Is barrel & action salvageable- Sticky bolt, chamber scratching case

[Sending156s]

300 WM, blueprinted Rem 700, BDL floorplate with Wyatt box, Bartlein 1-10 barrel, CE trigger, Cerakoted (they usually use DLC coating)

on receiving rifle bolt was so sticky you could hardly work it. I could see Cerakote inside action. I've cleaned, lubed , & cycled bolt. Up to ~ 500 cycles now. Bolt is smoother now, but not how it should be.
It also doesn't feed right. The tip comes up to high to slide into the chamber and jams about 50% of time.
I've shot it 40 times. After examining brass I found longitudinal scratch marks and a dimple on brass.....pics attached. Is this media baked in chamber or a mistake in cutting chamber? Can it be fixed without altering chamber dimensions & accuracy?

On the blueprinted action there is uneven wear on lugs. What is causing this?

The gunsmith had an operation Thursday and said he fired the rifle 20-30 times before shipping. Between the operation and the willingness to ship the rifle in this condition without any warning doesn't make me optimistic that he will repair. Is the rifled action repairable or should I cut losses and buy new action and barrel. Thanks for any feedback.

 

[bigngreen]

Cerakote done remotely correct will not bind up a Rem bolt, it should make it feel like greases snot and should run amazing!
A trued action should show wear on both lugs, as goobered up your action sounds with Cerakote it may be throwing it of also.
Chamber needs set back as well.

 

[sable tireur]

Personally and in general, I would discuss each point with the gunsmith, having supplied him with the images you're showing us in this thread. He should be able to identify any of the problems from the pictures but he should probably have the barreled action or whole rifle back so he can use a borescope to check the interior and run some test loads.

Best of Luck!

 

[Sending156s]

Sable, the reason i'm not mentioning names is I hope he will correct it and I wam giving the benefit of doubt to him. There was a lot of negative reviews on his site, but I talked to him and really like him. I thought the bad reviews were just grumpy people. What concerns me is sending me the gun in this condition without telling me anything. I'm easy to work with. After 30 years of working overseas you definitely find out things don't always go right. He had a neck operation Thursday fusing 2 disks from an auto accident. So i'm not calling him yet. I sent an email to the shop his wife runs and to the cerakote tech with the pictures asking if they would make it right, refund, or if I would be stuck with it and need to move forward.

 

[sable tireur]

Perfect!

 

[BallisticsGuy]

Looks to me like the bolt scratches might be (MIGHT BE) from an action screw that's now just a tiny bit too long. See that a lot on stocks without pillars. Have you tried loosening the front action screw and cycling some un-scratched brass through it? See what happens. Might be a free fix.

 

[Locknload]

Had a good friend that was a great Smith, got dementhia and started slipping in his prep and repairs. Some pain meds cause a similar effect.

It sounds to me like 99% of your problems can be fixed with a small amount of shop work.
Ed

 

[Sending156s]

Looks to me like the bolt scratches might be (MIGHT BE) from an action screw that's now just a tiny bit too long. See that a lot on stocks without pillars. Have you tried loosening the front action screw and cycling some un-scratched brass through it? See what happens. Might be a free fix.

Thanks, i'll Give that a try!

 

[Sending156s]

Thanks Ed, I been wondering if I might have to buy a new action & barrel. If you single feed it & ignore the scratches on case it shoots accurate. If the gunsmith that did the work decides not to repair or doesn't heal properly it's hard to find a smith that doesn't have a long backlog. This was to be my elk rifle this fall.

 

[SMK1000plus]

EDIT: Sorry guys. My phone inputted the wrong quote...

A few points and suggestions...

First: A "blueprinted action" should NEVER engage only one bolt lug, NEVER!

Second: The specifications for 300 Win Mag case overall lenth is 2.620", which is the maximum acceptable case length before you must trim, but should be the minimum length you should see marks on the case mouth. You shouldn't be marking your case mouth at 2.606" or any other measurement below 2.620".

Third: You shouldn't have gouged shoulders on your fired brass, nor the chamber marks made in the brass body!

You definitely have a severely botched "blueprint" job!

Do you have any headspace gauges for 300 Win Mag (Standard Magnum Headspace gauge set)? If you do, check the headspacing. That won't show you an issue with a messed-up chamber shoulder but, I would confirm that to start off. A messed-up shoulder is usually caused by a broken or worn, out of spec reamer.

