Steyr Mannlicher SSG

I had a rifle come into the shop recently that, in most cases, would have had a very simple solution for the problem; at least it typically goes that way. Nine times out of ten, a deep cleaning will remedy the issue. However, this case was different. I decided to write about it as it cuts to the core of what we Gunsmiths do—or should be doing. In our daily efforts to be dedicated to shooters and their guns, we must always remember that no case is routine or ordinary, regardless if the symptom(s) say otherwise.

We often will get calls from customers about certain symptoms or functioning issues that they are experiencing with their firearms, and I think that oftentimes, we can be too quick to try and resolve the purported issues while on the phone with the customer, or when they come into the shop seeking advice but neglect to bring in the firearm itself. And in most cases, we can and do quickly resolve some issues just by giving some good advice based on our experiences.

Unfortunately, we cannot predict when our advice is off the mark, so to speak, and that we have unknowingly put our customer in a dangerous position based on our recommended advice or potential solutions needed to resolve the issues at hand. And so we all must be very careful and put some thought into our responses to a customer having what seems to be a typical malfunction or problem for which a quick remedy can be offered to resolve it. Let’s take a look at this with a recent customer job I took in.

It began with a customer coming into my shop with a Steyr SSG-69 PI The Steyr SSG 69 was offered in 308 Winchester, 243 Winchester, and a few 22-250 Remington. The rotary box magazine was built for short cases and re-chambering the rifle will present the gun owner and gunsmith with some challenges based on design factors. bolt action rifle chambered in 308 Winchester. This customer is an avid shooter and primarily shoots long range matches every chance he gets.

He is a good shot and is very familiar with firearms, reloading, precision long-range target shooting, and the care of his equipment. In other words, he is in no way a novice to the shooting sports. I have worked with this customer often as he has projects he wants undertaken from time to time that tend to help him get better with his shooting skills. And he likes testing a wide variety of firearms, both handguns and rifles, looking for precision wherever he can find it.

He takes great pride in his collection of fine shooters. Some of those are brand new, special order firearms, while others are "good finds" he ran across while searching firearm listing websites. He has, however, been burned a number times in the past. Each time it happens, I reiterate that he should try to make those online purchases with sellers that have quite a large number of good reviews, offer returns, and accept credit cards.

Doing this can position himself better when the firearm he just purchased shows up and is not what was listed or described in the seller’s listing. I think he is looking for the deal and quickly bypasses the recommendations I have provided to him, and again, this has happened a number of times. Hey, I can only try. Back to the Steyr on the bench.

The customer had run across it on GunBroker.com and it interested him as the SSG-69 is used as a sniper rifle by some military and law enforcement units and by the bolt action long range shooting community. He handed me the rifle and told me that he had taken it to the range and fired only two shots through it.

He said each shot required a "gorilla grip" on the bolt handle to get the bolt to move and subsequently open, Suspecting something was wrong, he stopped shooting it immediately and brought me the rifle along with the factory ammunition he had used and two spent cases that he was finally able to extract and eject.

He asked me what I thought. Although I suspected it was more than likely a build-up of carbon deposits around the chamber area or some chamber rust pitting, I told him that I would check it out and see what was going on. I’m glad that I did. It would have been easy to dismiss the problem and instruct him to take it home, scrub the barrel and chamber area, and try it again; or to clean it and then try another brand of ammunition to see if it worked better.

In many cases, that would have resolved it but not in every case as one never really knows in advance what is happening without looking first. This rifle sports the double set triggers. Especially because this was the first time firing a used firearm (bought from a stranger online no less!) you really have no idea what you are getting just by reading the item description and looking at the nice photographs. Often times, an unsuspecting dealer takes a firearm in on trade or buys one for a decent price.

Depending on the size of their operation, they may or may not take time to clean it up, inspect it, or even have a gunsmith on site inspect and function test it. Needless to say, most used firearms do not get inspected, cleaned, or test fired. In those cases, the dealer simply pho- Tally Manufacturing makes a set of ring mounts that fit this action. American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.

The mid-body locking lugs can be seen and should always have some fresh grease applied to the lugs when in use to prevent galling and to extend the life of the rifle. Unfortunately, the mid-body locking lugs are considered too weak to put magnum calibers in front of the bolt face. tographs the firearm, does some research on what it is and then briefly describes the overall condition of it, provided that he or she even knows.

The firearm then gets listed and the buyer now assumes the responsibility of test firing it and making sure it actually works unless they are diligently committed to taking it to a qualified gunsmith to check it out. Remember, people are buying these guns this way to get a deal on it and spending more money to have it gone over is not good for the bottom line. This is just how it is.

My customer was quite comfortable leaving the rifle with me for a full inspection as he and I had worked on a number of his firearm projects in the past. I asked him if he could return it if I found a serious issue, and he reluctantly revealed that he could not and that he had not purchased his new find with a credit card either; two things I had What appeared to beapiece of cloth string or hair-like object, which may be hard to see, is a crack visible in the 8 o’clock position of the chamber neck area.

