quote:

They will generally service and repair any of their firearms in a reasonable amount of time as long as they don't feel it has been worked on / modified / gunsmithed by anyone else. Once that happens you are sh!& out of luck.

I believe you and it makes sense too. Ruger has been crucified by the legal establishment.

I did sent them a 20 year old gun that I personally attacked with a hacksaw and file. I sent it back almost as joke - it was a big POS mistake. They replaced the parts and reblued the gun. No charge! Ruger service is tops in my book.

I had a "sticking" problem with my Ruger African out of the box. I discovered very quickly (from scratching on the case) that the chamber was "rough". Actually, it appeared to have a few very small protrusions (? - not sure what else to call them). My gunsmith thought they might be small particles of media that got imbedded in the chamber during the firing of the proof rounds.

I used an oversize brass cleaning brush and some 00 steel wool and cleaned it up enough in about 10 minutes that it doesn't stick or scratch the brass anymore.

Sure wish I had your rifle here to look at! Does not yet sound to me like a major mechanical problem. A major annoyance, yes!

I have had similar experiences with close-tolerance rifle actions where some kind of crud got into the cocking cam area of the bolt sleeve interfaces and/or into the sear.

I am not 100% sure what the problems were, but when I took the firing pin and its spring out of the bolt and cleaned them (and the inside of the bolt sleeve) with brake cleaner, and also hosed down the trigger/sear assembly and the inside of the rear receiver ring, then blew it all dry with compressed air, the problem would go away.

In particular, that would happen if I had spilled some powder into the action somehow.

So, think back, when you were working up your OAL for your handloads, did you ever have a too-long round cause the bullet to get stuck in the rifling, and leave it there when you opened the bolt to eject an unfired round?

With cast-bullet benchresters, that is one of the most common ways of getting a mess of powder into the action. It is common enough that at the matches I used to shoot in every month, the organizers had compressed air there for anyone who needed to clean their bolts or actions because of spilled powder.

I know it sounds silly, but a few grains of unburned powder in the wrong place(s) can cause an action to stick something awful.

My first step would be to disassemble the bolt entirely, and clean the heck out of it. Then I'd take the barreled action out of the stock and clean the heck out of the whole trigger/sear area.

Might not work, but is cheap and easy to do and might save you a WHOLE lot of unrequired anxiety....and a good rifle. At least you'd have eliminated one of the major possibilities.

A last thought. If none of those things worked, then I'd cycle the action dry for at least a few hundred reps. Sometimes there is an "edge" in the cocking process that just needs to wear in.

I know none of these sugestions involves any bright insight, but in my past experiences they have worked on occasion for me.

Good luck,

AC

Edited to add: When you clean your chamber, it is important to also clean the locking lug recesses in the action. Cleaning the chamber and or barrel often causes crud to get down into those recesses. Crud in there can interfere with the bolt opening and extraction processes.

I dwell on all this cleaning because the two stages of those "clicks" you describe is so familiar to me, accompanied by difficult opening and extraction of the bolt. In almost every instance in my guns it has meant there is dirt somewhere it should not be. The rest of the time it was a very small burr or sharp edge which needed to be worn smooth by use.

In my older Winchesters anbd Mausers, I never had to worry about it. Manufacturing tolerances in them were pretty loose. But modern actions are occasionally too precision....

OK, here's an update.
When mesuring COL, I never used a live round. just an empty case with a slit in the neck so the bullet could be pushed back easily. So, no powder spilling has happened. I've worked the bolt plenty. A few hundred times when I 1st got it + about 440 times from firing 440 rounds. About 20-40 rounds each range session.

I took the bolt apart to inspect and clean it. lots of grease in there. I got most of it out and really oiled all the internal parts well. I did notice the firing pin had pretty good rub marks only on one side of it. not sure if that means anything?

I did just realise something that seems kind of weird.

1: at home with an empty chamber, cocking the bolt from the already fired position results in 1 stage/click to lift the bolt handle all the way. Lowering the bolt handle while cocked results in 2 stages/clicks to get the handle back down. Opening the bolt handle again while it is still cocked(not fired) results in 2 stages/clicks to lift the bolt handle.

