Badger action ?

[264shooter]

Hi,

I am trying to educate myself on the Badger M2008 action.

I see references made to a Gen 1 and a Gen 2.

What are the differences between them.

Experiences....... pro's and con's.

Thanks for the help

 

[JRose]

Re: Badger action ?

I have one of the Gen 1's and 2's. Can't exactly remember the differences, nothing revolutionary, a different bolt release, and the threads are a little different.

Only con I see is not being able to interchange barrels between the two if you were doing a switch barrel, but that doesn't concern me on mine.

 

[salmonaxe]

Re: Badger action ?

I have both generations. The newer generation is better, except it has a really heavy bolt lift.

I really like a bunch of the aspects of these actions. I was able to basically have a smith turn barrels for me without having the action on hand. But when the different generation came out, that barrel spec changed. It's kinda a bummer.

Besides the bolt lift my other major concern is with the setscrew that retains the firing pin. (More so it keeps the firing pin protrusion set and doesn't allow the pin to rotate on being cocked.) My issue is that the setscrew head is so small and on both my actions I've had to use a large amount of lock tight to keep the screw from spinning. Also more torque than the head can take.

On my Gen 1 action that setscrew is rounded out and will not accept a hex. It functions, but if anything goes wrong I'm not sure how I will remove it. Personally I wish that setscrew was torx instead. Also it would have been nice if it was bigger. Also, I'm pretty sure it's a cupped end setscrew, even though the engagement surface of the firing pin is v shaped. (Would be better if it was fully pointed.)

Oh yeah, when the setscrew isn't fully engaged, it allows the firing pin a tad bit of radial motion. This for me translated to a heavier bolt lift (Binding feeling) and inconsistent ignition.

Also the earlier Gen 1's had issues with light firing pin springs which lead to inconsistent ignition. I think this also attributed to my primer blanking on the 6.5x47L cartridge. (High pressure small rifle primer, larger primer pin and hole in bolt face without enough spring tension to keep the primer(under pressure) from pressing the firing pin back inside the bolt.)

I got little round disks of primer in my bolt.

I have loads more info, but I don't really have time currently to go over all the details.

 

[RADcustom]

Re: Badger action ?

The story Marty gave me was, the gen 1 actions were made with no intentions of doing a long action. After enough requests, a long action was done and some design changes had to be made.

Instead of making parts for both actions, the short action was redesigned to use the same parts as the long action.

Besides the bolt parts, the bolt stop and the barrel thread tenon length are the other differences.

Badger will upgrade the gen 1 bolts to accept the newer parts at no charge.

 

[Deisel]

Re: Badger action ?

I have a Gen 1 action and have been very happy with it, zero problems. I have shot it in 2 comps and put about 500 rounds though it. I did send it in for the free upgrade. Badger sent the action back to me via overnight shipping and included a $10 bill to cover my shipping costs. You can't get better service than that. I would not hesitate to buy another Badger action.

 

[Moof]

Re: Badger action ?

I hate my HEAVY bolt lift on mine but thats ALL. Everything else is top notch and if your wantin a tank look no more.

 

[salmonaxe]

Re: Badger action ?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: deisel</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have a Gen 1 action and have been very happy with it, zero problems. I have shot it in 2 comps and put about 500 rounds though it. I did send it in for the free upgrade. Badger sent the action back to me via overnight shipping and included a $10 bill to cover my shipping costs. You can't get better service than that. I would not hesitate to buy another Badger action. </div></div>

When you got it back how was the bolt lift?

 

[Deisel]

Re: Badger action ?

I did not notice any change in the bolt lift. I have no problems with the bolt lift. I also have an AI AWSM and the bolt lift seems the same as the Badger to me. I certainly wouldn't call it heavy, just seems normal.

 

[strictlyRUM]

Re: Badger action ?

The heavy bolt lift is from a heavier spring. The gen 1 had alot of fail to fires. They went to a remmy spec spring which is much heavier or at least doesnt fade like the ones they were using. As well as the side bolt release change. Its hard to get around a heavy bolt lift when you only have 60 degrees to load the spring from cocking. People scream for 60 degree but dont realize it usually means heavier bolt lift. Unless you go to a non conventional spring set up. That equals higher price for R and D.

Jason

 

[salmonaxe]

Re: Badger action ?

From my understanding, the original gen 1's did have a bad batch of springs. According to marty, he said they were supposed to be Rem 700 springs from the get go. He told me they were having a hard time tracking down some Remington factory springs for the first run, so he went to another aftermarket companies spring. (Which then took on a set.) The biggest thing they did from the gen 1 to the gen 2 is make the cocking piece drop farther. This made the cocking piece cutout on the bolt and the ramp that it cams up on more steep. This results in less of a mechanical advantage than the previous cutout and a heavier bolt lift.

My question was because I could have sworn that Marty told me when I bought the gen 2 that it had a Wolf extra power spring in it. I'm thinking he didn't want any failures and was was willing to sacrifice the bolt lift for it. The combo of both extra compression a farther distance of travel and the extra power spring definitely would make ignition reliable. I was wondering if they decided it maybe was overkill and just dropped standard power 700 firing pin springs in them now. (Of course I could also be mistaken about the wolf spring.)

I do think that the heavier bolt lift from a 60 degree unlocking bolt isn't all it's cracked up to be. I do however really like how I don't even come close to whacking my hand on a scope with the 60 degrees of lift.

Because of the bolt lift I've been hemming and hawing about sending my old bolt in for the upgrade. Right now it's pretty darn nice. I've been wanting to change the spring out on it to a standard 700 spring and see how it runs. But the dang setscrew head rounded out on me and I can't remove it.

Actually, Jason, do you know the size and thread pitch of that screw? Any ideas on how to remove it?

 

[strictlyRUM]

Re: Badger action ?

Drill it out. I am not sure of size and pitch. I dont like them things in my shop anymore! LOL just kidding. We can ask Adam B or Robert Snyder for size and pitch.

Jason

Added..... I like the 60 degree also. I dont mind running the bolt on them. It may take some soft guys a bit to get used to but it doesnt make me turn away. I would like just three lugs and get rid of the six and maybe one of those recoil lugs?

 

[GasLight]

Re: Badger action ?

Salmonaxe, if the screw is basically rounded to the point it is useless now anyway, I would just take a torx bit that is slightly too large and tap it into the screw head, then you should be able to remove it. It will mar up the head a bit so you will have to get another one to replace it, but I would guess that wouldn't be too hard from either the hardware store or from Marty.

DD