. Real nice guy.

Just thought that I would post this here in case others came across this problem.

Wow. You just saved me a bunch of grief. Well..I'll still need to deal with bergara for a second time as you did. Our stories are identical other then the caliber; 6.5CM (now a 6CM) I was thinking my issue was going to headspace or something related to the new barrel. My gunsmith it Type A and thusly wouldn't handle my concerns well if you know what I mean. Anyhow thanks again for taking the time. Wish I'd seen this when the barrel was being installed. Could've had a new pin installed and bushed the face etc;