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so ive had this savage 110e 30-06 rifle in my closet for a couple months now and i got it from a guy in this forum. i took it out for the first time today with some cheap russian rounds from aloha surplus. they are Barnaul Ammunition brand, "Hunting Rifle Ammunition" steel cased FMJ. i thought for $11.00 a box, i cant go wrong; this is where i hope i am wrong.

so the bolt on the rifle is great without any of the rounds chambered but when i load one up, its a bit stiff loading the round and difficult to open the action up; with or without firing. about half od the empty cartridges got stuck in the chamber and i had to use my cleaning rod to tap it out. none were difficult to tap or of the chamber with the rod, it just needed a little touch.

could this just be a problem with the ammo or am i looking at a serious issue with the rifle?
 
so ive had this savage 110e 30-06 rifle in my closet for a couple months now and i got it from a guy in this forum. i took it out for the first time today with some cheap russian rounds from aloha surplus. they are Barnaul Ammunition brand, "Hunting Rifle Ammunition" steel cased FMJ. i thought for $11.00 a box, i cant go wrong; this is where i hope i am wrong.

so the bolt on the rifle is great without any of the rounds chambered but when i load one up, its a bit stiff loading the round and difficult to open the action up; with or without firing. about half od the empty cartridges got stuck in the chamber and i had to use my cleaning rod to tap it out. none were difficult to tap or of the chamber with the rod, it just needed a little touch.

could this just be a problem with the ammo or am i looking at a serious issue with the rifle?

Did the guy you bought it from fire it? Honestly it could be either. I bought a Stevens 200 and the 3rd round shot out of it showed signs of over pressure. The bolt was almost impossible to open and the case wouldn't extract. Turns out the gun has a tight chamber to begin with and there was dirt in it, add a hot .22-250 loaded from Hornady and it was too much. I got it all apart and cleaned it, then called Hornady. They had me send the box of ammo back, then tested it and measured the spent cases. Called me a few days later and said everything with the ammo was okay and sent out two boxes of ammo for my trouble, even though it wasn't their fault.

Check the chamber for dirt and definitely try some quality ammo out of it. If the chamber is fubar'ed you can have a smith try and re-ream it or a do a barrel swap (super easy with the right tools). Or, sell it to me, I need that action to build a .35 Whelen.
 
Isn't that stuff lacquered? I'd say clean your rifle, and then get some polymer coated steel or brass cased ammo.

I have debated trying to strip the lacquer off cheap russian ammo I have to fit some tighter chambered guns but never tried it yet - you could do so at your own risk ;)
 
wolverines.jpg

Lacquerines!

Heh. Lacquer coated cases are almost extinct now for some reason. Lacquer protects the case much better from corrosion than the polymer coating.
 
Yep check the chamber, use a bore brush and solvent anyhow just to make sure its clean.

Dont use steel cased ammo in bolt rifles, allot of them will do this!

Dont hesitate to ask questions!!
 
im sure the rifle has been fired by previous owners. the guy i got it from did fire it and told me that the rail would dent the casings when you open the bolt. seems to me an honest statement and he said he had only used brass in it. i havent used any other ammo in it yet. ill look around for some budget priced brass cased ammo to try it out but it will probably be another month before i can rationally justify it in my budget. it was pretty clear right away when i loaded it that something wasnt right. the chamber is clean and doesnt show any damage, other than a little wear. i tried to date the rifle and i came up with 2 likely years it was made but seems more likely to be from the 70s. this is not a new rifle and if it is the cause i think that it would be repairable; my thinking is it may just be the steel casing. i really hope so anyway.

it did have lacquer on the rounds though. i chipped it off of the area it was at to see if that was the difference on a couple rounds but it wasnt the problem. its was only a small strip where the bullet met the casing.
 
First no FMJ is hunting ammo in Oregon since you can't hunt (big game anyway) with a FMJ bullet.

Second crap ammo is crap ammo.

Savage bolt action rifles were not designed to use steel cases ammo. Steel cased ammo is designed for military type rifles with big chambers not hunting rifles with tight precession chambers meant to be very accurate.
 
yea, i know that i cant use it for anything other than targets here. i saw it as cheap range ammo when i bought it. thats why i went ahead and fired what i had. the box says "Hunting Rifle Ammunition", i was trying to be as specific as possible when saying what i had bought.
 
Just clean it up, pay special attention to the chamber and clean the bolt well. Then get rid of the steel case ammo. You have a good rifle and it should perform well. I had the exact same rifle and it was rock solid and an accurate shooter.

You should be able to find brass cased ammo for under twenty bucks a box. Do yourself a favor and try some, you'll like the results. :s0155:
 
Yep you should seriously clean the chamber before firing again. Use a metal chamber brush, use brake fluid or lighter fluid to clean the chamber as it might be gunked-up with plastic or carbon, acetone, gasoline what ever is handy. scrub the heck out of it followed by boiling water to flush it clean (use a tea kettle) followed by a spritz of WD-40 and a wipe down of the chamber/bore with a clean patch to stop rust
 
If you want cheap 30-06..........

Well, CMP has surplus HXP, non-corrosive, 150 gr FMJ, brass cased ammo. A can of 200 rounds will set you back just a little over $100 with shipping. It was made for the M1 Garand but should work with your rifle.

Sales - Ammunition

And, if it doesn't.........you could always sell off the rest.

Yup, Russian steel cased ammo in a hunting bolt action rifle is NOT what I'd be shooting.;)

Aloha, Mark

PS.....full disclosure.....my son used some HXP in his Rem 700 and it was difficult to extract some cases. But, I re-loaded the brass and sized the brass to the lower end of the acceptable spectrum and the ammo worked fine after that. I suspect that the Rem's chamber was tight from the factory vs. my military M1.
 
Yeah, steel cases are always a bad choice in a tight tolerance gun. I'll run them in ak's and the like, but I'm still wary. Lesson learned and it didn't even hurt the gun, so that's a win. Good job asking too, not just figuring it out on your own and possibly hurting yourself/your gun.
 
I have 10 rounds of Remington (160 grain i think) factory ammo i will give you. Hopefully it will solve the mystery.

I work right down the street from Aloha Surplus, so if your interested, PM me and we can work out the details.

Lefty.
 
I have 10 rounds of Remington (160 grain i think) factory ammo i will give you. Hopefully it will solve the mystery.

I work right down the street from Aloha Surplus, so if your interested, PM me and we can work out the details.

Lefty.

actually it would be just as helpful if you were to just bring a single round, that way i can see how it loads. i wont need to see what it's like to fire, just if it loads and unloads smoothly. i certainly appreciate the generosity though.
 
actually it would be just as helpful if you were to just bring a single round, that way i can see how it loads. i wont need to see what it's like to fire, just if it loads and unloads smoothly. i certainly appreciate the generosity though.

I have 3 different brands. Remington, Federal and Hornady. I'll throw them in my truck tonight. Let me know when you have time to meet me. Like i said i work in Beaverton M-F 07:30 to 16:00.

Lefty.
 

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