Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Need some help -7mm ABolt

Hey guys, was hoping you could help:

I have a Browning Stainless Stalker 7mm ABolt with BOSS. It's been a great gun and my go-to rifle for the past 12 years. I shoot factory loads -Fed Premium 160NAB's with much success.

Unfortunately for the past few months, after firing, the bolt will move up (unlocking the bolt), but will not slide back. I have to pound the bolt back with my fist to get it to budge. This became a slight issue as we had a bear at 15 yards that required 4 shots to finally bring down earlier this week.

Unfired rounds go in and out with no issues. I'm stumped.

Any thoughts?

I would contact Browning to see what they say. But.....

Obviously - is the rifle good and clean?

Is your ammo correct for the gun and in good condition, have you tried other ammo?

I would check the chamber for sure to make sure you dont have the body of a spent case stuck in the chamber, it's possible a case has seperated and ejected the belted part of the case with the rim so you may not have noticed, especially if you are hunting or arent collecting each spent casing. In this case, new rounds may chamber through the stuck casing body, but once they fire and expand, the are difficult to extract. It would also cause excessive pressure - possibly causing your bolt pop up. In any case, it should be easy to check the chamber before you call.

How about the bolt - has it been disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled properly? Double check proper assembly. Maybe the last time it was cleaned gunk dried inside the bolt?

I have had the same gun, but not stainless, for almost 15 years, shooting many different kinds of ammo and reloads with no problems. Please keep us informed of your results.

I had a rifle with a very small rusting in the chamber that would do the exact thing. Hot loads/mild loads/factory loads all would do the death grip in there after firing. A bit of polishing in the chamber solved it.



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Clean the chamber, check it for any burrs.

You've killed some monsters, Kirk, but that ain't gonna save you any grief on this one. A-bolts are loved on this forum about as much as a raging case of herpes.

Johnny, all kidding aside, why is that?
I don't own one and haven't shot but a couple, can't stand the looks.. but from a durability standpoint and functionally, they've always seemed good....we get virtually zero to work on in our gun repair shop...
What goes on with the A-bolts???
Ingwe

to clean chamber i have had some luck with a small piece of scotch brite pad stuck in a groove on the end of a small dowel. run in drill on med low speed with some solvent and clean/inspect..

also, fired cases have any weird marks?

woofer

How do i polish the chamber?

I've never taken apart the bolt or really done much to the rifle other than clean the barrel and remove copper fouling.

Rancho -the ABolt is a killer! Did you see Tony's bear?

Woofer, thanks for the tip on polishing the chamber. Nope, no 'odd' marks on the spent rounds. It's always shot Federals very well and i've tried other lot numbers -same result. STuck cases.

Headed out bear hunting tomorrow.

I agree polishing the chamber may clear up your problem. Take the action out of the stock and put it in a vise and remove the bolt. Put a 20gauge shotgun brush in a section of cleaning rod and put that in a drill motor. Brush out your chamber. Use some Kroil or light oil. Swab out your chamber and spray it with brake cleaner. Check and see if that cures your problem. If not, you can then wrap cleaning patches around the shotgun brush and daub JB Paste on the patches and use that to really shine your chamber. Again, finish up with Kroil, patches, and brake cleaner.

Is the ammo causing the trouble all from the same lot? Federal brass is pretty soft, and it might be that you got hold of a bad bunch of it. Try some other ammo before running off to the gunsmith, and try some Winchester or Remington.

Yeah I saw Tony's bear, good thing you were there to make it happen.

Guarantee it's some schmutz or a burr in the chamber. Look real close at the spent brass for a groove or scrape.. It doesn't take much to cause grief.