Savage bolt a little sticky

[shooterpunk2]

Hey guys, I just got a Savage (Flat rear) with a ER Shaw .338-06 Barrel and BC Carbolite stock. I noticed when I chamber a round that half way down it gets a little difficult to close the bolt. Any suggestions as to why or how I could fix this? thanks guys!

 

[sniperjwt]

i got a couple questions. Has it always done it? Do you reload your own shells? May be bullet hitting lands

 

[shooterpunk2]

I just got it last night. But yes I do reload my own, but these rounds were reloaded by the gentleman that I got it from. I didn't take notice if the bullets looked like they had been pushed into the lands.

It closes easily with no round in the chamber, but I notice it feels like it rubbed against the stock maybe. When I get home tonight I'm going to take the stock off and see.

 

[sniperjwt]

if the bullets are pushing into the lands then thats what your problem most likely is although thats not really a problem. Some bullets get there best accuracy when touching the lands.

 

[geargrinder]

Sounds like the headspace could be set tight.

How does it close on a sized piece of brass?

 

[shooterpunk2]

I dont know, Im going to try that when I get home later on.

 

[HRstretch]

You might need to trim the brass or he had been neck sizing only and you need to FL size the brass.

Are these fire formed 06 cases? The body may have expanded to much if the shoulders were pushed to far back when necked up?

Load up a couple that has been fired in this chamber and FL size and trim.

 

[johnnyk]

Sounds like the brass was neck sized and the shoulder was bump back just enough to give a little resistance. JohnnyK.

 

[shooterpunk2]

I went home last night and tried working the bolt with loaded ammo, new sized brass, and shot brass and they all were sticky.

I took the barreled actio out of the stock and the bolt worked smoothly. I saw where it looked like the bolt knob was rubbing againsty the stock and I relieved it a bit and put the stock back on and it was much smoother.

It also looked like the bolt head has some abrasion marks on it too. Anyway I can smooth the inside out or fix that somehow?

 

[liltank]

Your front action screw maybe to long and causing the rubbing on your bolt head. When I did some work to my brothers rifle, that was the problem with his. When I had my 300WSM reamed it needed to go back to the Gunsmith after a little while. The chamber required some polishing and the head spacing backed off. Everything was a little too tight. It worked just fine after that until I fried the barrel. You may want to have the chamber looked at for any rough spots, or head spacing. My problem was loading neck sized only brass and ejecting spent rounds.

Tank

 

[shooterpunk2]

Well I figured it out. The front action screw was a bit too long, so I ground it down a hair and presto! Silky smooth action.

Thanks for all the input guys, I really appreciate the help.