I just bought a Finnlight 270 Win. I have fired about 30 rounds. I noticed today some rounds are harder to close the bolt on than others and harder to lift the bolt.There is no problem going in the chamber just closing and lifting the bolt.I am useing factory amunition and I have made sure my rifle is not on the recall list. I have tried three brands of amunition,some rounds from each are definitely haveing this problem,same ones every time.There are no marks or cut brass and I have cleaned and lightly oiled all parts.Is this something I should go to the dealer with. The bolt is not extremly hard to close but there is definitely a difference in some rounds.I am nervous after seeing the blown Finnlight but it is the beginning of deer season and I need my rifle. Please Help.

That's exactly what my Savage does when the case isn't sized enough to "bump" the shoulder back a little bit. Try adjusting your sizing die down about one-eighth to one-quarter turn.

He said factory loads, so it's not a case-sizing issue.

My Sako is not a recent one, but it does the same thing with random pieces of federal brass. They have shot fine with no signs of pressure, but I know what you mean about there being a noticable difference in the amount of pressure needed to close the bolt. I still fire the tight ones, but I set them aside to make dummy loads out of. I wish I knew exactly what caused it, but my guess is that the chamber is just a little tight. There definitely isn't a lot of slop in a Sako.

I have not experienced it with any Winchester or Remington brass. What brands did you find it doing that on? By the way, mine is in 308 Win.

amndouglas

Amndouglas,thank you for the reply.I have tried Winchester,Remington and Hornady all 130grn. I get the same results with each. I love this rifle, it shoots tighter groups than any I have ever owned.I guess I have been uneasy and a little disapointed since I saw the blown apart Finnlight pictures even though my rifle was not on the recall list. I am relieved to find out your rifle does the same thing without any problems. 308 is a great caliber and from the Sako picture under your name I know you love your rifle too. thanks again for the help.

There are only two things I know of that would make the hard insertion a problem.

1) Bullet seated into the lands. You'd know by engraving marks on the bullet when you chambered and extracted it. This could give you high pressures, but I haven't seen a factory load long enough to do this. It's still a possibility that your rifle has a very short throat.

2) The brass is too long. This is the really dangerous one because the neck of the cartridge is actually being rammed into the barrel and crimping into the bullet. Once again, I have never seen this with factory brass, and the ones I have measured have been right around the trim-to length and not even close to the max length.

For some extra peace of mind, you might want to make sure that these two things are not happening, even though they are highly unlikely. It still couldn't hurt to contact Sako and see what they have to say. I never contacted them about mine because I bought it used, and like I said, it only seemed to do it with random pieces of Federal brass. Even after full-length sizing and trimming to minimum length, I still hit random shells that would do it, which leads me to my next hypothesis.

My hypothesis is that it is the extraction groove causing the extra resistance, and it may have nothing to do with the chamber. There are always a few pieces that don't want to fit in the shell-holder on my press, so the rifle can't be too happy with them, either. I know some guys uniform the extraction groove on a lathe for exactly this reason. I'm starting to believe that this is the real reason for the extra resistance.

amndouglas

Short chambered Savage 110s are fairly common, and your rifle likely has a short chamber too. Here's what I'd do. Sort out the tight rounds and leave them at home when you go hunting. You don't want that one that won't chamber with you when you see that big buck. Get the headspace checked after deer season. As it's unlikely that 3 boxes of ammo of 3 different makes are too long, I'd strongly suspect your rifle's headspace is under minimum. If the headspace gauge says it is, Sako has a warrenty problem.

We had that problem with an old Savage 110 in .270, and solved it by a little extra resizing when we reloaded the brass.

Bye
Jack

Thank everyone for the advice. I have just tried every round of ammo I have after Jacks' advice.19 rounds of Remington seemed about the same with 1 round that the bolt would lower easily with. I found 3 rounds out of 14 easy with Winchester. 3 rounds out of 18 with Hornady were easy with one round alarmingly hard, much more than any other, to close the bolt on. All rounds went into the chamber easily before trying to close the bolt.No round even the one very hard Hornady showed any mark on bullet or brass. I am now afraid to fire any round and will take rifle and all rounds to the dealer tomorrow.

I've got a headspace gauge and a case gauge, on the remote chance that you're in my part of Saskatchewan. That will answer the question. Maximum case length of the .270 is 2.540" . I doubt if you've got 3 brands of ammo that are all over length. There's a slight chance that the neck of the chamber is short, but the odds of the factory using an out of spec reamer is much less that the odds of not running the reamer into the barrel far enough.

A case gauge can check out the ammo.

You didn't mention rifling marks on the bullets, so that should rule out a short throat. An over sized rim or undersized extractor groove, could be the problem, but in three brands at once? An undersized shellholder could give the impression that the brass has a problem. I've got 2 old RCBS #10 (.222 Remington) shellholders that are too tight. Reddings are OK for the same brass.

Yes, take it back to the dealer. Hopefully he's got a headspace gauge and a case gauge.

Bye
Jack

Sounds like a undersized chamber. Locate a machine shop and have a cartridge coated with layout dye and then chamber the cartridge. when withdrawn it should show where the case is contacting the chamber.

Lee L.

It sounded like it was a once in a while thing by your first post. That's what it is in mine, so it's a totally different problem by the sound of it. Mine is somewhere around 1 in 100 that will be a little tight, not 75%+ .

Sako should have to fix that because there's no reason for it to be happening that often.

I think you're doing the right thing by having it checked out.

amndouglas

I have seen a situation that sounds like this problem three times on Tikka rifles. It is caused by the counterbored recess on the bolt face being too close to the diameter of the rim of the case. In the ones I have seen it is not a headspace issue. To verify this, remove about .010" off the diameter of the rim of a case that is tight by spinning it in a drill and using a file or on a lathe. See if that makes the bolt close easier. I solved this problem by putting the bolt in a lathe and enlarging the counterbore diameter .010". This will allow the case to shift another .005" off center to compensate for out of round cases or whatever misalignment caused the tight condition. I don't think this is dangerous because there is still plenty of engagement on the extractor if the case is shifted .005 and if you check other brands of rifles they have much more clearance in the bolt face recess than Tikka does. This may or may not be your problem and I am only guessing that Sako has similar tight clearances.