In the same 8 o’clock position, it shows how the crack runs linear and extends into the neck and throat area of the chamber. mentioned to him a number of times due to previous bad purchases made on a "deal" found online. In all of the previous cases, he ended up eating the purchase price as he ultimately didn’t pursue getting his money refunded.

In all of those previous cases, I had gone the extra mile to put a full write-up together detailing my findings, along with photographs of the damages or issues, so that he had ammunition to support his request for a refund due to a firearm that was described as "like new" but was internally damaged beyond repair. To me, we owe it to our customers to provide them with this information, in writing, so that they can try to recoup their money in the event of a bad buy.

Rifle Specifics The rifle’s name—Steyr Scharfschutzengewehr 69 or SSG 69— pretty much sums up what the rifle is: a sharpshooter rifle made by Steyr and adopted by the Austrian Army in 1969. The stamp on the receiver reads "Steyr-Daimler-Puch A. G. Steyr Mannlicher SSG 69" and was imported by Steyr, Grand Rapids, MI. The caliber stamped on the barrel is 308 WIN (7.62x51mm NATO) and this rifle has double set triggers. This rifle could also be had chambered in 22-250 Remington and 243 Winchester.

Ammunition is fed from a rotary magazine that fits flush with the bottom of the stock. The stock is made of a synthetic (some declare it was plastic, others say it is fiberglass) and was made with a cold hammer forged barrel. It has a short action, so conversion to a longer cartridge would not work with the rotary magazine, short magazine box, and shorter bolt throw.

The bolt has its locking lugs positioned at the rear (mid section) rather than at the face of the bolt, so this precludes moving it up into a magnum caliber. Research also found that the barrels were not threaded into the receiver. They were pressed in, making a barrel swap something to reconsider. I am sure there are shops out there that will take this on, or can sleeve the barrel to change the caliber and/or twist rate, but I wasn’t able to locate one at the time of this writing.

Accuracy was purported to be sub-MOA with acclaims that the rifle produces 0.5" groups. This made it attractive to military and law enforcement groups as along range capable rifle. It appears that a number of countries made this their primary sniper rifle and there was some chatter about it being adopted by the United States Border

I suspect when the rifle was forged, it had a hairline crack or gap in the barrel where chambered and over time and shooting, the crack enlarged. Not knowing how deep the crack actually extends into the barrel shank, another shot fired may be the last. She is not fit for duty. Patrol BORTAC specialty unit, although I couldn’t verify that as of this writing. Production of the SSG 69 halted in 2015 and was replaced by the SSG 08 platform.

It is reported that the Austrian Army outfitted the SSG 69 with a Kahles ZF69 6x scope and later changed to the Kahles ZF84 10x scope. The scope mounts are clamp on type, as the receiver has the ring/base mounting grooves built in to the receiver (on this model anyway).

It is my understanding that this particular rifle is considered to be a PI (P-one) model, based on being available to the civilian market and the accessories it has on board, which include crude open sights, a fiberglass stock, 25.6" barrel, 1:12" barrel twist rate, double set triggers, and Parkerized finish. The overall weight without the scope is at 8.8 pounds.

Later, a PII (P-two) model was made with the law enforcement community in mind, having a heavier barrel and no sights installed, and still later the PIV (P-four) model was made that is suppressor ready. The Inspection Knowing what the customer had found while at the range, I began with the basics. I always do the same initial inspection and full function test with every firearm I take into my shop and subsequently do again before it is returned to the customer.

This includes making sure it cocks, locks, the safety works, the sear doesn’t let go during stock bump tests, before, during and after applying the safety, etc. I want to know if it works properly and safely. I work the bolt rapidly and basically make sure it works under a number of conditions. This Steyr SSG rifle passed all of those tests with flying colors. Not too bad for a 40+ year old rifle (the date code on the receiver gave the birth date away).

After the full function testing had been completed, I began checking action screw tightness, magazine fitment, bolt operation, and then a look down the bore with a bore light. In this case, everything still looked pretty good; other than the bore was dirty from firing and the chamber appeared to be a little hazy.

So now we just run a clean patch down it and head The burnt powder around the necks of each clearly show a liner "line" burned into the neck telling me that the crack was already in the chamber when my customer fired his first two shots. This was more clearly visible under a lighted magnifying glass. to the range, right? Not so fast. It pays to do a little more checking before packing up the spotting scope and targets. What I did next is pull the bolt out and visually inspected the chamber with a light.

It was definitely dirty. So, I cleaned the chamber with a chamber brush and then the bore. That alone cleaned up the chamber and bore and with a light I found it to be bright and shiny all the way through. My next step was to check the headspace on the rifle. You don’t have to take this step for all rifles, but since I had a set of gauges in my tool box, why not. Both Clymer GO and NO GO gauges were tested in the chamber.

