KK300 Blacktec Plus Review

[Ramen55]

My kids shot well at the national 3p smallbore match at Perry, so I decided to upgrade their rifles with the Walther KK300 Blacktec Plus. I received them 2 days after I placed the order. We opened them up at the FFL and they were flawless, as they should be for new rifles. The bolts were beautifully polished and butter smooth when closed. We were exited to try them out the following week. My kids adjusted them to their shooting positions. It came with some parts shared with the KK500. Everything was great until they put the bullet in the chamber. About 3mm of the case was sticking out of the chamber on both rifles. They couldn't close the bolt on either rifle. They were so disappointed. I extracted the bullets and both of them has some serious rifling marks on them. I tried SK PLUS, Wolf, CCI and Eley target. None of the rounds would fit and all had serious rifling marks on the bullet. The headspacing was not right. The person who checked the headspace at the factory knew this and the person who shot the 50m test group at the factor knew the rifles had this problem. They should have never let these rifle leave the factory. They had two opportunities to fix this problem but let it go and now it's my headache (times 2). I has become more of a migraine. I contacted Walther and they provided me with a shipping label to send one in for repair. I printed out the FedEx label and found out it does not have insurance and FedEx will only cover $100 if it's damaged or lost. I called Walther customer service and they said they never had a problem before shipping like this. I asked them if a rifle is damaged or stolen in transit will they replace my gun. They said yes. I asked will you send me an email confirming this and the customer service woman said yes. I never received and email. I called customer service again. Got the same response from another gun tech still no email. I can't tell you how disappointed I am in Walther quality control and customer service. Has anyone else had this issue with their KK300 Blacketec? When they got it back were there any tools marks on the gun?

[Tim S]

What you describe is normal for a European match rifle. It doesn't seem like a manufacturing defect, so don't be surprised if Walther respond that nothing is wrong. Walther, Anschutz, and others cut a very short and tight chamber to enhance accuracy. The chamber is short enough that a cartridge won't drop in to the rim, even when prodded by a finger. The rim stops a few mm short of the barrel, when the body of the bullet meets the rifling. The cartridge only fully chambers when you close the bolt. It's possible that Walther cut the chamber too short, but it passed proof and was test fired. The depth of marking on your ejected rounds appear normal; rifling marks back to the case are too deep IMO. You may need to use a little more force to close the bolt.

Short chambering is not caused by excessively tight headspace, although minimum spec headspace may make closing the bolt fractionally tighter. A new Walther will have a headspace of 0.043in, just under 1.1mm. Headspace is checked in the mandatory proof test; this is done locally, but at an independent official Centre, not in-house by Walther. Headspace is deliberately kept to a minimum for good primer ignition and accuracy. Even with maximum headspace (0.046in) the cartridge would only chamber as the bolt closed; the bolt would just contact the case after a further 0.003in travel.

The short and tight match chamber helps accuracy. The bullet is guided into the rifling, true to the bore. Typically an ejected live round will show rifling marks about halfway down the parallel section. A colleague recently bought a 1960s Finnish Lion rifle; ejected bullets are marked for 2-3mm, perfect! Match barrels fitted in the US should have a short match chamber too. My Anschutz 1913 has a Schneider barrel fitted by Karl Kenyon; the chamber engraves bullets for 2-3mm.

[JamesHH]

Yes, match chambers for bolt-action rifles are not the same as chambers for basic rifles or semi-autos.
The bullet will engrave into the rifling when you close the bolt.

[Ramen55]

Thanks for the information. I assumed incorrectly that, Walther performed head spacing at the factory as part of the QC and safety check. I understand that precision rifles have tighter tolerances compared to cheaper rifles like the Savage Mark I. I have shot the Anshcutz 1917, FWB 2700, Walther KK500 and KK300 Alutec. None of those rifles required the amount of force needed to advance the bolt far enough forward to lock the bolt handle on my two KK300 Blacktec rifles. I'm not sure what else could cause this problem since I can easily close the bolt on a fired case and an unfired case with the bullet removed. I guess I will find out once I receive the rifle back from the gun smith. I did receive some good news this morning. Walther provided me an email saying they will replace my rifle if lost or damaged in transit.

[Tim S]

Ramen,

Yes Walther will check the headspace as they build the rifle. I believe this is set after the barrel is bonded into the receiver. It will also be checked at the proof house.

I still think that headspace is not the problem. Even super tight headspace, like a Bleiker, is only 0.004in tighter than the normal minimum. That's 0.01mm, against an estimated 3mm of bullet engagement (negative freebore). The bolt closing easily on a case (fired or primed) seems to confirm this. It's the bullet that gives the resistance, not the rim. So the bolt closes easily on a bare case, because it is shorter than the chamber. This also suggests to me that headspace is OK. If it was much too tight you would feel resistance as the rim compressed. Furthermore if the bolt handle (which the factory uses to set headspace) was too long, I'd expecy the bolt would be stiff to cycle on an empty chamber too.

It's possible that the chamber is a little too short, and Walther will need to ream it a fraction deeper. Ideally it will close easily, but the rifling will still engrave bullets.