Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bolt keeps jamming on Savage's new Impulse

Anyone else experiencing this? I bought a nice new Savage Arms straight-bolt, the 'Impulse,' in .300 Win Mag. With the second round fired, the bolt would allow about 1/4 inch of rearward travel (just past the unlock position) and then freeze, solid. Couldn't reseat it; couldn't extract it. After the barrel cooled down (about 20 min) the round could be ejected with some muscle. Continuing, the bolt action was very rugged and 'sticky' even though I'd thoroughly lubed the bolt and chamber, having seen this issue when dry firing beforehand. This is NOT the action that Savage shows on their promo video! It appears as though the rounds are somehow getting stuck in the chamber after firing, and the bolt design isn't strong enough to yank the brass out. This is happening in spite of a thorough cleaning with a chamber brush (which didn't produce anything noteworthy). -In one similar case I was able to cycle the bolt just fine -- but the bolt had left the brass (unnoticed) in the chamber! Stuck. -Imagine the fun when I went to chamber another round. Anyway, any advice would be welcomed!

try cleaning the chamber , if that fails you may have a rough chamber or some tool marks in there and it will need some gunsmith attention .

seems to me that action will never have the extraction power of a regular turnbolt

I see this is you first post.

WELCOME to the 'fire'.

Since you're new here I'll be nice. Good luck with your savage.


Jerry

Many years back I went down this road with a couple Savage guns.....I never bought another one. Seriously now.....trade it off for a gun that works.....you'll be ahead of the game the sooner you do this.

See, I was nicer than 'fart'dog. LOL LOL LOL

I've been thinking about that for some time. "Friend"


Jerry

“Thoroughly lubed the bolt and chamber” is likely your problem. The chamber should be clean and dry. No lubrication is necessary or desired.

+1. If that does not work send it back to Salvage. Absolutely disgraceful that a gun in that price range works that poorly.

it isn't called Savage roulette for nothing LOL

Thanks much for the insights and tips, guys. The local gunsmith tells me, "Savage is notorious for slightly over-spec-ing their chambers to ensure they are super tight. Yours sounds like it needs an aggressive buffing." Okay, will do.

FWIW . . . I would thoroughly clean and dry the chamber, and shoot it again. As Oldelkunter recommended, then send back if necessary.

If your “gunsmith” takes a Dremel to your chamber, it still doesn’t work, and you then sent it to Savage, they’re likely to ask “who worked on the chamber? Was it performed at a warranty repair station?” You won’t like the discussion after that exchange.

10-4 ^ ^ ^ ^


Jerry

If you're looking for a straight pull rifle that works, get a Blaser R8 or R93.

^^^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^^

A straight pull rifle action is mechanically DIs-advantaged with regard to leverage. You can’t cheat physics, but you can engineer around it with quality (i.e. Blaser and Swiss military rifles for example). These examples have something in common, and Savage doesn’t

The Savage isn't poorly designed. Poorly executed? Maybe. But this design they have has been around for awhile with Heym.

Agree on poorly executed. To put Savage and Heym in the same conversation is blasphemy.

Some guys from one of the NRA mags were testing one of those a couple of months ago at the range near me, a .30/06 IIRC. No issues that I saw, nor anything that compels me to want one either. The concept was long ago proven sound, so I expect you just got a Monday one. Send it back.

If you’re shooting handloads, expect some pushback, but that’s typical of most makers.

+1 No more Savage lotto for me.

I bought 2 new Savage Axis II rifles a couple years ago, and they both went back to Savage for FTF and extraction issues straight out of the box. One of them also had a terribly finished chamber that marred the heck out of brass, even after it came back. They got peddled off pretty quickly once they were in working order.

He might be able to salvage his Savage

thanks for the compliment assh0le.....welcome to my ignore list.