2: at the range, after firing a round, you would think it would only take 1 stage/click to lift the bolt handle from the fired position like at home. Instead it has the 2 stage/click bolt lift like it was already cocked even though I just fired a round.

I'm not sure if that means anything, but I seems weird that cocking from the fired position with an empty chamber is a one stage bolt lift, but cocking from the fired position with just fired case in the chamber is a 2 stage bolt lift. How should the bolt know whether I fired a round or pulled the trigger on an empty trigger.

I'm making another trip to the range this weekend trying the loads that didn't seam to stick last time with the chrono, so I'll post the results.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
gohip //
i have a dumb question .. what happens if you dry fire the gun? is the bolt sticky then, too?

and now we are getting some where

The bolt does not stick at all after dry firing.

I got out to the range today
300 gr Nosler partition with the following charges of W760
73 gr for 2495 fps, slightly sticky bolt
74 gr for 2512 fps, sticky bolt
75 gr for 2540 fps, sticky bolt
No flattened primers, no stamping of the head. I'm measuring a newly resized and trimmed case and comparing to the ones fired today for the following:
73 gr 0.001 case head/base expansion & 0.000 case length growth
74 gr 0.001 case head/base expansion & 0.000 case length growth
75 gr 0.001 case head/base expansion & 0.002 case length growth.

I also spun a fired case in a caliper near the base, near the shoulder and on the neck with no variation in the caliper read to indicate no type of oval shape after firing.
75 gr

Maybe it's not the gun(s). I wonder if there is some type of weird problem with your dies?

quote:

Originally posted by ChetNC:
Maybe it's not the gun(s). I wonder if there is some type of weird problem with your dies?

sorry to say, I tryed that. I have hornady dies also that don't seem to make any difference. Again thanks for trying to help. I'm wondering if this is as frustrating to you all now too, lol. I think I'm just going buy a new rifle in 375 H&H that I know will work

Three things-
Like Rob said above,check and lap the lugs.

Smooth chamber with 400 emery paper.
Drill out a case through flash hole to thread a
piece of 3/16 rod into it. Cut off neck.cut slot in case
on on one side. Put in strip of paper by folding
one end in a roll, inside case.Use a drill and polish.

Lastly. You have the right type of powder you just need
slower. Get W-780 Supreme and use more of it.

Shame you aren't close as it could be done quick.
I have polshers made up for everything.
I finish every chamber of mine that way.Ed

I'm certainly no gunsmith, but I have to agree with a couple of other posters here that you need to examine / have examined the locking lugs on the receiver. It really sounds to me like you have an issue with the bolt lugs having to move over a high spot on the receiver's lugs when opening the bolt.
As another poster indicated, what this in effect does is turn your chamber into a sizing die, as you are effectively "resizing" the brass with your chamber when you force the bolt open, due to the bolt having to move forward and press the brass (read: shoulder of cartridge case) back with the chamber's shoulder area beyond where it has expanded upon firing. This would explain the difficulty in opening the bolt even with mild loads...
I dunno, maybe I'm way off (like I said, I'm no Gunsmith), but the first thing I'd be looking at at this point is the lugs... Hope this helps, and Good luck!

I agree, it could be the lugs, I don't want to send it back to ruger because last time when I did, I sent a detailed letter asking nicely if they could look at the chamber and the bolt because I was told the problem could be with the bolt. It was much more detaled than what I'm posting. I gave them all the loads I tryed including factory ammo to show I wasn't using hot loads. they sent it back to me with a letter saying they installed a new barrel & stock, repaired the problem, did a functions test, proof test and range test. I am really just sick of messing with it. I first bought into the 375 ruger about a year ago and have spent many many many hours for a year straight just trying to get this thing to behave. I've dumped tons of money into ammo & components testing this thing. I just see it as a lost cause.
I don't even want to put any more time into it. I don't want to alter the lugs or sand the chamber because then my warranty is no good, plus after 2 different chambers, you would think one of them would work. it might be the lugs, but I just don't have the stamina to deal with this thing any more. after a year of researching and trying different things almost every weekend, send it back and forth to ruger, I'm just at my wits end.