round gouging on 308

[mooseman 0]

I've only put about 10 or so rounds through my Saiga 308 and had 2 rounds significantly gouged. I assume it's caused by the small locking lug hitting the next round in the magazine. I've heard that this would happen with some of the 308 rifles. My questions are;

 

1. is this correctable by breaking in the rifle?

 

2. I'll be doing a conversion shortly, will this solve the problem?

 

3. If not, what exactly do I need to do to make this problem go away?

 

 

Any advice is appreciated. Detailed advice even more appreciated-Tom

[rd99fxdl 17]

There have been a few 308s out that didnt have the bolt carrier finished,the back side bottom is missing a bevel.

I believe people were sending them back to RAAC for a fix.

Do a search of the site,this was answered somewhere before that I remember

[G O B 3,516]

They are know for whacking the edge of the dustcover upon ejecting. This puts a crease in the brass. Car door edging and maybe a slight enlargement of the ejection cutout in the dustcover will stop it generally.

[mooseman 0]

They are know for whacking the edge of the dustcover upon ejecting. This puts a crease in the brass. Car door edging and maybe a slight enlargement of the ejection cutout in the dustcover will stop it generally.

 

 

I've heard of that but this is a different problem. Sometimes the bolt is leaving a long, deep gash in the topmost round in the mag.

[Surly 11]

You can try to find the burr on the bolt that is causing the gash and take a file to it very lightly OR you can run some steel cased or berdan primed brass through it until it doesn't do that any longer. It should'nt cause any problems if you're reloading though.

[G O B 3,516]

That does sound like they didn't finish machineing the bottom of the bolt. They should replace this without any problem, and there were a couple threads on this a while ago.

[Dah 0]

There have been a few 308s out that didnt have the bolt carrier finished,the back side bottom is missing a bevel.

I believe people were sending them back to RAAC for a fix.

Do a search of the site,this was answered somewhere before that I remember

Could someone help to find the previous posts about this? I also ran into similar problems with my ver21's first range trip...

 

Then a local gunsmith suggested to use FMJ for the break-in, and he also helped to polish the lug on the bolt. Well now it runs smoothly on most of my mags. ----But there's still one mag that doesn't let the bolt go, when loaded.

[t165 30]

I purchased a nib Saiga 308 w/16 inch barrel approximately (1) month ago. The rifle was jamming tight. I noticed considerable gouging of the top round in the magazine. One particular steel cased cartridge (Silver Bear) was gouged so bad powder was pouring out. Steel bolt...steel cased ammo...could a spark occur and ignite the gunpowder with the cartridge out of battery? I decided to contact RAAC. I was given precise instructions how to package the rifle and send it back to the factory. RAAC even gave me a shipping number up front and they paid all S&H both ways without a penny out of my pocket. I received the rifle back within about 7 days with a extra magazine and a coupon for 20% off any Saiga accessories purchase. The rifle functions fine now after the bottom of the bolt was polished correctly. RAAC treated me very professionally. More than I can say from some domestic big name firearm manufacturers I have dealt with in the past. I'm not one to gripe about defective firearms. As long as the manufacturer stands behind their product then that is all one can ask for. I'm a local gunshop rat and have seen very expensive firearms come from the manufacturer with some amazing defects. I'm so impressed with my Saiga 308 I have another one scheduled to arrive at my local FFL from Zander's Sporting Goods we had backordered for the past 5-6 weeks.

[FederovFox 0]

Does anyone have a picture of this? I'm curious to see what exactly is causing this.

[Dah 0]

Does anyone have a picture of this? I'm curious to see what exactly is causing this.

When mine smashed the round (as shown above), I took some pictures of the bolt, especially the surface of the lug. That's how it looks then:

 

 

Now after the polishing work it runs very smooth.

[t165 30]

I'm going to travel into Vincennes and pick up my new Saiga 308 in about an hour. As RAAC has already polished the bolt on the first firearm it will not do much good to post a picture, however, if the new firearm also gouges cartridges I will take pictures of both bolts side by side so we can compare them. RAAC owned up to the fact that some 308 model guns were doing this. I know the 308 model has a third locking lug as opposed to the 223 and 7.62x39 models and it would seem reasonable this would account for the 308 models problem. As the bolt head comes out of battery it twists clockwise and what appears to be a small protrusion on the bottom of the bolt drags down the top of the cartridge in the magazine as the bolt travels backwards. It still leaves a faint drag mark on the top cartridge but due to the polishing it does not crease and rip open the cartridges any more.

[t165 30]

I hand cycled a couple of magazines full of cartridges through the new 308-1 using the 8 round magazine which came with the first firearm and the one supplied with the new 308-1. None of the cartrides showed any significant creasing or gouging. The protrusion on the bottom of the new 308-1's bolt appears to be smaller than the one on the bolt of the first firearm which caused all of the trouble. As soon as I get a chance I'll actually fire the gun to make sure it is functioning properly. Fortunately for me the gun seems to be mechanically sound. Unfortunately a side by side comparsion of a functioning bolt and a nonfunctioning bolt cannot be made.