Savage BAS action lapping?

[Digger49er]

I just aquired one of the new Savage BAS rifles. The whole thing is covered with a rough black powder or oxice coating. The problem is that the inside of the action along the bolt races is also coated. This is causing the bolt to bind slightly if you don't pull it back dead straight. I was thinking of putting a little lapping compound on the bolt lugs to polish it up a bit. At the same time I don't want to cause any undue wear on the bolt lugs either. Has anyone got an opinion or a better idea?

 

[adam]

Being that is one of their newest flagship rifles, I would not hesitate to call savage and ask. I've talked to them on the phone before. They are nice and above all else, reasonable.

 

[Southpaw]

It could just be me, but when I not familiar with the BAS action. Checked out Savages web site and could find no such beast. A little help would be appreciate some help.


TIA

Southpaw

 

[Digger49er]

The Savage BAS is there in the "Law Enforcement" section. Here's the link.

Savage Arms Model 10FP


Thanks for the reply. I did phone Savage and explained the problem but they weren't much help. The girl on the phone talked to one of their gunsmiths and they tried a copy they had there but couldn't make the bolt bind. They did give the number of one of their servcie depots up here and told me to take it to them for a look.

The problem really isn't that serious. What needs to be done is get that oxide coating off the race way so the bolt doesn't bind.

 

[LongBomber]

How about just using some fine steel wool to polish the raceways? That way you are not removing metal or coatings on both the bolt and the raceway. Increasing the space between the two may make the bolt stickier than it already is.

Since this is a new rifle I think I would take it to a smith or savages service depot and have them take a look. Might be doing the rest of us a favor. How does this rifle shoot?

 

[Digger49er]

That's basically what I did in the end. Once I got the black oxide off the raceway it worked the way it should. As for accuracy I have no complaints at all. When I bought the rifle there was no brass available so I loaded up some once fired Federal I had laying around. The load used was a 169.5 gr Wildcat Boat-tail ( I had a couple of boxes Richard Graves sent me years ago. ) set back .003 off the lands. I went from 42grs IMR 4064 to 43.5 in 1/2 gr increments using Fed 210M primers. The 43gr load shot the best with a 3 shot group at .45 MOA. The 42gr. was the worst at .56 MOA. I didn't bother to put them over the Chrony. For a load just thrown together with what I had on hand I'm pretty happy.

I've got some Lapua brass and 168 SMK's coming any day that should really tell the story.

At present I have a Sheppard scope with Warne Maxim rings mounted that I took off one of my other rifles. There's a Nightforce 3.5 x 15 x 56 NXS & rings in the near future as well.

The rifle itself is as advertized. I have the M-4 stock on mine and it's not as flimsy as the pictures would suggest. The cheek piece does tend to move around a bit though.

BTW..........thanks for the imput. gun)