A friend of mine called me having trouble with his Savage bolt action 7 mag. Seems that the last time his son shot it they had a real hard time getting the bolt open, and a stuck firing pin too. He took it to a "smith" who put a "no go" guage in it and it went. The "smith" said he could fix it for upwards of $400. I thought that was steep as you can buy the barrel wrench, new barrel and guages for $200 then sell the guages and wrench.
My question is do we go to that step or when headspace goes in these Savages is it a barrel problem or is it a reciever problem usually?
I'm shocked that this happened as the rifle has only seen factory loads and some of my loads that are well under max by 200 fps and no signs of pressure at all, and I'll bet it hasn't had 500 rounds through the gun maybe even half that.
Is this a common Savage problem?

If it just a standard Savage 10, 110 or one of the many variants it would be a very simple matter to correct headspace on that rifle. Those one us who commonly play with Savage rifles and do our own re-barrels do it all the time. Could be that someone did their own re-barrel, incorrectly.
A complete re-barrel from start to finish takes about ten minutes the first time you do one. After that is gets easier....for $400 ...thats a pretty good rate.

Where on the eastern plains ?

Thanks for the info. The rifle was bought new so I know it isn't a rebarrel issue someone passed on.
10 minutes work for $200 profit doesn't sound like a good price to me, I'm a Master Electrician and I don't get to charge that kind of rate!
I am leaning towards doing it myself.

I'm no expert on the situation and have only read about headspacing savage bolt action barrels, but I thought the beauty of the savage set up was that headspace was controled with the barrel nut. Why would you need to even change the barrel? Wouldn't you just need to screw the barrel in further and then lock it down with the nut?? Or is there something I'm missing here? If that's the case is it possible that somehow the barrel has loosened over the coarse of firing?

The best place for Savage info is at Savageshooters.com. They have an article, with pictures, about swaping barrels and setting headspace. Sharpshooter Supply charges $50 to install barrel and set headspace, if that gives you an idea of how long it takes. Here is a link to the barrel swap article at Savageshooters. Their forum is great, but it has been down for a couple of days. I have 4 Savage bolt action pistols, with one being a switch barrel, going back and forth between .243 and 22-250.

I almost forgot. Midway has their barrel wrench on sale this month for $19.99.
Link to barrel wrench.

Barrel Swap Link

Nashcat

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
A friend of mine called me having trouble with his Savage bolt action 7 mag. Seems that the last time his son shot it they had a real hard time getting the bolt open, and a stuck firing pin too. He took it to a "smith" who put a "no go" guage in it and it went. The "smith" said he could fix it for upwards of $400. I thought that was steep as you can buy the barrel wrench, new barrel and guages for $200 then sell the guages and wrench.
My question is do we go to that step or when headspace goes in these Savages is it a barrel problem or is it a reciever problem usually?
I'm shocked that this happened as the rifle has only seen factory loads and some of my loads that are well under max by 200 fps and no signs of pressure at all, and I'll bet it hasn't had 500 rounds through the gun maybe even half that.
Is this a common Savage problem?

Correcting the headspace is a 10 minute job which includes removing the stock. I'm curious as to what caused the bolt and firing pin to stick. Was it one of your rounds that caused the bolt to stick?

I understand that washers soldered to the barrel face can be used to correct headspace!



Sorry, just couldn’t resist that one.

Here's the technical answer.

Take the barreled action out of the stock and remove the scope.

Mount the barrel in a padded vice (hardwood blocks work but a barrel vise is best).

Get the $20 Savage barrel nut wrench and put it on the barrel nut and whack it with a big mallet in the off direction, (dead blow hammer works great) while supporting the barreled action. The factory puts these on to tight all the time.

Unscrew the barrel nut about three or four turns and insert a headspace go-guage in the chamber and close the bolt.

With your bare hands tighten the barrel into the action and make sure that the go-guage compresses the ejector spring all the way. (or just remove the ejector first) You cannot tighten it to tight by hand.

This should get you a "0" headspace.

Tighten the barrel nut back down and torque it to 35 ft lbs. This will take all the slack out of the barrel-action threads and give you about .002" of headspace clearance.

