These were factory bolts that had never been apart. The shroud is made of cast metal. The threads sheared under recoil. One of the bolt bodies had the threads completely trashed. They didn't shear from some numb nuts with a pipe wrench over tightening them.
Nice! LOL
I thought they switched to steel shrouds 4 or so years ago?
You get it.two thoughts here- Ruger american if you want to keep the same action and keep the budget reasonable (trigger and glass, maybe eventually barrel?). OR find a used Remington 700 and go for the glass and trigger. the advantage IMHO of this route is there is so much aftermarket that you can keep replacing parts a bit at a time till you have a very nice rifle. Even the action, almost all of the aftermarket/custom actions are based on a remington 700 footprint. so if you get a stock that's Remington 700 footprint, trigger to fit 700, scope base, etc. etc. everything can transfer.
It's a bit like the AR15 mil spec parts are all going to fit everything else (watch tolerance stacking) but generally you could upgrade/update things bit by bit and eventually have something that's much nicer than what you thought you wanted when you started. That's where you are likely to end up anyway.
I think it was supposed to be around 2 years ago, but Bergara wouldn't confirm anything. I had 3 of them come into the shop in 2021 with the exact same issues, and the replacement shrouds that Bergara sent were still the cast shrouds. All of those rifles were less than a year old. Bergara wound up replacing one of the rifles due the threads in the bolt also being damaged by the failure. I haven't handled any of the latest ones to see if the shrouds have changed any. If they have fixed this known, common failure, it is a great rifle.
Why not just save up the $800-900 over the 4 month period and then just go outright buy what you want? Or...save twice as long and really get you something you would enjoy and appreciate. Savage is a good rifle. Ruger is a good rifle, but if you are wanting to go down the customizing road, stick with a 700 or something built on the footprint so you have tons of aftermarket.
I have had my eye out for a 700 for a while. I missed a couple just because of location. If I keep looking I will find what I am looking for. I was wondering if any of those mentioned were even worth screwing with. I really don't have any bench time with any of them. I know my old 700 BDL is a freaking tack driver. It over 45 years old looks brand new and probably has less than 100 rounds on it and most of those I shot. I know my dad rarely shot it.
