Bolt face / primer issues

[datoews]

Hey all,

This may belong in the gunsmithing forum, but here goes:

I've got a Montana 1999 in .260 Rem. I bought it new a couple of years ago. I've only taken it to the range three times. It has a total of 75 rounds through it, all of which were work up loads, never going beyond book max loads.

Every single primer that has come out of it that I can remember has an odd indent around the primer strike. Certainly every one of the last 45 have, over two trips to the range.

Looking at the bolt face, you can see where the marks are coming from. The question is, why is the bolt face etched like that, and ultimately does it matter? The rifle is shooting fine, but something is nagging me about this. I don't remember seeing the bolt face like this before the first shot, but then I may never have checked (as a brand new rifle, I wouldn't have looked at it anymore than I needed to to clean it before a first use).

For what it's worth, the round pictured here was 43.5 grains of IMR 4350 behind a 129gr Hornady SST and a Federal 210 primer. Brand new Lapua brass, proper trim length. No matter what load I've used, the marks all appear identical. I have not over pressured this thing.

Is this just sloppy manufacture, or something else happening?

 

[Hitzy]

Looks like gas-cutting, it might have happened from the proof loads at the factory... I had a new Ruger that looked like that out of the box, and it went right back in the box back to the store.

 

[Blastattack]

That's sloppy manufacturing. Gas cutting doesn't make sharp and ragged edges like that. Looks like a chip rolled under the tool as it was approaching center.

 

[bigedp51]

Hey all,

This may belong in the gunsmithing forum, but here goes:

Is this just sloppy manufacture, or something else happening?

What is pictured is sloppy manufacturing and chatter marks from the tooling as described above by Blastattack.

A leaking primer would be around the firing pin indentation or around the circumference of the primer. Your marks are in between these two points and done during manufacture.

Below gas cutting from loose fitting primers on a AR15 bolt face.

 

[Suther]

What is pictured is sloppy manufacturing and chatter marks from the tooling as described above by Blastattack.

A leaking primer would be around the firing pin indentation or around the circumference of the primer. Your marks are in between these two points and done during manufacture.

Below gas cutting from loose fitting primers on a AR15 bolt face.

Wow thats nasty. Like reallllly nasty. That looks like a whole bunch of loose primers to do that kinda damage.

I had two rounds of Federal Blue box pop primers out the back in my Axis. The first one damn near blew the extractor right off. It jammed up the rifle and I could only pull the bolt back half-way. Took me a sec to figure out wtf was wrong (it was my first real issue ever, being relatively new to guns I've only had ftf/fte sorta issues, not straight up sorta-broken gun issues) and then another bit of effort to get it back into place. Good thing, because I was shooting up Sylvester Road and I never would have found it in the gravel and sand...

I tried to take a picture, but its dirty and the ring doesn't show up so well unless its nice and clean, but you can read 270 win on my bolt face now, and there is a perfect primer-sized ring on it.

Mine doesn't look anything like the OPs. That looks much worse and in the wrong spot for a few bad primers... Does the manufacturer offer any kind of warranty?

 

[yomomma]

Almost looks like they tried to fix an oversized firing pin hole by putting a sleeve in the hole.

 

[Barnard308]

Machining issues for sure, send her back for repair.

 

[datoews]

Thanks for the feedback guys. You've confirmed what I suspected. I knew it made no sense from a pressure standpoint - as bigedp51 says, the marks occur midway through the primer, not at the edges. In a way, I wish it was my fault - I prefer to blame myself for stupidity rather than deal with someone else's. Oh well.

Happy shooting all.

 

[bigedp51]

Wow thats nasty. Like reallllly nasty. That looks like a whole bunch of loose primers to do that kinda damage.

The photo was posted at AR15.com reloading forum and the topic was loose primer pockets. The poster of the photo said he didn't worry about loose primer pockets, and would just replace the bolt when it got bad enough.

It is hard to imagine any reloader being this careless and brain dead and using brass with oversized primer pockets.

 

[Suther]

The photo was posted at AR15.com reloading forum and the topic was loose primer pockets. The poster of the photo said he didn't worry about loose primer pockets, and would just replace the bolt when it got bad enough.

It is hard to imagine any reloader being this careless and brain dead and using brass with oversized primer pockets.

The really sad part is that it's not that hard to believe. How many times have we seen people say #### like "i don't clean my sks, if it rusts I'll just buy another one"?...