Racegunz
01-12-2022, 08:19 PM
I wanted to close this thread out with the solution I came up with. I was very reluctant to send back to savage as far as I know they do not guarantee accuracy, so maybe they would fix the light hammer strikes and I would be out shipping and insurance and a lot of time. So since I do have some gunsmithing experience (1911s mostly) I decided to deep dive this rifle and accuracy issue.
I bought the necessary tools to rechamber and if necessary to set the barrel back and headspace. I have a Grizzly gunsmith lathe and a mill and the tooling and indicators to do most of the work. I bought the following for this specific task.
.223 Wylde finish reamer
.223 Rem go and nogo headspace guages
Savage barrel nut wrench
Before I started I measured the headspace and it was in limits so that was not an issue. I bore scoped the chamber and to be honest it looked ok visually centered and uniform no chatter. My expectations were low that re-chambering would fix anything since it looked ok. I measured the bolt to breech endplay or freeplay whatever you may call it I read it should be around .006-.008 on a precision rifle. This one was .0195 so pretty sloppy (maybe contributing to the light hammer?) I actually was happy to find this as that gave me .012 to rechamber without having to set the barrel back and still be in the range for a precision fit for the bolt to breechface.
I disassembled the action from the barrel, this was a job as I did not have an action wrench and used some hardwood block and c-clamps for a barrel vise with heavy tape to protect the finish. All that said it took some work to get the barrel to break free. Once that was done I set the barrel on my lathe and measured the go gauge protrusion it was .120 on the dot the bolt face depth was around .108 with my calipers. This gave me a range I could ream the barrel at around .012 again. I decided that I would ream to .009 by checking the go gauge protrusion with my .0005 resolution dial then assemble and check everything out.
The reamer took most of the metal off the upper sidewalls and moved the depth .000 for several cycles, once I saw shavings on the shoulder and throat I knew I was close and took light passes till I hit my mark, going well I decided to continue to .010.
After reassembling I set the go gauge in the chamber and played with the action and bolt until I was sure it was a near perfect fit to the go gauge without resistance and locked it down and torqued to 35 ft lbs. The bolt closed with no resistance on the go and was not even close to closing on the no go gauge. Success!
Now for the actual test, shooting for accuracy, note this rifle had never shot a sub moa group with any ammo period. My first group at my 80 meter home range was a four shot group with the military green tip. M885 a good test of the Wylde reamer design as this ammo had shown pressure signs in the rifle before (when it would actually fire them). The first four shots (yes they all fired) were just over .500, 3 were touching and I know I pulled one of them a bit. Since I have already voided my warranty I can now freely shoot reloads without worry. My first four shot group with 23.5 grs of H335 and 68 gr hornady match bullets went again 3 in the same ragged hole basically and a "flyer" that opened the group to just over .500 again.
I think I fixed this rifle and can only assume that the chamber was the main culprit and the bolt freeplay also a contributing factor.
I bought the necessary tools to rechamber and if necessary to set the barrel back and headspace. I have a Grizzly gunsmith lathe and a mill and the tooling and indicators to do most of the work. I bought the following for this specific task.
.223 Wylde finish reamer
.223 Rem go and nogo headspace guages
Savage barrel nut wrench
Before I started I measured the headspace and it was in limits so that was not an issue. I bore scoped the chamber and to be honest it looked ok visually centered and uniform no chatter. My expectations were low that re-chambering would fix anything since it looked ok. I measured the bolt to breech endplay or freeplay whatever you may call it I read it should be around .006-.008 on a precision rifle. This one was .0195 so pretty sloppy (maybe contributing to the light hammer?) I actually was happy to find this as that gave me .012 to rechamber without having to set the barrel back and still be in the range for a precision fit for the bolt to breechface.
I disassembled the action from the barrel, this was a job as I did not have an action wrench and used some hardwood block and c-clamps for a barrel vise with heavy tape to protect the finish. All that said it took some work to get the barrel to break free. Once that was done I set the barrel on my lathe and measured the go gauge protrusion it was .120 on the dot the bolt face depth was around .108 with my calipers. This gave me a range I could ream the barrel at around .012 again. I decided that I would ream to .009 by checking the go gauge protrusion with my .0005 resolution dial then assemble and check everything out.
The reamer took most of the metal off the upper sidewalls and moved the depth .000 for several cycles, once I saw shavings on the shoulder and throat I knew I was close and took light passes till I hit my mark, going well I decided to continue to .010.
After reassembling I set the go gauge in the chamber and played with the action and bolt until I was sure it was a near perfect fit to the go gauge without resistance and locked it down and torqued to 35 ft lbs. The bolt closed with no resistance on the go and was not even close to closing on the no go gauge. Success!
Now for the actual test, shooting for accuracy, note this rifle had never shot a sub moa group with any ammo period. My first group at my 80 meter home range was a four shot group with the military green tip. M885 a good test of the Wylde reamer design as this ammo had shown pressure signs in the rifle before (when it would actually fire them). The first four shots (yes they all fired) were just over .500, 3 were touching and I know I pulled one of them a bit. Since I have already voided my warranty I can now freely shoot reloads without worry. My first four shot group with 23.5 grs of H335 and 68 gr hornady match bullets went again 3 in the same ragged hole basically and a "flyer" that opened the group to just over .500 again.
I think I fixed this rifle and can only assume that the chamber was the main culprit and the bolt freeplay also a contributing factor.