I just bought a Model 70 Super Shadow in 300 wsm. Appears almost new and hasn't been fired much.
I attempted to shoot it for the first time yesterday. After the first shot with factory ammo the bolt was hard to rotate.
After the second, it was REALLY hard to rotate. Changed ammo and bolt would not close. Cartridge would go into chamber but bolt would not rotate into locked position. Needless to say I quit at that point. Any thoughts?

Just tried to chamber a once fired piece of brass and bolt will not rotate to closed on it either.

Scratches on the brass might equal rough chamber or ramp issue. Scratches or wear marks on bolt might equal action screw or a scope base screw way too long, or the lug surface,s inside chamber are rough. Break down the bolt check cocking peice threads for rust or bad machining , look at threads inside of bolt body itself for same issue.shine a light inside of bolt and see if is clean. Check firing pin spring and retainer. Then again the bolt might be rusted all to chit inside for all ya know if you have never taken it apart. Gawd knows what a previous owner has done or not done. Sounds like something binding inside the bolt itself if their are no scratches on the bolt itself or on the brass. Jmo...... edit.........put safety into intermediate position and press in ramped shaped detent on left side of cocking peice to unscrew and disassemble bolt. If needed do some google-fu on mod 70 bolt disassembly.

New Haven WSM's have been known to have out of spec, egg shaped chambers. Your issue with once fired brass suggests that you have one of those jewels.

That was also my first thought. OP, keep us posted on what the problems is.

Talked to Winchester this morning. Since it is a "G" serial number, they will not service it or even look at it. I was told they quit doing this the first of this year. Amazing....Ruger would want it back and make it right.....and I have 3 other "G" series in the safe...
oh well, off to find a local gun smith.After I take bolt apart and clean it and the chamber real good!

Must be something new. I sent in a "G" series rifle last year to replace the bolt & they also put it in a new stock n/c. They seemed pretty willing to work on it, might wanna call back and talk to someone different.

So today I took bolt apart and cleaned and oiled it. Nothing of note inside except it was DRY.
Really cleaned barrel with emphasis on chamber area....really dirty....so I tried to load it....fired brass not
sized I bought used will not chamber...the 2 emptys from the other day will...
factory loaded rounds will chamber and the bolt can be forced down....will have to shoot it again
to find out what happens now. Will advise...but it will be a few days.
Thanks for help

Roll your once fired brass across a flat surface and see if it wobbles...

Nope, smooth roll

Couple of questions... is all the fired brass outta this gun? Factory or reloads? Reason I ask is I could not get WSM brass sized correctly. Had the ram on the shell holder. Finally noticed slop in shell holder, inserted a .007 shim under case in holder. Was able to get brass to proper shoulder size and my issues went away.

Scott I have a bag of once fired brass from a commercial source. The few I tried to chamber will not . I have 2 pieces of factory
brass from a box that I shot in the rifle. They will chamber. I have several other boxes of factory ammo and they will not chamber.
I have cleaned this sob till I am tired of the smell. It will be off to gunsmith today!
Thanks for the idea.

Gunsmith is probably a good thing. Still sounds like a chamber issue to me.. Keep us posted. Thanks..

I would make that second call to Winchester!

Yeah I did that yesterday and got the same response. Told me to send it to Midwest Gun Works or something like that. When I
asked who was going to pay for that I was told I was....right. So I asked for a supervisor who just happened to be out sick. IF he calls me Monday, we'll get into it. Wish me luck.

Sure sounds like a chamber that is cut out of spec. A go/no guage set should indicate if this chamber is cut properly in short order. In any case, it sounds like a couple thousandth's deeper cut with the finish reamer and a little polishing should take care of it. IMO

Of course, this advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Bob

Bob: great minds think alike! Thank you. You and my gunsmith and I are in agreement with this....now all I have to do is convince
Winchester to stand up and be counted!
And if they don't? Well, I work for 2 gun shops, work at 6-8 gun shows a year and know a lot of other dealers who sell at those shows....guess who wouldn't be selling any more Winchesters? As an old boss once said: "It takes a lot of atta boys to make up
for one oh shxx......." this is their oh shxx moment.

