Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Broke a Weatherby today

New production Weatherby Mark V Bronze in 6.5 RPM. Weatherby Select 140 Interlock grain factory load. This rifle has a total of six rounds thru it... First round today on a nice 8 pointer at 60 yards - devastating bullet performance. Ejected the brass without incident and attempted to slam the second cartridge home. Bolt did not want to close. Had to really slam it into battery. Deer was down for the count so no need for a follow-up shot. Attempted to eject the cartridge and bolt did not want to open. dumped the rounds from the bottom plate then had to really manhandle the bolt open. The ejector pulled the brass out dumping powder into the breech and leaving the bullet. Oh boy. Took a cleaning rod and ran it down the muzzle and a gentle tap dropped the bullet. Removed the bolt and reinserted it into the rifle and closed it to do a function check... trigger will not fire... bolt safety is in the hot position and will not toggle to safe. Dang. I am clueless on Weatherby bolts so I have an email in to customer service. I was planning on taking this rifle on a 2023 elk hunt... now i am not so sure... M700 in 280 Remington and M77 in 300 RSAUM are moving up in the batting order.

Call Weatherby Monday, Im sure they will do right by you.
Maybe blow out trigger with compressed air to see if you have powder causing some issues. It sounds like that maybe the reason your safety wont toggle.
I had a Browning Abolt that had the bolt shroud rotate after I shot a deer. No need for a follow up. Some one suggested I may have rotated it in the excitement. Did make me question its future function.

This rifle has a total of six rounds thru it...

Problem falls on you. You and the unprepared reap what they sow.

I'm sure that Ruger 77 300RSAUM is bullet proof. I'd hunt that one. Hard to f that one up. I have one just like it and would hunt the world over with it. A Weatherby made rifle, not so much...

Sounds like the guys here that have 100 rifles with Leupold scopes on top, that never get shot. What doesn't get used, never fails..

[bleep] even a Leupold would zero at 100, twist to 1000 and back again for 12 rounds 😂🤣😂

Naw, I can guarantee that’s not Tom, unlike you he’s a killin sumbitch, just doesn’t post pics, but will text em. Get back on your bench and shoot some groups, us killers don’t aren’t impressed dummy.👊🏻

sounds like if I read correctly the ammo or the chamber is not quite in spec. sounds like the bullet stuck in the lands if you had a hard time ejecting the brass and it pulled the bullet out of the brass and poured powder out the bullet is definitely stuck in the lands .. or possibly the wrong ammo.. but it would seem to be an isolated piece rather than a whole box..

I'm not sure I understand this post??

Are you saying it's Dogger's responsibility to fix a new rifle that has buggered up with only six factory rounds?

6 rounds from sight in to hunting????

Sounds like little bits of styrofoam from the box floating around in the action.

I would pull the bolt and shake out any loose powder and particles, remove the barreled action from the stock and blow out any powder and debris with air. I might also consider soaking the bolt in Coleman fuel to dissolve any old factory grease internally. The next thing I would do is check overall length of the remaining cartridges to SAAMI specs and look for bullet slippage. After cleaning the rifle and reassembling it, I would chamber a spent cartridge and check function. If everything checks out, i would try chambering a few cartridges in a safe place. Good luck!

PS: I would check the diameter of the removed stuck bullet and also check the diameter of remaining loaded bullets with a dial caliper. Anything is possible with cheap Hornady Interlocks no matter who loads them.

sounds to me like defective ammo or reloads.........not a broke rifle

Hornady Interlocks are not good bullets? First I’ve ever heard of that. I think you may be full of baloney.

Ammo mics at about 3.265 which is in SAAMI spec
First two rounds to zero...
Next three rounds fun shots, one each by my buddies...
Round six on the deer...

Weatherby Select factory loads... uber accurate btw

For your description, it sounds like a simple case of the bullet getting jammed into the rifling. With a factory rifle shooting the rifle mfgs. factory ammo, that's a pretty rare situation. But not impossible.

If you're not a gun tinkerer, you may want to talk with where you purchased it and let them take it from there.

Good shootin' -Al

Lol... Weatherby provides a plastic cartridge holder in factory box... not styrofoam

I used to work in a gunshop that was also a Weatherby authorized service center. We had to drop that part of the business because the gunsmiths literally had time for nothing else but fixing Weatherbys...and yeah, most of them were Mark Vs. Left a bad taste in my mouth, though I think Highly of the Vanguards.

Sounds like a very short chamber throat