SmallCaliberCentral

I am hoping some one can help me with a problem I've encountered. I just purchased a new Savage Model 10 Predator .204. In my load developement, I have found that my distance to lands is 2.390" and my best grouping load is .2.380". However, the rifle won't chamber a round that long.......the detachable box magazine holds them fine, but the bullet binds when trying to chamber. I am using the 35 grain bergers. Has anyone seen this? I could understand if the round was too long for the dbm, but they fit with no issues.........

Try loading them manually, straight into the chamber so they do not engage the feed ramp on the action.

I'm guessing that the increased length is causing them to hit the shoulder at the back of the barrel, adjacent to the chamber, instead of the tip of the bullet going into the chamber.

You might be able to remedy it by judiciously grinding on the front of the feed ramp, so they release from the controlled feed a bit earlier.

Sorry, I should have mentioned.....they do manually chamber just fine. It definitely has something to do with the feeding ramp and bullet relationship....

MuleyTime--Here's a link to a thread where I explained how I fixed that same problem with the 35 gr. FBHP Berger reloads in my Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger.

http://savageshooters.com/SavageForum/i ... 616.0.html

I think there is another fix and a photo of that fix down toward the end of that thread. I'm not sure that fix would have worked with my 12VLP because the nose of the bullet was hitting real low on the back bottom of the barrel.

I here your grief i bought the same rifle in .243 for my nephew. I found it would only shoot new Ammo, any reloads would either stick going in or on extraction, even when trimmed on sized. i finally sold the rifle, i suspect it was either a dud or built with too tight of tolerances. hope this helps, maybe take it to a gunsmith to be measured.
Good Luck

Well....here is my outcome.....

I did take it to a gunsmith to see if he could adjust the feed lips in the magazine. The metal is so hard along with springback, that he was not able to get it adjusted.

So it comes down to the fact that I can't seat the Berger bullets out to where I would like.

However, I have since found that both Bergers and Sierra BK's shoot AWESOME seated in tight where there is no feeding issue. at least for the .204. So, all is well.

If I would have found that the bullets shot the best seated way out, then this rifle would have been sold too........

However, I did talk to Sharp Shooter Supply, and was told that the way to fix the problem, would be to put a slight chamfer on the barrel, and they would charge $50 bucks to do so. That would be a feasible solution for those who are experiencing the same problem and can't get their rifle to shoot with short seated bullets.

Is this a new centerfeed Savage??

I'm wondering if the new centerfeed has a super thick magazine.
I was able to adjust the lips on my stagger feed way back in the day. Pretty easy job. No reason to sell a rifle. Its long been blanked out by a single shot follower though.

I'm very surprised your smith could'nt fix it. Like silverfox I did mine with a pair of pliers and a little filing.

Yes...they have been changed to a center feed mag. I wasn't there when the gunsmith tried, but he told me that the metal is sooo darn hard and whatever adjustment he was able to make just sprung back to the original origin.....