What camo/color pattern best matches the HMR stock?  For a suppressor cover.

Update, for anyone interested.

These screws are Philips, and no where an M6.  They're a #4.

You can use the original screws down to 1 spacer, just be careful.

I tried taking my Pro down to 0 spacers, and the top screw poked thru, and broke.

I ended up super gluing everything back together.

My HMR I left 1 spacer in, and had n no problems.

In the photo below is an Armageddon gear mirage cover - the pattern is A-TACS AU.  Pouch (also Armageddon gear) is multicam.  You make the call on "match".  Sorry for the lighting - it's the best I could find this time of day!  



Available patterns @ Armageddon Gear:

Perfect.  Thank you, sir.

You're welcome...  glad you found that useful...  

Ok guys, this may seem way newb so I apologize, but it is my first bolt gun after years of owning ARs.

I have checked the manual multiple times but I’m unable to find anything in there for bolt disassembly. I found a video on online for it, but I still find it a real pain in the balls to break this baby down and quite frankly it made me nervous not being familiar with the process. Last thing I want to do is have to send this back to Bergara because I was a moron.

Is it not a necessity on bolt guns to clean the bolt and firing pin as they are on ARs?

Don’t worry, once my optics come in, I will post a nice new picture of here. Thanks guys.

I have just over 800 rounds thru mine & so far I have not disassembled the bolt.  I do remove it from the action to clean & lube it and then put it back in the action though...  Because of the differences between bolt guns and gas guns, the bolt in a bolt action rifle doesn't usually get very dirty.  I haven't heard anyone talk about cleaning intervals for the actual bolt.  Maybe one of the seasoned veterans will chime in...

You do not need to disassemble bolt gun bolts unless something is wrong.

We disassemble AR bolts because every round has hot carbon gasses blown directly on the bolt for it to operate. That dirt and carbon fills the bolt with carbon. That's also the reason many believe AKs are more reliable because they are piston driven. So unless something is wrong, I just wipe off the bolt, lube it, and drop it back in.

Thanks for the info. Easy enough.

Back from the dead bump... anymore good info or pics to be had??

Looking to pickup a hmr .308 or 6.5 very soon... I've got a larue tranquilo almost out of jail I need a host for
..

How much copper fouling do y'all have going on?  I need to get out and shoot a few groups with it this weekend but looked down the muzzle and it looks like there is a pretty substantial amount of copper build up.  Is there any point that you would say that it needs the copper cleaned out regardless of how the rifle is shooting?

bergara hmr from 2018 , shroud stripped

round count?  that isn't fouling, that's plating.

I have a BMP and the threads on my bolt shroud were starting to get messed up.  Bergara sent me a new one made out of steel.  Old one is made of either aluminum or pot metal because a magnet wouldn't stick to it.

Also the B-14 bolts seem to crater primers as well.  A guy on another forum bought a Premier bolt from Bergara and it dropped right in his B-14.  Guy said the Premier bolt has a smaller diameter firing pin than the B-14s.  He ordered one direct from Bergara for about $300.  Also you can send your bolt to Gre-Tan to have the firing pin bushed.

I saw your thread on the other forum.  I do get some cooper fouling but I don't clean it out until I see accuracy degrade.  Also I use Bore Tech Eliminator or Cooper Remover to clean my bore.

A few hundred.  I thought it looked like a lot.  I got it cleaned up pretty well and am going to watch it a little closer moving forward.  I had an off day at the range last time out but a friend shot a single group through it at .24moa so not sure if it the accuracy had actually degraded or if it was just me.  Figured id just go ahead and get it all out so i can get a grasp on what the barrel is up to.

That time has come, my left handed 6.5 shipped today and should arrive next Wednesday.

I have a Remington 700 SPS Varmint in .308 that I recently purchased the Magpul 700 Pro chassis for, then I decided to move to 6.5 and sell off the .308.  I need to decide if I’m going to use the Magpul chassis on the B14 or just sell it off too.  I ordered the following to setup the B14 HMR:

Vortex Razor Gen 2 4.5-27 EBR-7C MRAD
Badger 20 moa rail
Badger 34mm 1” high rings
Atlas BT17 bipod rail

I haven’t chosen a scope level yet, I like the flatline ops and they make them in left handed now.

Just as a quick follow up to the copper build up.  I cleaned everything out with ProShot Copper Solvent IV and a .25cal nylon brush (worked pretty well... did 2 rounds of solvent + brushing and only everything came right out).  I took it back out today and just put about 30 rounds through it and it shot fine.  The rifle seems to like the Hornady Match a little better than the Precision Hunter, but I have known that.



