Need a bolt face opened

teenahlake

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Long story short, cousin lost bolt to a PH 7mm RM. I was able to get a standard bolt.473 head diameter). I need the bolt faced to .535-.538. Right now rifle is in Whitehorse trying to avoid shipping it back and forth to the peace river area. anyone in yxy to help? If not me in Tom's lake is not answering anyone in gp/pr/dc available, otherwise it's off to calgary
 
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Take that bolt to your local machine shop and have it opened to the diameter you want.

They may not want to do it, but often a a trade for a bottle of whatever they like will get the job done.

If your PH action is a commercial variant and not one of the WWII surplus remakes, your headspace should be OK.

Do not let them take anything off the bolt face, other than opening up the outer protection ring.

I've seen more than a few done where the owner has carefully ground the whole protection ring away.

Headspace may be an issue, do you have any way to measure it???
 
The extractor will require alteration as well the feeding edges of the bolt after opening it up. This is best done by an experienced person rather than just having a machine shop "open" the bolt face.
 
Send it out to a professional. However much shipping costs, it's gonna be lots cheaper than a new rifle. Or a new face, if some random machine shop ####s it up royaly.
 
OP - pay attention to a part of earlier comment - you could pay to have that bolt face opened up for 7 mm Rem Mag; then pay to have the extractor attended to. And still end up with excessive head space. You did not reply if you have a way to check that - might end up having to again pay to have that barrel set back a bit. Of the rifles through here, probably 25% will fail headspace check when inserting another bolt - they "fit" into the rifle and bolt handle will close, but headspace is wrong - pretty much need headspace gauges to check that, although there are a few other ways to "check" that might satisfy you before the thing is fired the first time. Is also probable / possible that you can find a Mauser bolt for a Parker Hale from a belted magnum - faces will likely be all the same - 264 Win Mag, 7 mm Rem Mag, 308 Norma Mag, 300 Win Mag, 338 Win Mag and many others based on 375 H&H case head - but still have that headspace issue - if you notice, PH had a serial number on the rifle receiver, then same serial number on root of the bolt handle.

The stocks on the rifles might be different - that replacement bolt might require the bolt handle inlet in the stock to be deepened - you want the bolt to hit the metal stop - not to hit the wood stock - I just do not remember if Parker Hales were all the same or were different ones - goes to the shape and curve of the bolt handle.
 
When I opened up the face of my Mauser bolt for my 460 weatherby and my p14 bolt for my 500 Jeffery it was a very easy job. Minimal work on the extractors, just keep the same shape and angle when you move the end back as far as needed for the bigger diameter case. Maybe an hours work. One of them was done in a lathe and the other in my mill using a chuck on the table. Too bad there wasn't any machine shops local to open the face I'm sure you could figure out the extractor there is even a good chance it would just work unaltered. Head space is another issue though but simple enough to check before cutting the bolt. It's just the back of the locking lugs to bolt face measurement and compare on both bolts before sending it to be machined

edit, I forgot you don't have the original bolt. that does make things a bit more challenging.
 
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98 bolt faces being altered from a standard bolt face (30-06) to a standard magnum bolt face require more than simply machining to the correct diameter... after doing the diameter - material needs to be removed from that fresh diameter so the back of a case can slide up into the bolt from the magazine... and no standard extractor will work unless it is altered for the larger rim it will be engaging and it too requires altering to allow an angled case to feed up and into the bolt face. You can also alter the face of the extractor to allow closing on a chambered round.
 
Parker Hale safeties have an arm that locks the bolt when engaged, a regular bolt will not allow the safety to work properly.
 
Corlanes in DC do good work. I don't understand the difference in shipping between DC and Calgary though. Regardless I'd take Corlanes, some real hacks as store gunsmith in Calgary
 
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