Weatherby Bolt Stuck

So long story short I have a brand new Weatherby Vanguard in 300 Win Mag (not weatherby mag) that I shot for the first time this weekend. It has a factory fluted/threaded barrel and my Dead Air Sandman suppressor on it. Shot one round of PPU 180 grain SP and the bolt was almost impossible to cycle. Had to tap it with a mallet to get it to extract the spent shell. After that I took it all apart and examined everything but didn't see any cause for concern. Went back to the shooting bench and fired one round of Barnes TTSX 180 grain and the exact same thing happened. Took the can off just to eliminate another variable yet the issue continued.

First time I've ever dealt with this issue (usually only shoot older Remingtons or Bergaras lately), does anyone else have advice on what seems to be an over-pressure issue?

Open to all comments and concerns

How do the primers look? Are there any other signs of over pressure? That’s certainly what it sounds like.

Had this happen to me with a Weatherby Mark V. I had to lube the cam assembly on the back of the bolt. I think the bolt designs are different but worth a try.

Following

is there a bright ring towards the bottom of the case?

Saw this on Rok. If it's two different ammo’s it's gun. Chamber issue.

Grease the bolts lugs will help but something isn't right with chamber

Two different ammo doing it, the chamber is too tight. Meaning head space is too short.

Even bolt with no lube should at least open with a bit of force. This is the exact same scenario as reloads that were neck sized only.

Right now, to get your bolt open, do whatever it takes to cam the bolt open. Stand the rifle butt on the ground, hold the muzzle with your left hand, stomp on the bolt handle with your foot. It's ugly business, but that's what has to happen. One of two things will happen, bolt comes open or bolt handle gets broken off.

I stuck/hard to open bolt or two in my hot rod reloading days many many years ago. Each time I did, I was at the top of the chart based on a load in a published reloading book. Each time it was in the summer, hot day. I stuck a remington 700 bolt once that I had to take home from the range and use a rubber mallet, not exactly one of my proud moments in reloading. Had a hard bolt on a Weatherby MarkV once too, 7828 was temp sensitive big time. Once on a Savage 338 Win mag and my have been couple of grains below top of chart if I recall. Each time I would have never guessed that load would have caused a problem and brass/primer didnt alway indicate over pressure. One thing that won't lie is Chronograph. The day I had a hard bolt on a Weatherby i was over the charge on Velocity. It was also hot as hell that day.

Factory loads are pretty dang safe. If I stuck a bolt with factory loads, I'd gauge it go/no go.

I had a custom rifle built once that blew the neck open first time I fired it. Come to find out it would close on a no go. Had to get that fixed. No issue with opening or closing bolt, just split neck.

Are you positive your have the correct ammo for the rifle? I cant tell you how many people i have known who bought 7mm rem mag ammo to go in an stw or 7mm wby mag and same for a 300 win/wby mag.

If the ammo is correct, it is a new gun, send it in for service.

If he’s shouting a win I don’t think a wyb will fit at all.

I seem to recall a guy at the Carter Country Range up north of Houston years ago closing the bolt on a Wby in a Win Mag. Seems like the story was he bought a new win mag and he was sold Wby ammo. Seem like my old boss was at the range when this happened, I remember him tell us this at work. If I recall, he shot more than one round. I want to say my boss told me the guy shot a full box and came back inside for more ammo and showed them a smashed up spent brass and said something may be wrong.

I wouldn't have though bolt would have closed, but maybe with 9 lugs on a Mag Mark V it might with a lot of force.

Ex-wife had a friend that her father like to lost an eye to shooting 7x57 in a 7 mag. I would never have guess it would have fired but it did.

Bolt will close on a win mag in a wby chamber the 300 weatherby is quite longer than the Winchester.
It’s usually seen at all gun ranges at least once a year during or before deer season.
Puffs the win mag case out really funny and won’t make any velocity.

What does the brass look like after firing? Any marks on it from the chamber?

1. Vanguards have a one-piece bolt, so the handle isn't going to "break" off. It will bend first.

2. Sounds like the bolt isn't currently stuck, so I would check for burrs in the chamber as well as camming issues.

3. Post some pictures of your fired brass. One from the side and one showing the spent primer area.

4. Are you having difficulties when chambering a round or only upon firing?

Just because it is one piece, does not mean it will not break off.

Whatever helps you keep the night terrors away Skippy.

same thing happened to me...to hot of powder and a bit to much, my bad

I got a Howa in 6.5 and it does the exact same thing. Vanguard is the same rifle. It does this on factory ammo, and brand doesn't matter. I can shoot 4-5 rounds and all the sudden you can't lift the bolt. I sent it to the Howa factory gunsmith (a gun shop in Reno NV) and they supposedly fixed it. They did not. You are fortunate, because you can send yours into the Weatherby service centers, which seem to be a bit more competent. I will see if I can find the repair order on my rifle and post it for you. The problem seems identical.