Your gunsmith obviously did botch truing the action AND cutting the chamber, there is a good chance he botched cleaning/truing the receiver face/ threads, barrel face/threads as well...

The action may be salvageable but, I wouldn't do anything other than check the headspace, until I had the gunsmith that did the work scrutinized his job and see what he is willing to do to correct it.

If he refuses to correct his work, you need a reputable, quality gunsmith to disassemble the barreled receiver and check all barrel and action dimensions and discuss if either/or are salvageable, before you decide on any further course of action.

 

[ShtrRdy]

The OP said the rifle is accurate, despite the gloom and doom described. It would probably be fine as a hunting rifle. However, since the OP paid good money for the work it would be totally appropriate to see if the Smith will correct the problems.

 

[Sending156s]

EDIT: Sorry guys. My phone inputted the wrong quote...

A few points and suggestions...

First: A "blueprinted action" should NEVER engage only one bolt lug, NEVER!

Second: The specifications for 300 Win Mag case overall lenth is 2.620", which is the maximum acceptable case length before you must trim, but should be the minimum length you should see marks on the case mouth. You shouldn't be marking your case mouth at 2.606" or any other measurement below 2.620".

Third: You shouldn't have gouged shoulders on your fired brass, nor the chamber marks made in the brass body!

You definitely have a severely botched "blueprint" job!

Do you have any headspace gauges for 300 Win Mag (Standard Magnum Headspace gauge set)? If you do, check the headspacing. That won't show you an issue with a messed-up chamber shoulder but, I would confirm that to start off. A messed-up shoulder is usually caused by a broken or worn, out of spec reamer.

Your gunsmith obviously did botch truing the action AND cutting the chamber, there is a good chance he botched cleaning/truing the receiver face/ threads, barrel face/threads as well...

The action may be salvageable but, I wouldn't do anything other than check the headspace, until I had the gunsmith that did the work scrutinized his job and see what he is willing to do to correct it.

If he refuses to correct his work, you need a reputable, quality gunsmith to disassemble the barreled receiver and check all barrel and action dimensions and discuss if either/or are salvageable, before you decide on any further course of action.

SMK, thank you very much for the input. I didn't know until the end of job that the gunsmith was working with severe pain from an auto accident. He had surgery Thursday to fuse some vertebrae in neck. It was also the 1st cerakote job that the applicator did.
I contacted his shop. They promised to make it right when he got well. The thing that makes me not optimistic is he shot it and sent it that way.
The FFL he shipped to is a family run business that are all friends of mine and my wife's. There were 5 of us there that opened & checked out the gun. None of us could believe it would be shipped that way.
I'm torn between waiting for him to heal & see if it is repaired or trying to find someone to fix it now. Hoping to hunt with it this fall.
1st custom i've ever had built & was expecting something very special.

 

[SMK1000plus]

Unfortunately you paid for a blueprinted action, and that surely isn't what you got! I must also mention that, although it may seem fairly accurate to you now, there is no way that in its present condition, your action is capitalizing on the full accuracy potential of your Bartlein barrel.

Were it my rifle, I would pull the barrel and send it along with another donor/new action to a different gunsmithing outfit. Have them properly blueprint your donor/new action, do the necessary corrections to the barrel and then install it for me.

You may even install the barrel on a custom action. Bugholes.com (Southern Precision Rifles) sells some of their high quality custom actions, for the same money or less, than buying a action or donor rifle and having it blueprinted. You'll also end up with some neat upgrades like, one piece bolt, side bolt release, pinned 20 MOA rail, M16 style extractor, etc. all for a cost equal to the cost of a new action and blueprint job. Bugholes does great work but, there are plenty of other great gunsmiths as well.

You can, at some later point, send the messed-up action back to the gunsmith that botched it and let him blueprint it properly, if he can AND if he will...

 

[SMK1000plus]

Your first custom very well should have been very special.

I doubt that I will ever go with a blueprinted factory action, except maybe a CRF Winchester. Every major CUSTOM action manufacturer out there today, produces a "blueprinted" action, right from the get-go. Some can be had for as little as $850, with a long list of upgraded features. Seems pointless not to use one, if you really consider all the cost associated with using a mass produced, factory action.

How much did you spend to buy a factory action? How much was the blueprinting job?

Even if I shoot a barrel out and weren't doing the rebarreling myself, I would only hand-lap the lugs, and then send the action off to have it rebarreled.