Stiller Tac 30

[achosenman]

Gents your opinions please.

 

The following pictures are the rear face of the lugs from the bolt on my Stiller TAC 30 action 223 Rem.

 

 

It has 470 rounds through it in total. I seem to be only showing wear marks on one lug. I would have thought that I should be seeing wear on both lugs if I’m getting an acceptable contact area on both lugs considering that this is a custom rifle build.

 

What do you think?

 

ATB

[Danpd]

Gents your opinions please.

 

The following pictures are the rear face of the lugs from the bolt on my Stiller TAC 30 action 223 Rem.

 

 

It has 470 rounds through it in total. I seem to be only showing wear marks on one lug. I would have thought that I should be seeing wear on both lugs if I'm getting an acceptable contact area on both lugs considering that this is a custom rifle build.

 

What do you think?

 

ATB

 

 

Bolts should be Lapped to receivers at factory before they are Armoloy coated, i agree this doesn't look good. PM me for the importers details and maybe he can shed some light.

 

 

[Danpd]

Who Built the Rifle?have you raised this issue with them?

[Gunsgobang88]

Hi,

 

Both lugs should be bearing upon supply. This can change if the action is incorrectly bedded, check lug contact with smoke black, engineers' blue or similar 'as is' and out of the stock and note any difference. The right lug looks a little 'scored', has it been kept lubricated?

 

Alan

[achosenman]

The right lug looks a little 'scored', has it been kept lubricated?

I see what you mean. That is just another irritant with this rifle. I do keep them well greased with Shooters Choice. (The red stuff) I do this when I prepare the rifle for use. The scoring you mentioned only showed up in the photo. It doesn’t really notice with the naked eye. I shoulder bump every time I de-prime to help prevent galling.

 

I will do as you suggest with some blue.

 

Bolts should be Lapped to receivers at factory before they are Armoloy coated, i agree this doesn't look good. PM me for the importers details and maybe he can shed some light.

Thanks for that. I will pm you.

 

I suppose the bolts could have got mixed up along the line somewhere. That would probably negate any lapping the factory did.

 

Who Built the Rifle?have you raised this issue with them?

 

If you don’t mind I would rather not name the smith. This rifle has a lot more wrong with it and is going to be re-chambered to fix heavy banding in the chamber and reamer button damage to the lands. The muzzle end has to be cut off and re-crowned to remove heavy scoring from that end of the barrel.

 

I could complain, but I have lost faith in the original smith’s ability. Instead I have found someone I trust to salvage what they can from this mess. The rifle is what I want but at the moment this is just a collection of expensive components that won’t shoot better than .5 MOA. I have a semi custom 270 built by Russ Gall that shoots way better than that.

 

ATB

[Ronin]

Looks to me like slight galling on one lug - a minute piece of grit could do this - nothing to do with bumpng shoulder of cases....

 

 

The Lug contact - yeah, maybe not perfect, but its 95% one side and pretty much 50% over the width of the other, not perfect, but I doubt it would affect accuracy (it may do if it was only contacting on ONE side)

 

I would suggest that if the "damage" to the throat is sorted out, the rifle may shoot a little better - setting back the barrel to remove the damage by rechambering will sort this and the marked chamber issue....

 

 

You could also request the lugs be lapped, but this would destroy / remove the armalon coating (there to prevent galling....)

 

 

 

Im not interested who has done the work, and I would suggested requesting the matter be resolved by the builder in the first instance..

[achosenman]

Looks to me like slight galling on one lug - a minute piece of grit could do this - nothing to do with bumpng shoulder of cases....

 

I read somewhere that chambering a slightly too long case into the chamber contributes to galling. That was something I had not heard before admittedly. I bump the shoulders for the normal reasons.

 

The Armaloy is not staying put anyway so I might as well get the lugs lapped to achieve a better contact.

 

I believe Stiller have a link to the pictures so I will await comment from them before doing anything.

 

ATB

[Chris-NZ]

I found that red Shooters Choice grease isn't that great in the sense that it doesn't adhere well to the surface it's applied to. The (blue) Boretech Extreme grease is better in that regard.

 

I've always used messy black moly grease on the lugs of my RPA NRA gun. The action is a CG-2000. These have a known issue of being prone to galling because the hardness of the action and lugs is too close. You've gotta really keep on top of it.

 

Chris-NZ

[achosenman]

I found that red Shooters Choice grease isn't that great in the sense that it doesn't adhere well to the surface it's applied to. The (blue) Boretech Extreme grease is better in that regard.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

It is claimed by Shooters Choice, that High Tech grease was designed for rifle bolt locking lugs etc. I had a read on the manufacturer’s site to confirm this. I apply grease after I dry the barrel for firing. When I get back my cleaning regime includes cleaning the bolt lugs and recesses with a proper gizmo. I do this every time, religiously. After use and before cleaning I find plenty of grease still evident on the bolt lugs. On the face of it this is something else...…grit maybe. It is a field rifle and dust etc gets everywhere.

 

As an aside, after Ronin’s comment on shoulder bumping I was intrigued where I got the idea of brass being a potential cause of galling. Perusing the web there are many references to the galling potential of brass with insufficient headspace along with plenty of anecdotal evidence of galling caused by this. Of course this assumes that the poster knows what they are talking about. I do however remember reading an article saying the same thing…. Maybe it’s just another urban myth.

 

ATB

[achosenman]

Update:

I need to thank Danpd who started me on the road to finding the cause of this problem. Danpd contacted the importer Keith (TWG1) who then spent time as a

collator of information and contact with Stiller. My thanks to both for their help.

 

I believe the cause has now been determined.

 

It appears that the AI stock the action is mounted in is still bending the action. The AI stock is very stiff and will not bend as you torque the action screws. Any give will always be in the action. Baldie from Valkyrie has previously stated that in his opinion the stocks need bedding. Having seen what I have, I agree.

 

On the AI stock, the supporting V block stops before reaching the rear action screw hole. This causes stress in the action as the point at which the V block stops acts as a fulcrum as the screw is tightened. This is so pronounced that without shimming the rear of the action you can see daylight appear behind the recoil lug as you tighten the screw. If this was a Remy action with slack Alice tolerances, I would never have noticed. The Stiller only required a few thou misalignment to show wearing on the black coating. This has not harmed the action, but has shown up yet another issue with this rifle.

 

I believe the scheduled trip to the workshop of Neil McKillop will solve the issues with this rifle.

 

ATB.