Something wrong with my barrel?

[its only light]

Hey guys having a little problem with one of my guns. The rifle is a savage 110 FCP in 338 LM. I've had it a little over a year and started out with factory ammo. I started reloading awhile back. I recently found a Hornady modified case for my oal gage after a long time waiting. I've used this too with all my other rifles which are 284, 308, 223. I've gotten pretty good with feeling the bullet touch.

Upon using the tool with my 338 it just felt weird. It felt like the bullet hit the lands on one side but not the other. Most of the time there is a pretty definite stop when it hits. With this the bullet hits something on one side then is still allowed to be pushed forward just with more resistance til finally it the resistance increases enough where it stops.

Now I've always had decent accuracy with it. Somewhere right around .75 moa. I didn't think that was horrible for a factory gun but did think it should do better. All my other savages do slightly better than that with a little tweaking. I took some handloads to the range yesterday. The loads were rl33 with 300 SMK. Charges were worked incrementally from min to just below max. The seating depth was .005 from where I first felt resistance with the gage. I payed alot if attention to what was happening and I even chambered and unchambered every round to inspect. Every bullet had scratches on about 1/4 of the circumference right where you would expect rifling to engage but never all the way around. These weren't deep gouges by any means but they were definitely caused by the chamber.

The loads basically all averaged just over an inch at 200yds. Anybody ever have anything like this? I've talked to savage and will be sending it to them. I have my theories but its tough to know without a borescope.

Just looking for comments or bs

 

[its only light]

Damn sorry that was long

 

[Rem6br]

Could be carbon build up in the throat?

 

[mao0720]

Could be that the chamber is not concentric with the bore. Happened to me with a custom 260 rem barrel I had made for an AR10. I had NO throat on one side of the chamber, just rifling that came all the way back to the case neck. The other side of the chamber had a the throat cut twice as deep into the barrel wall as it should have been.

Id have a smith check your barrel with a bore scope.

 

[firearmdoc1]

Sounds like the chamber isn't true to the bore.

 

[Pres100]

Were there any issues during the first year of factory ammo use? Did you ever experience any feeding issues or notice anything after extracting live round?
Have you checked the modified case dimensions to a fired case? My first suspicion would be the modified case.

You could also easily cast the chamber with cerrosafe if you don't have a scope to look at how your chamber was cut and measure its dimensions.

 

[its only light]

My first thought was the modified case as well. It exhibits the same thing with my handloads so I figured that ruled out the case.

I didn't have anything quite like this with factory ammo. The Hornady stuff got stuck in the chamber every shot from day one. The HSM with lapua brass and 300 SMK functioned fine. This is my same setup as far as brass and bullet but I had mine loaded a little longer than the factory ammo. I usually start just touching. Something that wasnt really a definite spot this time.

My theory is chamber runout or something if that nature. Another thought I had was maybe a burr on a land or two that sticks back. You would think if they lapped it the same direction the bullet goes a burr wouldn't survive there???

I mentioned that savage says to send it in and they will make it right if there is a problem which I truly believe there is. Is there any reason you would bring it to a gunsmith before sending it to them? Keep in mind I don't really have a regular gunsmith around here and would probably get charged just for them to look or at least I assume I would.

 

[Skunce]

Have you checked the bullet run out on your loaded ammo?

 

[Uthink Uknow]

You might also check to see how much pressure the ejector is putting on the case. It may be pushing the case out of alignment when feeding.

 

[Pres100]

Nothing wrong with sending it back in to the MFG. my only concern would be the turn around time and shipping costs. Just discuss it with them and see what they say.
A local gunsmith might be a quicker option, but most likely an inspection and repair charge.

 

[its only light]

The ejector comment above got me thinking. That would explain why even if I chamber an empty properly sized case and eject it its got a big shiny mark on the case head right about where the plunger would hit. Kinda like its protruding out when the bolt cans closed.

The only thing that wouldnt explain is why it feels the way it does when I use my oal gage. Obviously the ejector wouldn't have any influence on that. I doubt there is a carbon ring simply because Im pretty obsessive about cleaning. I clean after every range trip which in my lapuas case ends up being every 15 to 20 rounds.

 

[jsn]

Even if you don't have access to a bore scope or cerrosafe, you should still be able to see if the chamber is off center to one side by seeing where the lands start. If you can't see well enough from the end of the action with the bolt removed, a small circular mirror could be used near the end of the chamber without removing the scope. They usually sell these at gun shows around here with cheap plastic "dental picks", and they're about 1/2" in diameter with a plastic handle.

 

[its only light]

Never really thought about those. Maybe I will try to locate one and give it a try. I'd really like to see what it looks like in there.