Hello, I have one if the first Stainless Stalkers with synthetic stock 30-06 since new sold in the US. Hunted with it many times with no issues and probably have 200-300 rounds through the rifle. Until... November 2015 I went hunting and loaded the rifle and attempted to put the safety on and it wouldn’t move. I unloaded the rifle, closed the bolt, put the safety on, and went to move the safety and it was stuck in the on position. Went home and disassembled the rifle, the bolt stuck along with the safety, cleaned and lubed everything, (disassembled the bolt) and got it working. Fast forward to yesterday. Coming in from hunting I went to take safety off and it wouldn’t move. I smacked the bolt towards the down position (fist) and safety was able to function. Went to unload and bolt wouldn’t move. I smacked the bolt up and down a couple times and then it opened. Unloaded rifle and stowed it in the rack. That night I recalled the 2015 incident and the next morning before hunting I disassembled the rifle and oiled the safety, trigger and bolt. What I noticed with the bolt is this, if you fire the rifle, dry or live the bolt cocks smoothly with one motion but if you don’t fire and attempt to unload, with a cocked firing pin, when you open the bolt you can feel a large cam indentation, (like a false stop) but the bolt won’t open from that point as you have to continue moving the bolt until it stops, then it will retract. The two spots are close to each other. Seems to be working fine now. I scoured the internet for this issue and saw someone in AK had his safety freeze when a bear charged him. Luckily it was a false charge. Does anyone know if Browning has a TSB for this issue? I believe it’s the bolt design causing this issue. I also saw on a post someone claimed the person that designed the Remington bolt also designed the A-bolt but I didn’t see any verification of fact for the claim. (Remington has massive recalls on the 700 bolt & trigger design) Freezing weather doesn’t seem to be the culprit.