Another reason not to buy a new Winchester..... Being made in Portugal, kind of did it for me though...

Like I've been saying: "Sounds like a chamber issue"...

The last years of production at the New Haven Winchester factory are well known for exhibiting very poor finishing and quality control. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the current Winchester company wanted nothing to do you with your rifle; from what I have seen, the Portugal/Miroku/FN/Winchester company rejects any ties to the past that can't be used for marketing.

Made in 2004

Kind of blows the "made in Portugal" crowd out of the water.

I guess I find it odd that some factory rounds did chamber and shoot and now other "new" factory rounds won't chamber at all?

Production ended at New Haven in 2006 if I recall correctly.

I'd take that classic, even with a bad chamber, WAY before I would buy a Portugese model 70.. Just sayin...

You really can't blame the current Winchester for not wanting to back previously manufactured rifles.
If you just took over a company, would want to be in the hook for all the guns built over the last 150 years.
They probably have to back everything for a certain time, unfortunately for the OP, his ran out.
I have been told, automakers have to parts support their products for a certain time.

They should back it up or change their fu cking name.... Something like Portuguese Arms or something....

Ditto...


Well, it isn't really Winchester - it's Browning Arms Co. that owns it now.. Not sure I'd blame them for not standing behind something they had nothing to do with back in those years.. (ala Dillonbuck said)




Yep - could be that... FWIW, it can also be ammo that's out of spec.. I've run into THAT a few times..

Well the only thing good I can say about Winchester is that the supervisor called back. And sung the same old broken record:
basically I am screwed. They will not stand behind any G series Model 70 and don't care if it blows up....not their fault.
So if you have one of these, pray you don't need help cause you ain't gonna get it. Screw Winchester and through my contacts
in the local gun market, this will cost them a whole lot more money than fixing this.

Thanks to all above who have offered ideas and help. I really appreciate it.

Good for you. I would phugk em as hard as I could, too. I don't care who owns the company now. It still says Winchester out front. And if you want to get the good that comes with that, well you better be willing to accept some of the bad. Otherwise, change the marquis to Browning.
Just sayin.

One thing a lot of American companies don't understand. Bad press on the internet is like nuclear waste..It NEVER goes away. Any google search on Winchester and another keyword or 2 is going to find this thread 10-15-20 years from now.

The reason Winchester will not service the "G" series rifles is that of product liability insurance issues or lack of on rifles they did not build. Savage Arms had the same policy after emerging from bankruptcy, which was any rifle with an "F" serial number prefix or earlier could not be serviced by Savage.

Doc

ASSUMING the chamber is a few thou short is there any reason you aren't just taking a couple of thou off your full length die.

color one of the bullets with a black sharpie and try chambering the round and see if bullet making contact with the rifling. If so try seating bullet deeper. Not the right answer but at least it gets you closer to figuring out the issue and your next step in fixing it. If you decide to sell it let me know 😁

The saga is complete. UPS just delivered it to me after 2 weeks at Midwest Gun Works in Mo.
They adjusted the headspace and voila! It now chambers the 200 gn. as well, obviously, as all the others.
Now to remount the scope and hit the range.
Thanks to all who offered help and ideas. This is what makes this forum great!

I had a similar issue with a similar vintage model 70 and discovered a ring-shaped part of a cartridge neck had broken off and was still sitting in the neck of the chamber. I couldn't see it until I put a scope in the barrel, but ubsequent rounds would not go into the chamber fully, held back about 1/8" by the little ring of brass sitting in the chamber neck.

Good luck with it and tell us what you find!

Justin

He already did. See the post just above yours.

I'm glad to see you got the issue resolved.