I picked up my full Vudoo V22 build this past Thursday from my FFL. The rifle looks absolutely amazing and the quality is impeccable, however, I'm having some major bolt cycling issues with it:
The bolt doesn't feel very smooth in the action. Almost as though the paint inside the action is too thick. I have a Volquartsen Scorpion pistol that is very smooth, and I expected the same kind of smoothness. I tried some light oil, then a lot of oil, then tried removing most of the oil, tried a bit of grease, but still the same issue with the sticky feeling. Will this get smoother over time?
Within the hour I took it to my local range to sight in the scope. I had to do a double-take when it put 10 bullets through a hole at 25 yards, and had no trouble hitting a bullseye at 200 yards. However, after about 100 rounds I started having feeding issues where the bullets would smash up inside and not enter the bore, bending the bullet in the casing, denting the bullet. I had to pull the magazine to get the bent bullet out. I put a few hundred rounds of Midas+ through it, and got the scope zeroed, but after awhile I'd have to eject the magazine each time and waste a bullet.
I took it to the range again on Friday, and put another 400 rounds through it (mainly Midas+, SK Rifle, and tried some Wolf Match Extra and X-Act). I noticed right away that the Wolf and X-Act were sized differently. The primer rim was too wide in these rounds to fit the stock Vudoo mags. However, the X-Act seemed to be more accurate downrange. I ended up sticking with Midas+ and SK Rifle Match. When I got back home, I looked in the action and noticed metal shavings everywhere in there. An examination of the bullet casings showed that the casings themselves are being scraped somehow. This could have been the reason for the bolt action not being smooth. It's basically shaving metal off the bullets and casing! I cleaned it out, put a bit of oil on the bolt, and it seemed to cycle much more smoothly once I did that.
Saturday I took it to my first ever PRS match. Throughout the match my rifle would constantly jam, I'd have to eject a bullet, or eject the entire magazine and fiddle with putting another one in. This cost me time, and I wasn't able to finish several of the stages because of this (aside from the fact that a poor functioning rifle messes with your head).
I heard there are issues with Vudoo magazines and the MPA BA Comp chassis, but I'm not noticing the mags tilting at all. I watched this video and it looks like an adjustable mag release might solve the issue, but I question whether or not this is really the issue:
The magazines seem like they are in the magwell very snug and tight with only a bit of side to side play, no forward backward play. And if there were consistent issues with the BA Comp chassis, why wouldn't Vudoo ship them with the extended mag release as standard? What I am noticing is the bolt seems sticky when cycling it right before the bullet jams. It's not perfectly smooth. I can feel the bolt dragging on something. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? I read that you can put some velcro on the mags to keep the mags from rotating, which I will try today and test it out again at the range. Any other things I can try to make this work? As is, I don't feel I can compete with this rifle (just way too many jams). Numerous people were also running Vudoos and they observed the same issues with my rifle. They tried it out, checking out the bolt, and offered some tips on the feeding issues, but advised sending the action back if these issues continue. I'm also wondering if I'm cycling the bolt incorrectly...not grabbing it at the correct position, not using enough force, or perhaps too much force.
Any advice would be much appreciated! I really love this rifle and would like to solve this!