I'll try to explain this the best I can.
I bought a rifle from a member here a couple weeks ago. It's built on a Stiller Tac 30 action. The rifle/action is supposed to be relatively new with only 250 rounds fired through it, but who knows if that's actually true.
As soon as I got the rifle I noticed the action was not even close to being as smooth as my 5R. I was very dissappointed since this was a high end "custom" action. I took it home and cleaned it up (it wasn't dirty, but I cleaned it anyway) and gave it a fresh coat of lube, adequate, but not too much. It still seemed very rough and jerky compared to my other 700's. I was not impressed. Well tonight was the first time I've had a chance to really mess with the rifle since I brought it home. So, I grab 3 rounds and load them into the Badger DBM and lay down in floor and prepare to cycle the 3 rounds out from the prone firing position. Well, it wouldn't feed. I naturally thought it was a problem of the Bergers being loaded too long, but on closer inspection that wasn't the case.
Here is where I'll try to explain the best I can. I removed the magazine and attempted to cycle the action from the prone position. The problem seems to be when the bolt is cycled all the way to the back/rear it has slack/slop in it, so with your hand on the bolt knob as you begin to apply forward pressure the entire bolt cocks to the side or angles slightly downward, depending on the pressure applied, misalignes, and hangs up and will not slide forward. Well after tinkering with it for about 15 min, I found that when I cycled it back/rear, if I placed my thumb on the rear center of the bolt body, not using the actual bolt handle, it would slide forward just fine because it isn't able to misalign with my thumb applying direct centered forward pressure to finish the cycle.
Obviously when I placed the magazine back in it with rounds in it, the problem only got worse. I could still get it to cycle using my thumb on the rear of the bolt body, but if I attempted to cycle the action using the actual bolt handle/knob it would lock up tight and not budge at all. Once the bolt head gets about a half inch froward of the full open position it smoothes out and I can complete the cycle with the handle/knob. It's just that slack/slop in the very rear/full open position that causes the binding.
Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Is this normal of a new action to be sticky? Is this common with Stiller? Should I send it off? Call stiller? Obviously I can't compete with this rifle confidently with it not cycling smoothly. It really pisses me off considering the amount of money I spent on this rifle setup. It's obvious the previous owner knew about this, it's impossible to not notice it. What should I do? I'm really looking for more advice than "just call the guy you bought from". That's really not going to fix my rifle.
I bought a rifle from a member here a couple weeks ago. It's built on a Stiller Tac 30 action. The rifle/action is supposed to be relatively new with only 250 rounds fired through it, but who knows if that's actually true.
As soon as I got the rifle I noticed the action was not even close to being as smooth as my 5R. I was very dissappointed since this was a high end "custom" action. I took it home and cleaned it up (it wasn't dirty, but I cleaned it anyway) and gave it a fresh coat of lube, adequate, but not too much. It still seemed very rough and jerky compared to my other 700's. I was not impressed. Well tonight was the first time I've had a chance to really mess with the rifle since I brought it home. So, I grab 3 rounds and load them into the Badger DBM and lay down in floor and prepare to cycle the 3 rounds out from the prone firing position. Well, it wouldn't feed. I naturally thought it was a problem of the Bergers being loaded too long, but on closer inspection that wasn't the case.
Here is where I'll try to explain the best I can. I removed the magazine and attempted to cycle the action from the prone position. The problem seems to be when the bolt is cycled all the way to the back/rear it has slack/slop in it, so with your hand on the bolt knob as you begin to apply forward pressure the entire bolt cocks to the side or angles slightly downward, depending on the pressure applied, misalignes, and hangs up and will not slide forward. Well after tinkering with it for about 15 min, I found that when I cycled it back/rear, if I placed my thumb on the rear center of the bolt body, not using the actual bolt handle, it would slide forward just fine because it isn't able to misalign with my thumb applying direct centered forward pressure to finish the cycle.
Obviously when I placed the magazine back in it with rounds in it, the problem only got worse. I could still get it to cycle using my thumb on the rear of the bolt body, but if I attempted to cycle the action using the actual bolt handle/knob it would lock up tight and not budge at all. Once the bolt head gets about a half inch froward of the full open position it smoothes out and I can complete the cycle with the handle/knob. It's just that slack/slop in the very rear/full open position that causes the binding.
Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Is this normal of a new action to be sticky? Is this common with Stiller? Should I send it off? Call stiller? Obviously I can't compete with this rifle confidently with it not cycling smoothly. It really pisses me off considering the amount of money I spent on this rifle setup. It's obvious the previous owner knew about this, it's impossible to not notice it. What should I do? I'm really looking for more advice than "just call the guy you bought from". That's really not going to fix my rifle.
