jackie schmidt
New member
For those of you who have been following my on going saga with my new Rifle's sticky bolt problem, let me say that I have finally cured the problem.
As a review, I bought the Bat Chrome Moly 2-Lug R-L right eject already glued into a nice Bob Scarborough Stock at last years Nationals.
I discovered a few problems that, as a Machinist, I was able to correct these.
The one thing that I could not get a handle on was the stiff bolt lift. The main reason I wanted this action was I needed to finally go to an ejector Rifle in order to take advantage of being able to shoot fast when the opportunity presented its self.
The stiff bolt lift, even with what we consider medium loads,was aggravating to the point that having the ejector was usless.
I have been soliciting advise from others, and it seems that I am not alone. Quite a few shooters seem to be experiencing the very same problem.
Many ideas as to what could be causing the problem were presented.
I finally took a drastic step. I talked to Cecil Tucker about two weeks ago, and he told me he had the exact same problem with the same action. He finally lapped the bolt in the action, (aggresivly), and not only did it cure the sticky bolt, the Rifle shot better.
A couple of days ago I got 3 different grit levels of lapping compound. I started with 800, went to 600, then to 300. The reason you have to start light is there is so little clearance in this particular action, you can't start with anything coarser. You have to work in in in progressive steps.
It took me about 2 1/2 hours worth of lapping, but I finally worked it out to where the bolt has a little over .001 more clearance than before. I would apply the lapping compound, work the bolt back and forth untill it would close, then work the bolt handle up and down. In other words, I was lapping everything, bolt body, luggs, lead ramps, anything that touched.
And guess what. The bolt lift after each shot is now like any of my other actions. Even with the 30.5 grn load, (133), it comes up easy. And, considering some of the excellent groups I shot today, the Rifle shoots better.
What do you think I cured?? Cecil told me that he thinks Bat simply makes the bolts too tight in the action way, land the thing just binds up when fired. I honestly do not know. But what ever, lapping some clearance into the bolt to action fit cured what has been a source of aggravation.
I guess the really big question would be, "should one have to do this sort of thing in the first place on a state of the art Benchrest Action?? I am sure that the answer from many would be, "you should not be shooting in a load window where this sort of thing happens". Well, I have a two Farleys and two Stiller Diamondbacks that have never had this sort of problem. And shooting in the upper load window has more or less become the norm with todays powder-bullet-barrel combos.
I guess when it's all said and done, I am glad that the Rifle is performing as I think it should........jackie
As a review, I bought the Bat Chrome Moly 2-Lug R-L right eject already glued into a nice Bob Scarborough Stock at last years Nationals.
I discovered a few problems that, as a Machinist, I was able to correct these.
The one thing that I could not get a handle on was the stiff bolt lift. The main reason I wanted this action was I needed to finally go to an ejector Rifle in order to take advantage of being able to shoot fast when the opportunity presented its self.
The stiff bolt lift, even with what we consider medium loads,was aggravating to the point that having the ejector was usless.
I have been soliciting advise from others, and it seems that I am not alone. Quite a few shooters seem to be experiencing the very same problem.
Many ideas as to what could be causing the problem were presented.
I finally took a drastic step. I talked to Cecil Tucker about two weeks ago, and he told me he had the exact same problem with the same action. He finally lapped the bolt in the action, (aggresivly), and not only did it cure the sticky bolt, the Rifle shot better.
A couple of days ago I got 3 different grit levels of lapping compound. I started with 800, went to 600, then to 300. The reason you have to start light is there is so little clearance in this particular action, you can't start with anything coarser. You have to work in in in progressive steps.
It took me about 2 1/2 hours worth of lapping, but I finally worked it out to where the bolt has a little over .001 more clearance than before. I would apply the lapping compound, work the bolt back and forth untill it would close, then work the bolt handle up and down. In other words, I was lapping everything, bolt body, luggs, lead ramps, anything that touched.
And guess what. The bolt lift after each shot is now like any of my other actions. Even with the 30.5 grn load, (133), it comes up easy. And, considering some of the excellent groups I shot today, the Rifle shoots better.
What do you think I cured?? Cecil told me that he thinks Bat simply makes the bolts too tight in the action way, land the thing just binds up when fired. I honestly do not know. But what ever, lapping some clearance into the bolt to action fit cured what has been a source of aggravation.
I guess the really big question would be, "should one have to do this sort of thing in the first place on a state of the art Benchrest Action?? I am sure that the answer from many would be, "you should not be shooting in a load window where this sort of thing happens". Well, I have a two Farleys and two Stiller Diamondbacks that have never had this sort of problem. And shooting in the upper load window has more or less become the norm with todays powder-bullet-barrel combos.
I guess when it's all said and done, I am glad that the Rifle is performing as I think it should........jackie
