I’ve read in other forums about the new Valkyrie rounds blowing primers, firing pins piercing the primer itself, and the primer actually falling out of the pocket, jamming the bolt, after firing the round. From what I’ve read, the issue seems to be isolated to the 90gr match king and the 75gr FMJ and it has happened with custom rifles as well as Savage MSR 15’s.
In response to this, the Scheels store in West Des Moines, Iowa pulled all their Savage MSR 15 rifles off the floor due to customers returning their rifles complaining of this exact issue.
Apr 13, 2017 With normal tolerances, the primer face should be 0.003 to 0.005 inches below the case, though I have seen factories allow anything from 0.000 to 0.008 inches. Overall, what you want is the primer anvil legs against the bottom of the primer pocket. The three to five thousandths usually gives reliable performance. Top Posters (All Time): dogcatcher 92,590. Stxranchman 54,434.
After reading many posts on different forums, I attributed the issue to bad batches of ammo, or negligent quality control on federal’s behalf, and decided to purchase a Savage MSR 15 recon from a local gun shop as Scheels has yet to put their rifles back on the floor. When I got home with the rifle, I pull it out of the box to disassemble and clean it, and honest to god there’s a discharged primer in the gun box. I haven’t even pulled the trigger on this gun yet, and I’m worried that I knowingly bought a faulty rifle. I’m assuming Savage test fired the rifle, the primer dropped and was caught up in the action, and fell out when I pulled the gun out of the box.
Has anyone else noticed this issue? Are there any solutions? Does anyone know if it’s an ammunition or rifle issue? Out of all the threads I’ve read, I haven’t been able to decide if it’s the gun or the round, as there are people out there saying it’s the round, whereas others say it’s the gun.
Please, anyone, let me know anything you know. I’ve emailed Savage and Federal, and I will be calling them Monday morning to try and get to the bottom of this. However, I doubt I’ll get anything out of either company.
EDIT: Also, aside from a primer dropping and jamming the bolt, is there any danger to this happening? The worst I think can happen, aside from damaging the internals, is the gun cycles as the primer is dropping out of the casing and I get a face full of gun smoke.