Thread: Savage Axis issues

I have been given a rifle for the second time that I have found no issues with however fella was complaining about weak primer strike and failures to fire with hornady factory ammo.
Rifle has maybe fired 20 rnds from new.

I ran my own loads thru this rifle and they all went off with decent primer strike.
I have this second time stripped the bolt and checked everything was within spec including FP protrusion. All springs and part were in mint order. Only thing I found was the firing pin housing was exceptionally dirty.
Cleaned that and reassembled and I fired 10 rounds today without issue. He was having failures to fire every second round.
Haven't tested his ammo. However I all I can come up with is some factory rounds will have an issue in this model rifle due to tolerance/headspace etc.
Anyone else with this model have similar issues? Rifle is a .223

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I have one in 223 also.
Fired factory ammo, and latterly my reloads fine
Never had a problem.
Might be his batch of ammo ?

I had no problems with the one I had. Everything that was used, fired. Normally a small group to boot

The hornady does have hard primers, I got a bit of bulk fmj cheap and it wont fire in a mates norinco, other ammo has light strikes but fires all the same.
Another possibility is the punter is not fully closing the bolt before fireing, this can rob enough energy from the spring as it has to close the bolt fully when fired and will cause light strikes.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

The hornady does have hard primers, I got a bit of bulk fmj cheap and it wont fire in a mates norinco, other ammo has light strikes but fires all the same.
Another possibility is the punter is not fully closing the bolt before fireing, this can rob enough energy from the spring as it has to close the bolt fully when fired and will cause light strikes.

I am actually thinking a bit of user error as well. My reloads are FL resized on newish brass with cci primers. Nothing special.

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A combo of hard primers, not closing the bolt properly, dirty nasty Axisness, and a soft shoulder?

Originally Posted by Tommy

A combo of hard primers, not closing the bolt properly, dirty nasty Axisness, and a soft shoulder?

Soft shoulder?

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my zastava did it at times from new....the norinco loads had hard primers and I wasnt relaxing cocking piece when bolt was out of rifle...once I started relaxing it...turning the end of bolt so fireing pin stuck out...have never had issue since...probably 3-5 misfires in 20 years.

I had some Chinese 223 FMJ ammo that would only fire half the time in my sako 223. Commercial hunting ammo gave no grief.

Which Hornady factory ammo were you using?

I was using the 223 Hornady Frontier 55gr SP. Had the exact issues, was a Marlin X7.

Originally Posted by Synthetic

Which Hornady factory ammo were you using?

I was using the 223 Hornady Frontier 55gr SP. Had the exact issues, was a Marlin X7.

I haven't had an issue. He has with Hornady GMX 55gr.
I had a heap of the Hornady 55sp factory ammo and thought I only gave some of it away a month or so ago so couldn't test it.
Primer strikes were uniform and hard on all ammo I have used. So without blowing 50 bucks worth of ammo I can't find a problem with it. Especially if he was having issues every couple of rounds. Has to be ammo he's using or operator error with not fully closing bolt. He is an experienced shooter so I doubt that he is not closing the bolt but I have seen worse silly mistakes from experienced guys including myself

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One way to test to see if the ammunition you are using is undersize for your chamber is to put a piece of sellotape or electrical tape ( electrical tape is a little excessive) on the base, ideally a sized case , and see if you can close the bolt . Ideally the bolt should not close but if it does keep putting it on till it wont and measure .005" + is excessive .

How awesome is the knowledge base on here !! Ask a question and get several possible answers. Never ceases to amaze me

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Maybe he’s not pulling the trigger every time


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