It’s just not my day!

Went to the gun club today to shoot the rifle a few more times. While I was driving back to post my target I acquired two flat tires. I decided to leave them for a bit and shot 3 rounds. After my third round I went to pull the bolt back and couldn’t. I could pull up on the bolt as hard as I could and it would not budge. We finally got the bolt up with a rubber mallet but cannot get the bolt to move back to eject the casing. Not even with a rubber mallet. Luckily I don’t leave until wednesday.

DT

That sucks sorry man

It can only get better right

First of all>I’m glad your alright
I believe you have a lot of check down to go through to figure this out Bolts on good rifles just don’t stick and you shouldn’t have to use a to get it back open.
This factory ammo? Reloads? Right gun? Right ammo? The list goes on…there is a reason. I hope you can figure it out and let us know as we may all learn something from this.

It’s a Savage .270wsm. I was using Winchester XP3 ammo I believe. The good news is the gun was an inch high at 100 and only a half inch to the right. It will be good to go if I can fix it. I will start the break down tommorrow.
DT

I would suspect that the ammo is from last year or older? I have seen cheaper factory loads that if not handle properly (ie getting left in a vehicle–hot cold hot cold) get a tarnish build up from condensation on them. Even the smallest amount of build up, barely visible, will cause them to stick in the gun. I would say odds are good that this is whats happened. Try NEW ammo.

Had the same thing happen on my Savage .223. I used ammo from the previous years trip to SD prarie dog shooting and the bolt would stick every time. I inspected the brass and found that it was pretty well tarnished. I switched to the new ammo I had bought for the trip and no problems. As stated above, make sure it is new ammo and you should be fine

The ammo is not the issue right now. I can’t even get the bolt to move a little to eject the casing.
DT

The ammo is the reason the bolt will not open. place the stock firmly on solid ground. Wrap a rag on the bolt and drive it down with a swift hard blow from the hammer. Then try cycling new ammo…as I said it does happen

Nope, won’t budge. It’s going back into the cabinet until I can afford to take it to a gun smith.
DT

I’m sorry to hear of the troubles. And I have to say I do not think it is the ammo. Unless that stuff had so much corrosion on it that it looked like it was wearing a green sweater I just don’t buy it. I rarely ever shoot ammo that I just bought. Heck I have a lot of ammo that was made in the mid 40’s and it shoots just fine. Normally what I’ve found to be a problem with a sticking bolt is when you have barrel lube, cosmo, or whatever people use, in the barrel. It gets super heated when the gun is fired and it basically turns into glue causing the entire mechanism to stick. Usually this will release and open after everything cools down and has a chance to relax. Have you googled “stuck bolt on Savage X” by chance? Might be a known issue that you are dealing with.

sending you a PM