I recently purchased a 1989 sporter model. When I got it the rifle looked like you had just taken it out of the box. There wasn’t a blemish on it. So when I stripped it down to do some trigger work and dremmel out the bolt release to make it an automatic release, I was surprised to see that the bolt was pitted badly.
I had tested fired about 50 rounds through it before I took it apart to make sure it functioned properly. It seemed to function fine that day. I had it out at a distance shoot a few weeks later and forgot my mags so Suprtek from INGO loaned me three 25 round mags already loaded. I had multiple failures to fire, failure to feed and stove pipes. I would say about 8 to 10 out of the 75 rounds I shot that day. I asked Supertek what kind of ammo he had loaded in his mags and it was federal bulk pack, same as what I usually use.
So a few days later I took the rifle out and shot 25 rounds of Federal Bulk pack, I had 3 FTF. They had good clean strikes, but did not fire. Then I shot 50 rounds CCI mini mags and had 1 FTF. Again it appeared to be a good clean strike. I went back and shot 25 more rounds of Federal Bulk pack and had 1 more FTF. I loaded all 5 of the FTF rounds into a mag and shot them again and they all fired the second time through the gun. I didn’t have any failures to feed or stove pipes that day.
So back to the bench, actually it’s my kitchen table.
The sporter model I'm having trouble with now has tech sights and is the bottom rifle in the picture.
I tore both my rifles down so I could compare parts side by side. I didn’t find anything significant to my untrained eye. I did take a small bur off the top of the ejector. I haven’t been back out to test fire it again, but I’m hoping I can figure this problem out with some help from INGO, because I want to shoot this rifle at an Appleseed next weekend. I want to see if I can shoot a rifleman score when I can’t even see the target. I'm trusting YellowhouseJake an awful lot.
Here are some of the pictures I took while I had them tore down together.
Everything's so nice and neatly laid out.
I did notice two things on the bolt. The bolt on the bottom is from the scoped rifle and it seems to have a piece on top of the firing pin. (red circle)
The bolt on top belongs to the sporter model and where the arrow is pointing the pin seems to be out further than on the other bolt.
Another view of the difference in the pin.
While I had the sporter model tore down I decided to go ahead and float the barrel. To my delight the stock turned out to be solid walnut.
I used an 11mm socket and 150 grit sand paper. It took a while but it was worth it.
You can always tell walnut by it's pinkish color of the raw wood.
After hours of work, I wasn't so concerned about neatness any more. So much for a CDO personality. I will have to say, I had no parts left over, even with two of everything laying around.
So can anyone give me some suggestions as to what to look for? Did you see something in the pictures that I'm missing?
I’m going to go with the assumption, I still have a problem even though I haven’t test fired it again, because basically I didn’t change anything when I had it tore apart yesterday.
Thanks in advance for the advice and help that I know will be forth coming. INGO is a great place with wonderful people. I've really enjoyed the time I've spent here the last two years. Well 1 year, 10 months, 28 days and this is my 10,000 post.