Bought rifle used a month ago. I immed noticed feed & eject problems with several Hornady ammo types, but Hornady Match seemed to work ok. That's now changed. Hornady Match no longer feeds or ejects reliably. As you read the symptoms, keep in mind that symptoms have gotten progressively worse over the last month of prob 60rds fired. Ideas from the brain trust?
Symptoms:
1) The pic below shows the part I'm talking about. As I understand it, that bit is the (I'm making up the name) positive feed case rim grabber. To my surprise, it flops in and out of position, vs. having any spring behind it that might keep it flush with the bolt face or proud of the bolt face. Sometimes it seems to grab a rim, sometimes it stays rearward and doesn't grab the rim, sometimes it goes proud and the case sits not on the face of the bolt but on top of the forward rim grabber. Spring missing?
2) Rounds don't want to chamber all the way in. Sometimes I can see them hanging on the case rim grabber and therefore not seating back against the bolt face, but sometimes the rear of the case seems to fit against the face fine but the bolt is still reluctant to go the last little bit forward so that it can then be rotated down. To be clear, the bolt won't rotate down into place when feeing a round. Sometimes the case looks to be properly positioned under the rim grabber, sometimes it's sitting on top of the rim grabber--but either way, that bolt isn't gonna rotate.
If every round was sitting on top of the forward (proud) positioned rim grabber, that would explain ammo getting shoved too deep into the chamber, but since many of the cases don't appear to get stuck on top of a proud rim grabber, but instead the case's rim is properly seated under it, I worry that I'm looking at more than one issue.
3) Once the round is fed such that the bolt is forward, but won't rotate down, now the bolt won't go rearward w/o a gentle tap with a rubber mallet. Like maybe the rim grabber has a good grip on the round, but the round doesn't want to come out.
I called Devildog so see if they might have some insights, but they're not answering their phones nor responding to emails. They also don't make the Hog anymore.
Bolt does fine with no ammo. Symptoms same with both mags. using a chamber brush, I cleaned the heck out of the chamber area. There's no failure of the cartridge to move forward from mag to chamber, it's the last couple mm of round insertion that is the problem. Rounds eject fine, once bolt gets bonked open.
I'm thinking the rifle needs to go a smith. Be good to have some insights tho.
