Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing What’s wrong with this Sako L691

I recently acquired this rifle in a trade because I loved the wood. I think I have learned pretty quickly why the other guy wanted to get rid of it, and it wasn’t the reason he told me.

I have now had 2 cases get stuck in the chamber. After the first I wondered if it could have possibly been due to old / cheap ammo. However, the 2nd one occurred today and it was brand new Lapua ammo.

I have attached some photos. The cartridges were difficult to close the bolt on, and then extremely difficult to open the bolt on. The bolt operates smoothly otherwise, and has worked fine for a handful of other factory ammo loads. I’m at a loss here. The seller told me the rifle has been rebarreled, which I’m thinking could have been botched.

The Lapua case looks exactly like the 1st Remington case did with the case head sheared in one spot. After getting the stick case out I tried chambering a freshly resized / trimmed case and the neck got crushed. That 3rd picture IS NOT the Lapua case that got stuck. Pics below, help appreciated!

https://imgur.com/a/2meF9BU

Do you know who did the rebarrel?

No image.

Sounds like the chamber/barrel is not properly headspaced, or the chamber was cut with chips that left gouges in the chamber walls or both. A case head separation with factory ammo is not good, may need a barrel setback and the chamber recut with the proper headspace.

I don’t know anything about the gunsmithing work done and the seller hasn’t responded.

If you end up having a bad chamber you could look for a cartridge you could open it up to that would clean it up. Don't overlook the new Weatherby 338 RPM case. You could rebore to 338 and rechamber or rechamber to the RPM case and leave it .308.

Find someone with guages, and a bore scope. And make a chamber cast. If I can find it, I have some casting material around somewhere that I'd loan you, but it's not that expensive from Brownells. Or wasn't 40 years ago....

That second picture looks like the throat may be too short. As does your description of hard closing/opeming bolt. You might get lucky and just need it re- done with a proper reamer. As Rapier said, it might be short-chambered. Maybe the guy (former owner?) that rebarreled it did not finish chamber the new barrel, which most come short chambered requiring final finish- chambering.

But guage it first, them scope and cast if necessary. Or for peace of mind.

My guess (and it's just that) is that the chamber is not on the same axis as the receiver threads. It could be because the barrel shank/threads run out or because the chamber was cut in such a way that it is not on the same axis as the barrel shank/threads. After a case has expanded on firing, the extractor is not pulling it straight back, relative to the axis of the chamber. The firing pin dent in the primer is quite a ways off center as well. That could be an indication of such a condition.

I would attribute it to piss-poor machining practices by whomever put the new barrel on.

Yeah, a short chamber would be a real possibility. Some Prussian blue and an unfired case would be a quick, easy safe way to see if that's the case if you don't have headspace gages available.

I would be very cautious about doing a chamber cast. If the chamber is not on the same axis as the bore, you may have a serious problem getting the chamber cast out.

Unless you have the means to do the repair yourself, take it to a qualified 'smith.

The firing pin indentation is off center in the fired case pictured. Is this normal for a L691?

Good advise. Get it to a good gunsmith and have him check everything out.

My guess short chambered.

"I would be very cautious about doing a chamber cast. If the chamber is not on the same axis as the bore, you may have a serious problem getting the chamber cast out."


A hair dryer will save the day here Or a propane torch.

If I had the gun in hand, I could tell within a couple minutes. Without it, I don't have a clue. I have not seen anything in this thread that seems likely yet. The fact that it worked fine with some other factory loads confuses the issue considerably. GD

Al's advice is best.

I still think it might be short-throated/chambered - well, "necked"- tho. Brass to or slightly exceeding OAL specs could be jamming the brass at the mouth, while those a bit shorter are not. Miscut reamer? You could try some reloads with the brass cut back .005 -.010 shorter than max specs. Again, a chamber cast/go-nogo guages might tell you something before hauling it off to a gunsmith, if you have the stuff and ability.


I dunno, but it is also on my M70 fwt in 7x57. If it goes boom, loads and extracts properly, & puts bullets into a decent group, I ain't too worried about it. I've yet to duplicate the factory S&B 173 loads (MOA) with 150 handloads, but they gotta be there somewhere!

Probably get better groups if I wasn't using a snow bank on a boat trailer for rest.....

If I didn't have all these components that came with the rifle, I'd just use the S&B and be done with it. 2 other groups repeated, just not in a nice triangle.

This was with the bread-tab trick, so I know it likes free-float acceptably well.

I appreciate all the input. After functioning fine with 3 different factory loads (Federal/Hornady) I was hoping it was a weird / flukey kind of thing.

I will have to try trimming some brass to minimum length and try those out.

For a couple bucks, you can get a chamber length guage and know for sure what the chamber length is. -Al

https://www.ebay.com/itm/184658877983

Whenever a firing pin indentation on a primer is off center
it is just assumed that the chamber is off center....
Could it be the firing pin location in the bolt face?

The primer doesn't show signs of hi pressure to me.

If it was a short necked chamber,
wouldn't the round create higher pressure caused by the brass neck crimping around the bullet when the bolt is forced closed?

I would try blackening an empty resized case with a black sharpie and run it into the chamber as far as you can without caming the bolt closed.
If its a tight chamber (diameter) it should show marks on the case.
If it's short chambered (headspace) it may only leave a mark on the shoulder
If it's a short neck chamber it should not mark up the case at all

Now I gotta look at mine- fp indent is farther off than that!