I found that the GO gauge, measuring 1.630" would allow the bolt to fully close, however, it was very snug during closing as compared to closing the bolt without the gauge inserted. Not super tight, but you could feel the bolt drag on the gauge when lowering the handle. Remember, the customer is having problems extracting spent cases so the chamber has to be gone over with some scrutiny. Then I tested the NO GO gauge. This gauge is 1.634" long and the bolt handle didn’t even start to close when it was inserted.

Not alarming by itself as the bolt would close on the GO and wouldn’t close on the NO GO gauge. With the headspace checked, I turned my attention to

the ammunition he provided. It was a box of factory 308 Winchester cartridges with the two spent cartridge cases in the box that he had trouble extracting and ejecting. Looking at the cases, I saw quite a bit of burnt powder around the necks of both and both primers were flat, appearing to me that pressures were above normal when they were fired. I compared the cases with the live rounds in the box and noted that the shoulders and necks of both fired cases were much different than the factory shoulder and necks.

But here again, this can be common depending on the chamber reamer that was used to chamber the barrel. That said, something about those two cases bothered me; especially the flattened primers. No signs of excessive headspace mind you, but the pressures seemed to have been higher than what you would expect to see. So now we are ready for the range, right? No, not yet. Based on the sum of my total findings up to this point, I decided to take a closer look at the bore and chamber areas.

I thought maybe carbon build up was still an issue, or rust pitting, or maybe the chamber wasn’t cut right from the factory. A chamber reamer used on a number of barrels can wear some and it could be this barrel was the last one to be chambered with that reamer. That said, the gun is 40+ years old and has been used before (based on wear indicators) so maybe it was just carbon buildup or another unknown obstruction in the chamber area.

Once again I used a bore brush and solvent to clean the chamber and bore and then dried it out. Since I have a bore scope, I opted to take a closer look as mentioned previously. I started the scope in from the chamber opening and at first everything looked nice, clean, and shiny. But then I saw something. Maybe it was a hair I thought. So I ran another clean patch down the chamber and bore and then fed the camera into the chamber again. Slowly moving it into position I found a liner crack in the chamber.

This is something I have not seen before in any firearm I have had in for inspection or with similar issues, and is not a commonly found issue at all. I took a number of photographs of the area so I could get a better view of the crack once the photos were loaded onto my computer. Inspection of those photos confirmed what I thought I had found. It was a linear crack in the chamber at about the 12 o’clock position.

The crack began at the front edge of the shoulder area of the chamber, and then progressed forward through the neck, into the free bored area, and well into one of the grooves of the rifling. Confirmation that there was a crack in the chamber then initiated the process of having to call my customer and let him know about the issue, and that the rifle is unsafe for any use. That is a tough discussion when the customer tells you that he just paid $1,800 for the rifle and has had bad luck buying online.

Journey to the Destination At this point, I had to write up my findings and include photos so that the customer had a record of the damage. He began by saying that he wasn’t going to pursue returning it to the seller, but I let him know that he really needed to contact the seller and Gunbroker.com so they know about it. There are dealers out there that are less than honest and unsuspecting buyers will never know this unless it is reported.

Most dealers are not trying to dump problems on unsuspecting buyers, but there are some that will readily take that chance of getting rid of a problem firearm this way for maximum profit. I think this made sense to my customer and he alerted both the seller and Gunbroker.com of the unsafe rifle he had unknowingly purchased. The seller actually responded rather quickly and asked for more information and photos of the chamber, for which I gladly provided immediately.

As thought, the seller had no idea that the rifle had a crack in the chamber. Next came the question of whether my customer caused it when he fired the rifle twice. I immediately inspected both spent cases and found a line on the necks of each in the exact same location based on positioning the cases so the primer hits were in the exact same position. That little line or cut in the neck of the chamber clearly showed that when the cartridges were fired, indicated the crack was already present in the chamber.

Photos were taken of that finding and provided to the seller as well. I am pleased to report that the seller asked for the rifle to be returned for a full refund, less the cost of shipping. This was ultimately the point of me writing this article. We as gunsmiths provide services not available anywhere else. And in many cases, not even by other gunsmiths. Yes, it takes time to put all this together and it isn’t always high on anyone’s list of things to do.

But in order to take our job seriously, and follow the motto of "dedicated to shooters and their guns", we really need to support our customers in this way. And this type of support definitely has a lasting impression on our customers who ultimately tell their shooting buddies how they almost got screwed by a bad purchase but their gunsmith saved the day by enabling them to get their hard earned money refunded even though the listing had no returns prominently displayed in their listing.

There are many lessons to learn from this whole situation, so consider this the next time a customer calls you or stops by without their firearm in hand and asks for advice about an issue he or she is having. The safety of our customer is always the top priority. AG