Precision Hunter



ELD-M



But the main point I am trying to make here is that after 30 rounds, a good bit of copper built back up in the barrel.  I talked to bergara and they said that they recommend removing copper every 150-200 rounds, but still feel like this is still a lot of copper for a barrel with several hundred rounds on it to be depositing.  Anybody want to take a look in their barrel and see if it looks anything like this:

Approx 30 rounds after cleaning

Mine looks worse than that after 30 to 40 rounds. Accuracy is around 1 moa, accuracy has deteriorated with more rounds through it (only around 350 rnds now). It pretty much stays in the safe now.

50 round break in with lots of cleanings...

Since then, 1,150 rounds and 28 light cleanings*** later...  muzzle end looks like this >>>



*** "light cleaning" = [flood bore with WD-40 / soak 2 to 3 minutes and then drain;  allow to sit/soak (muzzle lower than chamber) ~5 more minutes and then do 2 passes with a dry boresnake followed by a dry mop wipe out of the chamber (x2)].  I have used no copper solvent in this bore since "break in".

The rifle is chambered in .308 and is still shooting sub MOA groups with good ammunition if I do my part.

copper fouling really pisses me off because I've never shot a decent group with the barrel showing copper at the muzzle.  last year I gifted myself a Lyman borescope for my birthday and the first time I used it I wished I had bought one many years ago.  FWIW, I don't own any Lyman stock.  all of the premature fouling I've seen in my own rifles was caused by chatter marks from the chambering reamer, and it takes some time for bullets to lap that rough surface off the throat.  if it is really bad, chatter marks will be visible in the leade, where there is no rifling, but that rough surface will chew up the bullet jacket before it enters the rifling.  most of the rifles I own show a bit rough where the reamer cuts an angled ramp into the rifling for the bullet to make the transition from leade into the rifling lands, but it does't cause problems.  not saying that it can't happen, but I've never seen copper fouling on top of rifling lads, it is always in the grooves.

if you have a rifle that shows really quick fouling, chances are something is amiss in the leade, that is the smooth part of the barrel just ahead of the chamber but short of the rifling and the bullet jacket is getting scarred up before it hits the rifling.  all is not lost,  it may polish out with repeated firings if you clean the copper out as soon as you see it.  the other alternative is buying a box of final finish bullets from David Tubb. these bullets come in a kit with coarse, medium, and fine grit imbedded in the bullet jacket and serves as a polishing compound to help smooth out rough barrels.  keep in mind this does remove barrel material, so use these bullets very judiciously.  best if you can find a buddy or a gunsmith who will let you look at your bore through a borescope, and you can see what the problem is.

BTW,  Tikka/Sako , Bartlein, Shilen, CZ,  and other high quality barrels have very smooth barrels, almost mirror like.  I also own a pair of S&W M&P 15 rifles and the barrels are decent, but not great. manufacturing processes and finishing techniques make the difference between a decent barrel and a high quality one.  the S&W rifles don't know any of this shit and print really good groups anyway, but will not hold group sizes for very long.  a really well finished barrel will show very little copper fouling even after many rounds. sorry for the long post.

I used Tubb TMS (fine grit) bullets for the first 10 rounds breaking in my new B-14 HMR (muzzle photo above) back in 2017...    I wasn't reloading at the time so I got the loaded ammunition version.  Now that I am reloading, I ordered the "just bullets" (50) version of the kit to do "maintenance" every now and then.

I thought bergara barrels were to be lapped from the factory or
is that on the premier rifles only..

I decided to take a look at threads on my 308 HMR after reading your post.  I'm not that happy with it how they look.  It doesn't show up that great in the pics but there is some definite flattening of the threads and this gun has less than a box of ammo through it.

anyone know what happens of the shroud stripps all the way
does it go through your SKULL?

If the threads have already started to flatten, it will get worse.  Here's what mine looked like and I had less than 300 rounds through mine at the time.  They use to send out a machined steel shroud but they've changed to a MIM steel shroud.

Does anybody know if the newer rifles are shipping with the steel shroud/threads?

I received an email from them this morning asking for my shipping info for a new shroud.  I am not excited to receive an MIM one.   Does anyone know if the Premier line has an MIM shroud?

I believe the premier is machined.  My standard B14 threads started to flatten as well so just said f*** it and spent the $300 on the premier bolt.  Its a drop in an well worth the money IMO, especially if you are concerned about the MIM shroud or worried about the B14 shroud failing.

Anyone rebarrel their HMR with a non-Bergara barrel yet?

@thornejc

Did you call BPI directly to buy the Premier bolt?

Eta: never mind, Nathan from BPI already got back to me about them.  I'm not impressed with the quality of the bolt shroud that was on the gun, but their customer service is pretty damn good so far.