Go to www.savageshooters.com and click on "Articles". Look under "Technical articles", the one on the bottom of the list tells how to swap barrels which is basically what you're doing.

I work on Savages all the time. I normally charge no more than $35.00 to adjust the headspace and testfire. I would recomend if the headspacing was being done that the lugs be lapped it. I charge $55.00 for that. One can buy an entirely new (complete) Savage bolt for $110.00

As I have not seen the gun but it does sound like excessive price for a repair on a Savage model 10 that is a $232.00 gun new at Walmart.
Longshot

Savage may fix the rifle under warrantee. Contact them Monday.

Did the bolt sticking and firing pin happen with factory loads or handloads.

I'm wondering why the headspace went excessive. I would remove the barrel and check for lug setback, something opened it up! If everything appears good, lap the lugs in and then install barrel and set headspace.

Does he shoot reloads? sounds like it. The headspace gaguges on a mag. rim shell is off the belt,and some gauges aren,t the same. I had a set of new factory(quality brand) gauges that were mis marked,talk about a head scratcher on that one. send the gun back to factory and see what they say?

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
A ... Savage bolt action 7 mag. ... had a real hard time getting the bolt open, and a stuck firing pin too. He took it to a "smith" who put a "no go" guage in it and it went. The "smith" said he could fix it for upwards of $400.

You know folks, perhaps the GunSmith saw more problems than is first apparent.

quote:

...I'm shocked that this happened as the rifle has only seen factory loads and some of my loads that are well under max by 200 fps and no signs of pressure at all...

Ah yes, using a chronograph.

Perhaps it "mislead" folks into thinking they were at a SAFE Pressure, as someone has mentioned numerous times on the Reloading Board.

Did you need a Lead Sled for it snell?

Well thanks Malm and Hot Core for your vote of confidence.
As a matter of fact I didn't chronograph the loads or use a lead sled. I could care less what a chrony says I inspect the primer and brass as well as pay attention to ease of bolt lift and a few other indicators to let me know if I've got any pressure issues. I've been loading for 31 years and have never had anything similar to this ever happen.
Frankly the two of you can kiss my ass.

To everyone else that posted I appreciate the information and opinions.

What an ASS
"well under max by 200 fps"
"I didn't chronograph the loads"
Then how the heck do you know it's 200fps under? Secondly, max is different for different guns.
"Frankly the two of you can kiss my ass."
Strikes me that Malm and Hot Core might have hit a sore spot here. In the first place they are trying to help and you solicited this help. I am now of the opinion (and I know the ahole and opinion bit) that you are looking for vindication to convince your buddy that you didn't wreck his rifle with your under max loads, not to discover the real problem.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
Well thanks Malm and Hot Core for your vote of confidence.
As a matter of fact I didn't chronograph the loads or use a lead sled. I could care less what a chrony says I inspect the primer and brass as well as pay attention to ease of bolt lift and a few other indicators to let me know if I've got any pressure issues. I've been loading for 31 years and have never had anything similar to this ever happen.
Frankly the two of you can kiss my ass.

To everyone else that posted I appreciate the information and opinions.

Listen up scum bag, I don't know you from shit. You should have posted your resume at the beginning so we could have ruled out all the possible problems that could have been caused by you. You said that other than factory ammo, all the rifle had shot were your loads. I asked if it were one of your rounds that stuck the bolt, simple question. If you would have walked into my shop, I would have asked you the same question. Now go fuck yourself.

Thaine you can kiss my ass as well.

Malm, why would I need to post my resume when asking a question? I asked about the rifle not whether or not you thought I "blew up" his gun, I personnaly shot 40 rounds of that load through his gun without a problem. HotCore accuses me of depending on a chrony and blowing up his gun and you assert that I blew it up because I didn't use one. Go fuck yourself Malm and when you do it make sure that dickhead Thaine fucks himself too.
Once again to everyone who posted with pertinant information I thank you and apologize for this outburst. Many of you posted answering my questions, and honestly if I thought I blew his gun up I'd be the first to buy him another so I don't appreciate the instant finger pointing by Malm, Hot Core and Thaine.