Curious if anyone found any resolution on this. I just had the exact same thing happen to my new Weatherby Vanguard in .300 win mag. It loaded and extracted two different brands of ammo fine prior to attempting to shoot it, and still loads and extracts unfired rounds fine. After the first shot, the bolt would rotate with no issues but felt as if it was locked in place when trying to pull back. I got it open with a mallet, put a drop of CLP on the bolt and the surrounding innards of the action, and fired a second round only to have the bolt stick in place again. There is no visually apparent damage that I can see with the bolt or the the two spent cartridges.

I have a 6.5 300 Wby Magnum. When I first shot it, I had problems with difficult bolt lift and case extraction. I also noticed that the brass had swollen and the primers were flattened. I contacted Wby and sent the rifle in for their inspection. Weatherby "found no issues" with my rifle. After "double checking head space," they test fired 4 rounds and reported that there was some flattening of the primer but declared that this "was normal for the magnum." They also told me that "some expansion of the brass was normal in a magnum cartridge." Later on in their report, the said that they "polished the chamber as a customer courtesy." I got the rifle back from them and it has performed just fine: no hard bolt lift and no hard extraction. The spent brass is still larger, at the belt, than the unfired factory rounds, but I am able to run them through my full length resizing die with no issues but a bit more effort than I am used to experiencing on other large capacity (but not Weatherby Magnum) cases. All in all, I was quite pleased with the manner in which Weatherby handled me and my issues. I have no idea what "fixed" the problem, (I suspect it had something to do with the chamber polishing) but it somehow got fixed and I'm a happy customer.

If this is the gun, I hope he got it fixed

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum...-300-win-mag-fluted-threaded#Post8308451

Guessing a problem with the chamber and Weatherby found it easier to say, “polished as a courtesy” vs. admitting fault.

If you shoot something with a wet/oily chamber you can stick brass easy. Was there any grease on the cam, or back side of the bolt lugs?
Clean chamber?
Dry chamber?

New guns often come with some pretty sticky preservative oil.

In my case, I did my usual anal-retentive pre-shot routine: cleaning everything I could get a brush and solvent to, so I don't think I had a residual preservative issue. I think the issue was with a chamber that had not been polished as well as it should have been. But I'm not a gun smith, so I really don't know. All I know is that it didn't work when I sent the rifle to them, and it worked when I got it back! And they were good people to work with, and I was not out a single dollar: they paid postage to and from. Hard to beat that in today's environment..

Thanks for the feedback! My rifle is already headed back to Weatherby, so we'll see what they say about mine. Did they make you pay for shipping and service since they "found no issues"? I'll post what they tell me once I get it back (estimate 4-6 weeks upon receipt of firearm).

I did not pay a single dime. They sent me a prepaid label, I bundled it up and sent it to them, they worked on it, bundled it back up and sent it back to me, with not a single charge of any kind. You should expect no less!

I did not pay a single dime. They sent me a prepaid label, I bundled it up and sent it to them, they worked on it, bundled it back up and sent it back to me, with not a single charge of any kind. You should expect no less!

I got an answer back. Here's what Weatherby said:

"I wanted to be in touch with you regarding RMA#XXXXXX, for serial number XXXXXXXX, as the work has been completed and it is ready to head back to you. Upon the initial evaluation, the gunsmiths found that the rifle passed all safety and function tests, but did find that the chamber was on the tight end of the specifications. To correct this, they polished the chamber and then reset the headspacing. They then test fired the rifle several times, and all round fired, extracted, and ejected smoothly."

I'll certainly test it out when it gets back, but it sounds promising! Also aligns with what they apparently told @mikei. Appears they're utilizing "polishing the chamber" as PC verbiage (unless this is a gunsmithing term I'm unaware of) for the chamber size being slightly off. They did at least acknowledge that it had to be corrected. Overall this process has been super simple to correct, and Weatherby has been very professional and easy to deal with. Other than the not having my new rifle for a few weeks, I don't think I could have asked for a better team to deal with.

Good report, they cant afford to be any less professional. Competition for the buyers $2,000 is great. It doesn't surprise me there was a problem with such an overbore round. Lot's of heat and pressure when it goes bang! A great one but after all, it is a Weatherby.

Looking forward to your follow up after you get her back to the range.

Thanks for the heads up on how the staff at Weatherby addressed the problem.

The wife and I passed through Sheridan on I-90 just a couple weeks ago and I'm still kicking myself for not thinking to stop by their Visitor's Center.

YES !!! They are turning out some very impressive rifles in Sheridan

Thanks for sharing with us. Good to know that Weatherby takes care of their customers like this.