I recently bought a Sako 85 Hunter in 338 Federal. Within the first 50 rounds I have encountered 4 separate factory cartridges where the bolt would not close down. 2 of these were with the 185-grain Barnes Triple Shock and 2 were with the 200 grain Fusion. Even after firing another round and re-trying the bad ones they still didn't work, so it wasn't some temporary jam or safety-position issue. Looking at the shells there were no obvious dents or imperfections and they did not appear to the naked eye to be any longer or fatter than others that worked. My theories are (1) that Federal is not manufacturing to precise enough specifications, (2) that the new rifle has such tight tolerances that even a very slightly out-of-spec shell will jam, or (3) some combination of (1) and (2).

Has anyone else encountered or heard of such an issue? Does it suggest any potential safety problem with the rifle? Any comments would be welcome!

I have shot 30 rounds of the 200 grain Fusion in my Tikka .338 federal without issues.

BigSky

Hard to diagnose without looking at it and taking some measurements. It is entirely possible that the Sako is chambered to minimum specs and the ammo is at the top end of SAAMI specs in some dimension. Did you see the imprint of rifling on any of the bullets themselves - that could be an indicator of a short throat and could elevate pressures.

To figure out where things are binding up, you might evenly coat one of the rounds that isn't chambering with magic marker, then see where it is being rubbed off. Otherwise you'll need some precision measuring tools or a trip to the gunsmith.

It could be 1, 2 or 3.

The .338 Federal is a necked up .308 Winchester, so a .308 Winchester headspace gauge will work. There's a good explanation of them here:
http://www.forsterproducts.com/Pages/gages.asp

The headspace gauge doesn't measure neck clearance, but the magic marker should work there. Case dimensions are here:
http://ammoguide.com/?catid=485

Bye
Jack

If this is a new gun then you might consider contacting Sako about the problem, I'd bet they will take care of it for you.

could simply be a few small burrs in the chamber. Does the chamber look absolutely smooth?

Had the same problem in my DPMS AR-15, gunsmith suggested taking a brass brush, with extension, and chucked up in cordless drill. Insert just in the chamber and spin at a moderate speed, this will smooth out any small burrs or inperfections in the chamber, yes, it did work for me.

UPDATE -- after waiting a while, I finally got around to sending in the non-chambering bullets to ATK/Federal. They replied by letter with a profuse apology about this problem not being up to their standards and sent me two CASES of replacements (210 grain) for my troubles with 8 bullets. Have not had any further chambering problems, and I have been getting very good accuracy lately. I still don't have an answer to why this was happening, but major Kudos to Federal for stepping up to the plate to rectify the inconvenience!!

Jimbocious, I built a 308 Norma Mag and test fired it Saturday, starting with test cases then going to new Norma loaded ammo, I cut the chamber using a 30/06 chambered barrel, the advantage, my reamer, cases, dies, micrometers and rifle, I measure the cases before I started, did not fire all of the Norma factory cartridges, when I got home, I compared fired with unfired for difference in dimensions, the 308 Norma loads caused the case to expand .005 and the primers indicated the limit had been reached (could be a tight barrel), when comparing the fired cases with the 7 Remington and the 300 Win mag (Model 70, got it back from Winchester over a year ago, it is going to work this time) fired cases, the expansion was the same, If I had not saved a few unfired cartridges or measured the cases before I went to the range, there would be no way I would know what effect the loads had on the cases, and if one or two cases would not chamber, I would be able to to measure and compare, with reloads it is possable to bulge the case at the shoulder when seating, the case is not supported, and the mouth of the case can rollover on one side. It is good they took care of the problem, the scary part, resistance to chambering is an indication of a problem, not using excessive force was the correct thing to do.

F. Guffey

I have shot 30 rounds of the 200 grain Fusion in my Tikka .338 federal without issues.

BigSky
wanna sell me the brass?