Bolt stop pin failures: I’m actually not sure how much of a real, across the board issue this is/was. No issues of it have come up in the foreign military trials, I and buddies have shot 20-30 Tikkas heavily to the tune of an average of 15,000+ rounds per action with guys that run the bolt... vigorously to say the least. In all of that, one guy had two pins break on the same gun in around 5,000 rounds. A hardened pin corrected it and no problems in nearly three times the round count since have shown up. Because of those two pins EVERYONE immediately started to purposely try and break their pins in their guns. Guys running the bolt as hard as they possibly can. That lasted for a while and then everyone just gave up as no pins were breaking.
Durability evaluation: Durability in use was one of the most looked at aspects in the trials I know of with Tikka’s.
Evaluation ranking process: In context of this, there is a MRBS (mean rounds between stoppages) and MRBF (mean rounds between failures). Stoppages are malfunctions that can be solved on the spot. Failures are breakages or issues requiring an armorer/manufacturers intervention. A broken bolt stop pin would be a MRBF. In one trial from what I understand the MRBS was 2,500 rounds, and the MRBF was 10,000 rounds (might have been 7,500). Sako TRG, AI, and Tikka all passed those numbers. NO controlled round feed action, and no Remington 700 based action with R700 compatible triggers made those numbers.
I used to shoot with service rifle/Highpower shooters that put 5-10 K rds through a rifle each year. He never said all in one barrel.
PM RangerX and ask him what's the most rounds he ran through a gun in a year.
Mike
