Devildog Hog 6.5 Creedmoor feed problem. Ideas?

RangerGress

Private
Minuteman
Jan 22, 2025
14
10
Savannah, GA
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.

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That thing you circled is the ejector. The extractor, which grabs the case rim, is the square bit on the left. The ejector is supposed to flop around, until the bolt reaches full rearward travel, at which point a finger hits the back side of it, ejecting the case out of the gun. When a case is seated in the bolt face, the ejector should be flush or below flush with the bolt face(push it down with a punch to check this). The extractor should slide radially outward in its slot and spring back towards the center of the bolt face.

You appear to have an issue with the cartridge interfering with the chamber(chamber too small, cartridge too big, or debris in the chamber ). This could be any number of dimensions on either part. The fact that the case is sticking indicates either the bullet is jamming in the lands, or the diameter of the case above the extractor groove is too big. Take a clean new round and insert it into the chamber by hand and try and close the bolt. Now carefully remove the cartridge and look for scrapes anywhere along its shape, thats where your interference is.
 
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Ah so. There is some kind of burr in the chamber that is putting a dent in the cartridge. See pic. What would cause a burr at that location. Only thing I can think of is a barrel that was flawed from it's first day. But is there any abuse scenario that could have caused the burr? Like maybe someone banged a steel cleaning rod into the chamber? Hard to me imagine a cleaning rod would be so much harder then the barrel's steel that it could gouge it enough to make what must be a helova burr.

Should be easy to fix tho, yes? I mean like a couple gunsmith minutes with a reamer or something.

Thanks for the clarification re. the part on the bolt face that I'd circled. Talking to people that know what they are doing is always, well, a treat.
 

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Do all the bullets you've chambered have those same markings right before the case mouth?
Now that you've brought my attention to it, yes. I handloaded 3 as above, used an extra tap to get bolt to go all the way forward, then a firmer tap to get bolt rearward. Each ejected fine. No mag used. Of the 3, I found one exception that had no scratches on the bullet but there was a single deep scratch on the case mouth just rearward of the bullet.

All the brass cases showed damage to the case similar to the pic above.
 
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Ah so. There is some kind of burr in the chamber that is putting a dent in the cartridge. See pic. What would cause a burr at that location. Only thing I can think of is a barrel that was flawed from it's first day. But is there any abuse scenario that could have caused the burr? Like maybe someone banged a steel cleaning rod into the chamber? Hard to me imagine a cleaning rod would be so much harder then the barrel's steel that it could gouge it enough to make what must be a helova burr.

Should be easy to fix tho, yes? I mean like a couple gunsmith minutes with a reamer or something.

Thanks for the clarification re. the part on the bolt face that I'd circled. Talking to people that know what they are doing is always, well, a treat.
I’ll bet its debris, not a chamber defect. Wrap a patch around a large caliber bore brush and spin it in that location.
 
I’ll bet its debris, not a chamber defect. Wrap a patch around a large caliber bore brush and spin it in that location.
I cleaned the heck out of it with a chamber brush and some Hopps solvent. Did prob 100 rotations and then 50 fore/aft. Then ran some patches thru it. Patches came out dark, but nothing on them that would get one's attention. If it's debris, it's tenacious.

The above chamber cleaning effort was only minutes before the last feed tests that resulted in the pics above.
 
I cleaned the heck out of it with a chamber brush and some Hopps solvent. Did prob 100 rotations and then 50 fore/aft. Then ran some patches thru it. Patches came out dark, but nothing on them that would get one's attention. If it's debris, it's tenacious.

The above chamber cleaning effort was only minutes before the last feed tests that resulted in the pics above.
Stick a bore scope in and see, or just take it to a gunsmith.
 
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What a mess. Your bullets shouldn't look like that and your cases shouldn't either. I'd want to borescope it but assuming you dont have one of those?
I have a cheap, surprisingly functional borescope from Amazon, but I'm not good enough with it to evaluate what I'm seeing with confidence. Also, the scope is at home, and I'm at "the farm." Will be home tomorrow evening. Kinda doesn't matter what I see, I figure. I was just hoping for some insights here before the rifle goes to a smith.
 
Well, these google machines should show you the anatomy of a chamber and what it should look like through a borescope if you look a bit.

For starters, if there is something in the chamber making big ass gouges in the brass shoulders, it should be evident.

For looking at why your bullets are getting engraved, look at the freebore. These vids should help a guy learn what he's seeing.



For what to expect, your chamber is either incredibly fouled with something or it's garbage and there is minimal to no freebore. Not sure about functionality of the rest of the gun. I'd never heard of that company before but at first glance they are sending serious LARPer vibes and it turns out that matches the storyline: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/04/11/devil-dog-arms-stolen-valor/
 
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Well, these google machines should show you the anatomy of a chamber and what it should look like through a borescope if you look a bit.

For starters, if there is something in the chamber making big ass gouges in the brass shoulders, it should be evident.

For looking at why your bullets are getting engraved, look at the freebore. These vids should help a guy learn what he's seeing.



For what to expect, your chamber is either incredibly fouled with something or it's garbage and there is minimal to no freebore. Not sure about functionality of the rest of the gun. I'd never heard of that company before but at first glance they are sending serious LARPer vibes and it turns out that matches the storyline: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/04/11/devil-dog-arms-stolen-valor/

Ah. Well, that's quite unfortunate. I was a Marine as a youngster, joined the Army after college, and ultimately retired 25yrs ago. Altho I spent more time in the Army then the Marines, I was a Marine during my malleable years, so I was always a Marine underneath.

That aside, this 6.5CM is going to be a wonderful PRS rifle, I just have to work thru a few kinks.

Thanks for finding that info wind gypsy. Is good to know.