Savage Heavy and Sloppy Bolt Manipulation

OldSavage

OldSavage

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I own a very nice and accurate Savage LPRV repeater in 22-250. I am toying with the idea of spinning on a custom barrel and using it for long range shooting. My biggest problem is the bolt manipulation. The bolt lift is extremely heavy, and the bolt has a tendency of binding if operating it quickly. This never bothering me at first, but after operating other bolt guns I no longer find this to be acceptable. I purchased a kit from the EE here that was supposed to help with bolt lift and although it did help a bit it is still too heavy and of course it didn't help with the binding.

This rifle is built on the target action, has an excellent trigger (currently at 10 oz) and would be a great platform. How do I fix this problem? Would an oversize bolt body from PTG help? Anyone out there time their action? Does it help?

I have a model 114 and the bolt manipulation on that one is way easier and no binding. What gives?
 
A heavy lift of the bolt handle is usually in direct correlation to the strength of firing pin spring ( the friction between the cocking piece & spring). A spring change/modification is required to remedy this. Be careful tho, to much of a change in this area may result in light primmer strikes though.

If binding is the problem you should see friction marks on the bolt at the offending spot. A good polishing with crocus cloth & oil should free it up
 
Proper bolt timing resolves the heavy bolt lift. There will always be some forced needed but a great improvement over factory.

Sorry, that drop in kit only address 1 of several areas causing the issue.

As for binding, that is interesting as most of the Savage actions I play with work very nicely. Maybe there is a rough spot somewhere.

Or, your bedding is off and the action is actually being bent... test: remove the central action bolt and see if the problem goes away.

The "sloppy" bolt is actually a really good thing when conditions get dirty and helps me with faster cycling.

Jerry
 
Thank you for the replies.

If I make a habit of putting downward pressure on the bolt when closing it seems to improve the binding. It feels as if the bolt raceway is much larger than bolt/bolt head and that is what is causing the binding. It becomes an issue on fast follow up shots and if I cycle the bolt slowly the problem goes away. A Remington 700 is a much smoother action but I'm not going to complain too much given the accuracy that this platform has shown.

The bolt lift is so heavy that I can actually pick the rifle up sometimes when cycling the bolt. Keep in mind that this rifle loaded has to be 15 pounds or more. My 114 in 7mm is much smoother and never binds.

I have another bolt body for this rifle and I'm going to try it tonight. Would there be any advantage to going to an oversized PTG bolt and bolt head?

With regards to the centre action bolt? Mine is a two bolt target action (repeater) in the HS Precision stock. Should I try loosing the action bolts and trying it?

I need to get out and puts some rounds down the pipe so I can justify buying my 260 Rem barrel haha
 
Take action out of the stock... test cycling - I bet problem goes away

Put back in but only use 1 action bolt and hold the rear with your hand.. bet problem is not there.

Put 2nd bolt back in, tighten up and likely it will start to bind. Proper bedding will take care of this.

proper bolt timing will make bolt lift far lighter and easier. proper bedding makes the back and forth smooth and easy.

PTG oversized bolt bodies will make this condition worst. They can work OK if all the problems are taken care of in factory format. I have the PTG on my F class rifle for bling. I will use the factory bolt body for my PRS rifle where I must run fast.

Jerry
 
This is very interesting, I have a Model 12 LRP with the same issue. The bolt is so stiff that it's hard not to trip the sear or the target trigger when closing the bolt because of the jarring action of closing the bolt. About 20% of the time I have to open the bolt and close it gently because the accutrigger sear safety had locked up. I will have to look at the action screws, but my stock has the aluminium bedding block.

Jerry: What do you mean by 'timing' the bolt? And also, should I glass bed over the aluminium bedding block?
 
I skim bedded mine (I also have the bedding block) and it didn't show any improvement in accuracy but its never a bad idea. When I had my trigger at the lowest setting I would trip it when slamming the bolt down but I had the trigger extremely light (wouldn't register on my buddies scale). I since change bolt handle, adjusted the trigger to be a bit heavier and tried to close the bolt slower. It has fixed the problem but I can still do it from time to time. I've seen a guy let a novice shoot his target rifle and it did the same thing except the rifle fired where as the accutrigger prevents this from happening. I think the accutrigger is a little more sensitive to this than the higher end target triggers so its just something you'll have to live with unless you want to pony up for something aftermarket.



plmnkoqaz said:
This is very interesting, I have a Model 12 LRP with the same issue. The bolt is so stiff that it's hard not to trip the sear or the target trigger when closing the bolt because of the jarring action of closing the bolt. About 20% of the time I have to open the bolt and close it gently because the accutrigger sear safety had locked up. I will have to look at the action screws, but my stock has the aluminium bedding block.

Jerry: What do you mean by 'timing' the bolt? And also, should I glass bed over the aluminium bedding block?
Click to expand...
 
Savage target action triggers may trip when put to the lightest setting... big reason I do not use this action for my competition rifles. If you are tripping the sear, you must increase pull weight... there is no other way with factory parts.

Rifle basix Savage2 trigger is far more stable and when set up properly, gives years of reliable use. BUT pull will never be as light as some offerings for Rem style actions. If you want 1 to 4 ozs, get a Rem or similar action and use appropriate triggers.

There is a lot of fitting of parts when bolt timing to get the cycling forces more user friendly. Unfortunately, fitting at the factory is not going to happen and with stacking of parts tolerances, you can get some real hard to cycle set ups.

But things can be greatly improved...

As for diagnosing bolt binding, take the action out of the stock and compare. If the problem goes away, the stock bedding needs to be improved. Alum bedding doesn't guarantee proper bedding...

Jerry
 
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