Someone brought a Sako TRG rifle in here complaining that he cannot close the bolt on a round.

The bolt closes on an empty chamber, but not loaded.

He said he had a problem with a round getting stuck, and as he opened the bolt, the case came out, spilling powder as the bullet was stuck in the chamber.

There was powder in the action.

He cleaned it with compressed air, and git the bullet out of the barrel.

He tried shooting another round, but could not close the bolt.

He tried everything he could, no success.

He then tried chambering a fired case.

Again, the bolt won’t close!

So he brought the rifle over.

I got the bolt out, and looked into the chamber with a bore scope.

Everything was clean.

I checked the locking slots, again, they were clean!?

I picked the bolt, and looked at it.

Loo and behold!

I could clearly see the problem!

Crushed powder granules on the bolt face!

Got those out, and everything worked great!

I have never seen before!

I have. Powder granules are pretty hard. If they are on the shoulder it will make a dent in the shoulder too.
If the guy's bullet pulled out he might be seating them too far out.

Bolt face dirt is a new one on me. Thanks for the post.

Sounds like this rifle has very close tolerances (match grade) including the throat. Great for groups. Must be kept clean. I bought special shaped mops that clean the chamber and throat at the same time for mine. No more bullet gripping issues since.

A good cleaning can solve a lot of gun malfunctioning problems.

Well...stupid me. I was trying to load a 6mm Creedmoor round into my .270 Win the other day and not only did the bolt only go about 2/3 of the way forward...it jammed the stupid fat case into the chamber... Took a good whack with a rubber mallet to get it out too! LOL

That's what I get for being in a hurry to make a shot off my truck hood at a coyote...and having two of the same kind of ammo boxes in my range bag at the same time. Was paying attention to a coyote too...

Hadn't really tried that or even thought about it before but the Creedmoor case is too fat for an 06 style chamber--it won't come close to allowing a bolt to close.....good to know...

One granual of most any rifle powder is larger than the standard tolerance in a chamber. Even a sloppy chamber will not allow rounds to chamber when costed with powder grains.

quote:

Originally posted by custombolt:
Bolt face dirt is a new one on me. Thanks for the post.

Sounds like this rifle has very close tolerances (match grade) including the throat. Great for groups. Must be kept clean. I bought special shaped mops that clean the chamber and throat at the same time for mine. No more bullet gripping issues since.

Powder granules, crushed, on the bold face was my first experience too!

Thing is I get some of the most interesting things brought in here.

Sometimes it really defies comprehension how they get into these problems.

Like the man who brought his Francchi semi auto shogun.

When I got the gun out of the case, All I did scratch my head.

The bolt had an extension that goes into the pistol grip, and into a spring.

Well, in this case, the bolt extension was sticking out from the pistol grip!

It came out.

Luckily, no further damage of the shooter might have suffered.

It transpired the man was trying to load more powerful shells!

This meant, to him, more powder, and more shot.

He opened a few shells,

separated the powder, pellets and wads.

He then decided to cut the wads, and remove what looked to be almost half of it - the cushioning part - because he thought that was how to make more powerful shotgun shells.

He added more powder, and more shot, to replace the volume.

First shot he fired, the bolt end came out of the stock!

Once I was brought a Lee Enfield 303 British.

The barrel was smooth inside.

the inside diameter was close to 0.330"!

How the hell has that happened I was no able to ascertain!

Given that the bullet got stuck in the lands and then was left stuck in the barrel, i would have a good hard look at seating depth of his bullets. Use a sharpie pen, or smoke, and i expect you will see marks from the lands on the Ogive. Seat the bullets a bit deeper into the cartridge case.

I have a 223 Rem 700 and it has a very short lead and have had the same issue. One turn of the seating die depth makes a huge difference.

But yes powder grains in the action will cause issues as well.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
One granual of most any rifle powder is larger than the standard tolerance in a chamber. Even a sloppy chamber will not allow rounds to chamber when costed with powder grains.

On a full length sized piece of brass with the shoulder bumped .002 back a piece of scotch tape on the case head will be thick enough to prevent a bolt from closing!

The Lee Enfield with a smooth bore was for shooting shot. I think these rifles were issued in India prior to Gandi.Brits were concerned with being shot with 303 standard issues.