My grandson just got his first firearm, a Savage model 64 .22 rifle. His shooting experience is less than fun because he gets a jam or FTE, about 1 or 2 out of every magazine. Tried three different types of ammo...same result. His father told me that he had cleaned the gun before it's first use, but still no joy. Short of sending it back to Savage, any ideas what to fix?
New Savage 64 .22LR...Failure to eject / jams
- Thread starter ejpk
- Start date
- Status
invictus82
Member
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
- Messages
- 34
I used to have a similar problem with my Marlin 60. Different gun, but a lot of the semi auto rimfire rifles have similar mechanics. I tried different ammo, replacing various parts, cleaning, running it with different amounts of lubrication, etc, but couldn't get it worked out. Finally, I took some Mother's Mag aluminum polish and removed the bolt from the rifle, and polished the bolt to a semi-mirror finish, and then I polished the bolt guide rails in the receiver. The result was that the bolt slid much more smoothly in the receiver, causing a lower amount of friction and allowing everything to function more smoothly. I believe that the ammo was not cycling the bolt back far/hard enough. I was getting Failure to Feeds almost every 3 or 4 rounds. After doing this I've only taken it out once, it ran like a champ.
One other thing I tried, which may have also helped, was storing the rifle with the bolt locked open as far as it would go. This helped, I believe, to break in the recoil spring.
Hope this helps. Nothing more fun than a .22 semi auto. And nothing more frustrating than one that malfunctions frequently.
One other thing I tried, which may have also helped, was storing the rifle with the bolt locked open as far as it would go. This helped, I believe, to break in the recoil spring.
Hope this helps. Nothing more fun than a .22 semi auto. And nothing more frustrating than one that malfunctions frequently.
bicyclerider
member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2011
- Messages
- 2
Final fix for 64 feed problems
There is a fix. I have found that smoothing the end of the clip does help some but the real problem is the end of the barrel breech. On some 64s they come cut too sharp causing the end of the bullet to catch just as it enters the breech, this is why people find the bullet and case intact and bent still in the load chamber, if you are brave enough you can take a cone shaped object and some 600-800 sand paper and CAREFULLY round the edge of the breech,you can also round out the bottom of the breech very slightly if you are feeling brave, do any of this at your own risk if you have not worked on many of your own guns and if you dont know what im talking about bring it too a gun smith, i noticed a lot of talk about 64s not loading and i believe this is the problem. I have fixed about 10 guns for friends, they were out of warrenty and it fixed all of them , sorry for the spelling i type too quick.
There is a fix. I have found that smoothing the end of the clip does help some but the real problem is the end of the barrel breech. On some 64s they come cut too sharp causing the end of the bullet to catch just as it enters the breech, this is why people find the bullet and case intact and bent still in the load chamber, if you are brave enough you can take a cone shaped object and some 600-800 sand paper and CAREFULLY round the edge of the breech,you can also round out the bottom of the breech very slightly if you are feeling brave, do any of this at your own risk if you have not worked on many of your own guns and if you dont know what im talking about bring it too a gun smith, i noticed a lot of talk about 64s not loading and i believe this is the problem. I have fixed about 10 guns for friends, they were out of warrenty and it fixed all of them , sorry for the spelling i type too quick.
Last edited:
SOLVED!
After trying different magazines, the problems persisted when my grandson shot his rifle. But when I shot it...no failures to feed. Finally figured it out...the problem was that when he shot the rifle (from a bench rest), he was resting the rifle on the table on the protruduing magazine, thus forcing the mag too far into the rifle, causing the bolt to strike the back of the mag and failing to fully go into battery. Once I corrected his shooting posture...no more jams...the rifle works fine.
After trying different magazines, the problems persisted when my grandson shot his rifle. But when I shot it...no failures to feed. Finally figured it out...the problem was that when he shot the rifle (from a bench rest), he was resting the rifle on the table on the protruduing magazine, thus forcing the mag too far into the rifle, causing the bolt to strike the back of the mag and failing to fully go into battery. Once I corrected his shooting posture...no more jams...the rifle works fine.
- Status
