More bad smith work from a big name gun builder

[yorketransport]

Last week I was sent a rifle to do some testing with. The original idea was for me to do the testing with my 27 Boondoogle, but since my 1-7" twist barrel is actually a 1-8" (although the barrel maker STILL refuses to admit he messed up!!!! ) the bullets don't stabilize and are already going end over end at 100 yards. The new plan was for this rifle to be shipped to me to use for the testing, specifically to test the stability of the test bullet at low (500') and high (4500') elevation. The testing was also going to be used to show the maker of my bad barrel that it was an issue with his barrel being cut with the wrong twist by showing that the same bullet fully stabilizes at a lower velocity from a proven 1-7" twist.

The rifle which was shipped to me was a 27/28 Nosler (28 Nosler necked down to 27, not a true 27 Nosler) built with a 26" X-Caliber barrel on a Rem 700 action in a McMillan Hunter stock. It was almost the exact gun I had planned for the 27 Boondoogle except I was using an ARC Nucleus action instead of the Rem 700. When I got the gun I gave it a once over to make sure everything looked good. I was sent 40 pieces of 3x fired brass and 40 bullets to test, along with the load data from the owner of the rifle. I ran the load data through QuickLoad just to fact check the data I was given and it came up as a stout load, but nothing too crazy. I backed the charge down by .5gr, other than that I matched it exactly, even using the same lot# on the powder (that was pure coincidence). This is the result after the 1st shot I fired from the rifle.





What we have hear, is a pierced primer which sent gas back into the bolt with enough force to push the firing pin assembly back far enough for it to come out PAST THE BOLT SHROUD and rotate just enough to get stopped there! The cocking piece came back far enough to hit my thumb which was resting on the stock behind the tang. I've never seen this before or heard of this happening.

I immediately called the owner of the rifle to see what was going on. When I asked if there had been anything like this before, he said not to his knowledge, but it had pieced primers before. In fact the rifle had just be returned to him after he sent it back to the smith who built it to have the bolt looked at after it had pieced a primer previously. The owner then told me that there were a couple of fired cases in the box of brass that he sent me and I could take a look at those to see what was happening before. This is what I found.

That there is an oversized firing pin hole! Then I measured the firing pin protrusion on the bolt and came up with .072" protrusion! I'm not sure what anyone else considers normal, but I typically go for .040" protrusion on any of my actions where you can adjust that and the highest I found on any of my rifles was .053" on a Win model 70. Too much pin protrusion combined with an oversized firing pin hole equals a pierced primer, guaranteed.

When I asked the owner of the rifle who built it, he was hesitant to tell me at first because he knew what my response would be. After I insisted that he tells me which hacksaw "smith" did this work he told me that it was the same guy who butchered my two 270 barrels! As soon as I found out who built the gun I stuffed it back in the case and slapped a return label on there to get it as far away from me as possible! What gets me though is that I nearly bought this rifle from the owner after I pulled it out the case the first time, it was exactly what I had planned to build more than a year ago!

I thought about throwing the smith's name out there along with the story, but I just don't feel like listening to a bunch of his other customers telling me about how great his work is. So far, I've handled 3 builds by this smith and all of them had serious faults and in this case, dangerous problems. I can't think of any reputable build who would EVER let a gun leave the shop after seeing a primer look like that. I'm just glad that I always wear glasses when I'm shooting and all I ended up with was a split thumb nail instead of having a firing pin through my orbital socket.

[Crunchy]

Just curious what primers?  I had issues with CCI250s

[jasnt]

  .072”!!!!  Glad you you loaded down!
If you want something done right you gotta do it your self.

[fowl smacker]

Glad you are ok.  Why wouldn't you drop his name, it could potentially keep someone from getting hurt?

[CoryTDF]

Glad you are ok.  Why wouldn't you drop his name, it could potentially keep someone from getting hurt?

 

[Caseyd]

   I’m not into online witch hunts but someone can get hurt. There is a huge difference between stating facts(truth) and opinion(defamation)

[N7XW]

One of our club members had something similar happen.  I don't know what the exact failure was but the firing pin came out the back of the bolt and hit him in the face.  .375 Cheytac I believe in a custom build.  I got to the range just after it happened, blood everywhere.  He was in the hospital for at least a week.  Took out half his face, severed his tongue and lost a few teeth.  Lucky he didn't loose sight in one eye.

Be careful guys!

[whacker1]

wow is all I can say.

[huntandjeep]

Drop the name .

[Dan-o]

I wouldn't drop the name either, Yorke.

[Smossy]

I wouldn't drop the name either, Yorke.

Screw that, name drop. Firearm failures due to poor worksmanship can be fatal. Thats a no brainer for me for that one.  I cant even make sense of why you wouldnt speak up..?

[nwmein199]

I wouldn't drop the name either, Yorke.

Screw that, name drop. Firearm failures due to poor worksmanship can be fatal. Thats a no brainer for me for that one.  I cant even make sense of why you wouldnt speak up..?

 
Safety first

[Magnum_Willys]

When I buy an action like Stiller isnt all that provided machined and ready for Smith to mate with barrel ?   Wouldnt firing pin stuff be fault of action maker normally?   Idk much about the details

[Dan-o]

I wouldn't drop the name either, Yorke.

Screw that, name drop. Firearm failures due to poor worksmanship can be fatal. Thats a no brainer for me for that one.  I cant even make sense of why you wouldnt speak up..?

For starters, because it's not about what's true, it's about what you can prove in a court of law.

Even if Yorke is 100% accurate, if he can't PROVE fault by the smith he is liable for libel.

[Bob33]

I wouldn't drop the name either, Yorke.

Screw that, name drop. Firearm failures due to poor worksmanship can be fatal. Thats a no brainer for me for that one.  I cant even make sense of why you wouldnt speak up..?

For starters, because it's not about what's true, it's about what you can prove in a court of law.

Even if Yorke is 100% accurate, if he can't PROVE fault by the smith he is liable for libel.

If he simply states the facts of what happened to his action there is no basis for a defamation case. Not that the gunsmith couldn't try but truth is an absolute defense. The gunsmith has the obligation of proving statements made were false. " I bought an action from so and so. Here are the results of test firing."