Savage Rascal problems

C

cranswick

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So I picked one up locally for my boy, he just turned 7, so it's his first real firearm. Problem is, I took him to the range today to do some shooting, and the darn thing would light strike nearly every round, and many failure to extract, brushed out the chamber, and extraction was better, but still had to pry a few out with my knife, as fully closing and locking the bolt, would sometimes still not extract the case. Mostly the light strikes were the biggest headache, sometimes every shot, or every other shot, it actually clicked more than it went bang...now I was shooting the cheap Winchester 555 value pack, I haven't tried any other ammo yet, but I was very surprised at the rate of failure...and my son wasn't too impressed either, and truth be told I was pretty choked at the fact that I bought him a brand new gun, took him to the range to fire a real gun, both for the first time, and had that much trouble with it, i kinda feel like i let him down, since it was our first time...I'm not made of money by any means, so $200 is a lot for me spend on a gun that isn't going to see a lot of daylight, and more so for one that hardly even works...anyone else experience something like this?

quick breakdown:

rifle: Savage Rascal .22

ammo: Winchester 36 grain copper plated hollow point

problems: light rim/primer strikes

additional details: could often light strike the same cartridge 2 or even 3 times, chuck it in for a 4th time and BANG! it goes...waiting for a potential hang fire every time, much time got wasted, and all in all, it was not the picture perfect first father/son range day i was hoping for :(
 
i have the same rifle, and once i got rid of the winchester crap, it worked fine, it loves the american eagle stuff, and the blue and yellow stuff, and cci and federal match, well, everything BUT winchester..
 
Using Aguila subsoniic rounds the kids and I were getting about a 1 in 5 light strike. Recocking would fire about 99% of them. Never had to pry one out. Did you clean the rifle before use?? I cleaned the crap out of mine , but I didn't pay that much attention to the bolt. From what I have read on the internet, most folks who have really cleaned up the bolt have had much better luck afterwards. I'm willing to bet that if you give that bolt a good dose of brake cleaner and then a light lubing afterwards it'll be much happier. The kids and I are going to a match tomorrow so I'll report on the light strike problems I had. One more thing, I did read somewhere that the firing pin was also responsible for extraction, so you might solve two issues at once.
 
Have thousands of rounds through ours without a hiccup. It's never been fed bulk-pack anything though. All CCI/Federal/SK. Can't honestly say we've had a FTF on any of it.

Ours always clears the round from the chamber, but rarely throws it from the gun. Accurate gun.

Try feeding it some good ammo, and if that doesn't work...return it for an exchange. They are really nice guns for kids to learn on, don't give up on it yet.
 
thanks for the replies gents, I ran a brush through it once before taking it out, looked pretty clean to the eye, I never cleaned my cooey 60 once my whole childhood, and it never malfunctioned, lol, then again it was already probably 20-30 years old...anyway, when I got home I brushed the #### out it. I will pick up some better ammo at crappy on the weekend, and try again...if no joy, she's going back to the store...

Also, one thing I did notice is that the firing pin, at least the portion of it that would strike the rim (inside the diameter of the "dish" of the bolt face), is set in a little from the rest of the piece that makes up the firing pin. didn't pay much mind to it until I started having problems, and the bluing was worn off there, but I had been shooting, so I'm not sure if it's supposed to be like that or not...
 
It happens in my son's Rascal sometimes with the cheap ammo. If you Google: Rascal firing pin, you will see many people have asked this question and some suggest that filing the firing pin to be more narrow helps.

Pic below shows the thicker stock firing pin strike and the filed pin with a narrower and deeper strike

dscn4667.jpg
 
Not so uncommon - I've had two that were light striking - ordered new springs - which were stronger than the originals and it fixed them both. One actually light-struck a couple times again lately so I should look at it again. It actually takes a decent smack to set off rimfire but they have kept the spring light - maybe to make it easier for kids to lift the bolt.
 
Those narrow hits in post #8 look what the variation of 22's around here resemble.
Never seen blunt hits as the Rascal are making.
I'd agree with filing the striker pin.
Might be a better adjustment than heavier up on the spring.
 
scout_289 said:
Closing the bolt with real gusto works for my grand boys.
Click to expand...
not sure what difference that makes, the bolt is in battery, or it's not...no?

I was shooting it too, and operating the action with some authority, and the problems remained...I'm heading to crappy tire today to get some CCI or AE
 
so, little update....picked up some CCI standard velocity at my local CT, and still having light strikes, far less than with the Winchester, and not a single failure to extract, but the gun is still not as reliable as I would like...I like the idea of filing the firing pin, but the gun is literally 3 days old...so i'll be talking to the shop I purchased it at...
 
Zedbra said:
It happens in my son's Rascal sometimes with the cheap ammo. If you Google: Rascal firing pin, you will see many people have asked this question and some suggest that filing the firing pin to be more narrow helps.

Pic below shows the thicker stock firing pin strike and the filed pin with a narrower and deeper strike

dscn4667.jpg
Click to expand...

Well after a better cleaning, the light strikes were reduced, but not eliminated. I am going to tear into the bolt and am looking for advice. Does it matter which way to drift the roll pin out? The next question, what width did you settle on?
 
Never had any failures on our pink model though it's only had about 50 down the barrel but it was all Winchester and rem golden bulk packs.

I love the peep sight on it.
 
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