@jeepsnguns81

ETA: If you want a black bolt handle make sure you specify that.  They sent me a "raw" one... turned out ok because my rifle isn't in the factory stock and the raw goes with OD green pretty well, but if I had it in the standard HMR stock, I would have definitely wanted the black.

Yup... called them directly.  I wasn't super happy with the shroud on the standard B14 and figured it was worth the upgrade.  I'm still trying to figure out the differences in the receiver body itself (B14 vs Premier).  I know that the premier is stainless while the B14 is CMV (not that big of a deal to me for a receiver) but didn't know if there were any dimensional or other differences.  It looks like the bolt releases aren't exactly the same but don't know if that is simply cosmetic or if there are some functional differences there.

I'm still kinda watching the copper fouling thing but if I am starting to get accuracy degradation before ~300 rounds, I may go ahead and swap the barrel out.  Just not sure if it would be worth it to put a Proof or Bartlein on my B14 action or if I should just spend another 1300 on a custom one.  I rather save the money but I want to make sure that the premier bolt will be good long term.

when I talked to bergara they said only a few months were affected

Thanks for the heads up on that, I definitely wouldn't have known to ask them.

Huh, the last four of mine is 2317, wonder what month the 23 corresponds to, May?

Definitely not the last 4.  I think the second "block" of numbers corresponds to the month and the last "block" corresponds to the year.  Mine is xx-06-xxxxxx-17, so that would be a june 2017 manufacture date

That makes more sense.  Mine was made the same month/year as yours.

Could be wrong but that is my best guess... seeing a lot of 06s tho so maybe i'm wrong

Since I have a BMP the serial numbers might not correspond with the HMR.  My serial number is XX-06-XXXX66-16 and I purchased mine in early Feb. 2018.  Also I have the later model BMP because it doesn't have the barrel nut like the early ones.  I read that Bergara had production issues with the barrel nut system so they stopped offering it on the BMP.  I didn't find out about this until after I purchased my BMP.  I probably wouldn't of gotten one since I wanted to do my own barrel changes.  Guess I'll just turn my 700 into a remage or do a Big Horn TL3 build.

I asked about the thread issue and how to determine when my rifle was manufactured and received this response. I don’t think the 06 we have in the serial number has anything to do with when it was made (mine has it also).

Edit: I asked if the 2018 models had this addressed as that’s what mine is and received this response. Mine is magnetic.

The issue was corrected about half way through 2018, if your shroud is magnetic you have the strongest shroud available. If it is not magnetic it is the old style and if you send us your address we can send you a replacement as long as it is a U.S. address.

Thanks,

Camaran Waddell
Customer Service Rep
BPI Outdoors

Hello,

This issue has been addressed in our current batch. The last two digits in your serial number indicate the manufacture year.

Nathan Coy
Customer Service Rep
BPI Outdoors

I recently purchased a B-14 HMR in 6.5 Creedmoor and had a couple of questions.

I’ve read of some issues with the bolt shroud threads flattening on some rifles, has this been addressed?

How can I determine when my rifle was manufactured?

Thank you

I just got a reply from Camaran as well--a new shroud on order for my 2018 Ridge.  Mine just missed the cutoff, apparently.

Thanks for posting that. I'm looking at a B14 Hunter and came across mention of the bolt shroud issue. This takes that worry out of buying one.

Glad to help

I got my replacement shroud in yesterday and installed it.  It most definitely does NOT look like the all black shroud in these pictures, but it IS magnetic.

Can you post some pics?

Here are some pics. It looks just like the original, but with a heat-treated coloration to it.  I asked about the presence of the flat spots on the threads and the shank of the shroud, but they assured me it was part of the mold (which is apparent looking closely—the flat spot above the threads has the seam visible)
Attached File

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I'm a little confused on the issue here.  I bought my HMR a few months ago but it was the display and now I'm worried about a potential problem with it.  Can anyone clarify what is going on?

From what I've gathered, the flat spots on the bolt shroud in 444shooter's post are part of the mold, while those threads flattened circumferentially as in the pictures further up the page are the issue we should be concerned about, and those were found in early-production rifles.

There was an issue with the threads on the bolt shrouds flattening out. Earlier rifles had a shroud made of some sort of alloy. They were replaced sometime in 2018 with steel ones which should resolve the issue. If yours is magnetic, it’s the new one. If not, email Bergara and they’ll send you one.

@Bronsonburner

Thanks.  I'll have to dig it out tomorrow and check on it.  So far this gun has done nothing but impress me.  Especially considering the price I paid.

Just tested with a refrigerator magnet.  It sticks.  Should I have to disassemble the bolt to be really sure?