you nailed it operator miss use
Current quality issues with the Rim-X action - Bolt Gouging.
- Thread starter The ROC
- Start date
The manufacturer acknowledged it's a materials issue. They have a thread on snipers hide.
I did get a new action, due to tarrifs etc. Serial nr 36xx, first bolt cycle it shaved the lugs already. Glad gobigtactical has been helping resolve the issue, new replacements bolts won't be in Canada till late April though.
with a clean lubed lugs it would not happen
maybe so but with a clean and lubed bolt assembly the chance of it napping are nil
The mental gymnastics...
So how did my brand new action, fully lubed up with mil spec grease, fully covering the lugs and any friction points shave metal of the lugs in that case?
Must be user error
...Zermatt chaning materials had nothing to do with that.Haha indeed. And I anticipated it happening so made sure any friction point was covered in greaseMust be user error
. Must have cycled the bolt wrong. You know typical user error. Only realized later I installed my action upside down. Used my rail screws as action screws... sarcasm for the ones wondering.
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If I was you, I would hold off for now and see how the new bodies hold up, which should be known in a few weeks.
I did fix my issue but that was because I managed to get a bolt body that predates the issues.
Quick update fellas,
Our shop received 24 bolts along with the actions we sent in. Since I'm now banned on Snipershide for bringing up this issue, I'm just posting to show where we are at with this. The Captin Kirk there on the hide (Padom) tried to use the Comercial account needed for me to post as an excuse to ban me.. the bias is obvious and why I always hesitate to post there on the hide. I'm sure anyone that post there will be told to stay in there lane even though Padom isn't a gunsmith and owns a shop selling Rim-X prefits lol and also on the hide so now we know the truth on the bias. OK enough sour banter
The bolts we received unfortunately are still having issues gouging.
The geometry change was a slight angle on the outer edge of the bolt lug. This did improve feel and gouging will not occur with just cycling the action alone UNLESS you chamber a round. Applying rearward pressure as the bullet engraves the lands. We tested two 17HMR builds along with the 12 rifles awaiting the bolt replacements. I even tried a few prefits I had including a new 22lr Lilja with the same results. Bolts appear to be the same material and can scratch with a 20-25 HRC file.
We did receive an email response that Zermatt has the older material on order and will begin processing it soon. At this point our shop is releasing the rifles we have built with these bolts as these clients have waited over a year.
We are pursuing a better alternative Wink Wink
Our shop received 24 bolts along with the actions we sent in. Since I'm now banned on Snipershide for bringing up this issue, I'm just posting to show where we are at with this. The Captin Kirk there on the hide (Padom) tried to use the Comercial account needed for me to post as an excuse to ban me.. the bias is obvious and why I always hesitate to post there on the hide. I'm sure anyone that post there will be told to stay in there lane even though Padom isn't a gunsmith and owns a shop selling Rim-X prefits lol and also on the hide so now we know the truth on the bias. OK enough sour banter
The bolts we received unfortunately are still having issues gouging.
The geometry change was a slight angle on the outer edge of the bolt lug. This did improve feel and gouging will not occur with just cycling the action alone UNLESS you chamber a round. Applying rearward pressure as the bullet engraves the lands. We tested two 17HMR builds along with the 12 rifles awaiting the bolt replacements. I even tried a few prefits I had including a new 22lr Lilja with the same results. Bolts appear to be the same material and can scratch with a 20-25 HRC file.
We did receive an email response that Zermatt has the older material on order and will begin processing it soon. At this point our shop is releasing the rifles we have built with these bolts as these clients have waited over a year.
We are pursuing a better alternative Wink Wink
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Receivers arnt galling. They are 4140 alloy and harder than the bolts.
I've checked for that possibility along with the chamfer chatter tooling marks which do not come in contact with the edge of the bolts.
Until Zermatt decides to revert back to the original material (before all this ever happened) this problem will still occur regardless of what ever post processes done. 1144SP simply cannot heat treat hard enough with the nitride process annealing the metal back down to its soft state. This metal is not suitable for this particular application being used. This comes from expirence as my family has been a tool and die maker for over 70 years in Silicone Valley
Dislodged nitride particles are hard enough to promote galling of ANY steel, when the substrate becomes deformed the relatively thin surface treatment can act as an abrasive, equal hardness materials will always cut each other with enough force applied. Once the surface treatment is compromised friction welding of the soft bolt and hard receiver steel becomes possible.
Your annealing comments give me the impression the nitride is a gas or salt bath process as opposed to a plasma or PVD duplex process.
I would agree that the steel seems unsuitable for task, from the pictures I have seen the surface finishes involved may also be unsuitable for task. I would be interested to see some pictures of the receivers involved. The reality of needing a certain amount of clearance to facilitate sliding of the components means there is always some unpredictable concentration of forces due to imperfect operation inherent to humans.
So they basically moved the issue 1/8 of an inch higher up the lugs.
I am not impressed with how zermatt handles/ handled this issue. Reached out to them, they assured me there were 0 issues. They should have done a blanket recall from serial number x to serial number xy, and stopped selling actions till the issue was addressed.
Did zermatt actually come out with a better statement yet? Or is it still the same post on SH that beats around the bush?
Honestly, the efforts in our discussion seem to agree mostly, but I think it should be directed and discussed with Zermatt so we have a resolution and a functioning action without these flaws. Many of my clients and those affected are needing this resolution at this point.
I think they are sick of hearing it from me as the gaslighting about this problem didnt work. It would be refreshing for them to hear it from other folk that know the BS happening
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