bad primers--etched bolt face(picture)

Those 205's did such a job on a 1375 bolt face over the corse of a few matches that Federal bought me a new bolt that Fred Sinclair fitted for me.
 
If you do enough shooting, you will see this happen again. The gun manufacturer will make the quickest fix and the cheapest way out. Safety is
there only concern. Thats not to imply there is a safety issue there. It is as
cosmetic as anything. They of course are not the responsible party.
Another bolt will be substituted, thats all.It may of course not shoot as well as the one you have. They could elect to change the barrel and the one you get may be a non shooter. " its well within our specifications" addressed to you. Just to keep you happy.
Since this is more common than you are aware of, and has not
weakened it or made it dangerous, I would just shoot it till the barrel wears out.
 
From personal experience working with manufacture warranty. The problem is ammo, they will tell you its not the rifles fault, the primer manufacturer will tell you they dont warranty reloads, the exception to that is if you can prove it was a recalled product. Having said that, once in a great while you will get somebody that will lend a sympathetic ear, but expect to fight for anything and everything you get, but dont be surprised if you get nothing but grief
 
This type of primer failure has happened on any number of occasions. It can be the result of manufacturing problems most likely involving the anneal of the primer cup and/or the plating process. The real clue is that the failure has nothing to do with your load is that it occurred at the radius where the primer turns to go into the primer pocket.

Although a remote possibility, it is possible that there was a problem post manufacturing involving ammonia fumes. Although there were reports of this type of problem some years ago it is almost certainly a problem with Federal. They have acknowledged problems like this before and their process control and QC failed to catch he problems before the product shipped.

That said, the pitting on the bolt face, while unsightly, does not ordinarily cause a functional problem. Federal may offer to have your bolt repaired or replaced. If you have a factory rifle you may be able to get a replacement bolt if you have not rebarrelled the rifle. Remington, bless their pointed little heads, refuses to replace a bolt on a rebarrelled rifle. I can not speak for the other manufacturers now that Winchester is gone. They used to do so and were fairly reasonable about it if you could supply fired cases or a headspace gauge for a non-factory cartridge. You may be able to find a gunsmith who can fix the bolt face up for you if you decide to go that way.

You may as well call or write Federal and get the process started.


Good Luck
 
Bad Primers

Defect in the primer cup for sure, scrap them. Seen this in some Rem 9 1/2 primers years ago. They will blow out even with light loads. Here is what happens when Rem 6 1/2 primers are used instead of the correct Rem 7 1/2 BR primers fired in a 223 auto.
joe1944usa
[/URL][/IMG] Click photo for larger.
 
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What is

The life expectancy of primers? I have some that are loaded and some that are at least 30 yrs old. There still in unopened containers. I have just got back into shooting/reloading and definitly don't want any safety issues.

Aloha, Les
 
Are you guy's saying ----or thinking ----that if the rifle goes back to Winchester for a new bolt they will just stick a new bolt in it and send it back.
The rifle shoots great now--in the middle of my load testing the day this happened It shot about .590 with the cheapest Remington cor locks.
I didn't have a chance to shoot all the test loads. I never got to shoot the SMK's. I would hate to get back a rifle that is less than what I have.
I shot that with a home made sand bag off the tail gate of my truck,
sitting on an old folding camp chair.

GW.
 
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GW....We had a bad batch of Federal 205M's down here in the Colonies back in the late seventies. They managed to burn rings on lots of bolt faces. It doesn't alter the way a gun shoots, and is not a safety issue, but it sure looks unsightly. Some folks got their bolts fixed and were refunded. Most just exchanged the primers and kept on shooting.

Then we had a bad lot of CCI BR4's - same deal, but more difficulty at the time in getting the company to admit to anything.

Just to complete the circle, we then had a bad lot of Rem 7.5's which did the same. I kept a packet of each for history sake, just to show I don't play favourites.

I understand it is a problem with the material from which the primer cup is made, and thus is a manufacturing problem.
 
I remember once sending a gun back to Remington, with a nice letter
explaning how on mothers day, I came home with a new gun instead
of flowers for the mrs. As the story goes, my dearest was upset and threw
the bolt away. Subsequently, I need a new one. The work order arrived in the mail, stating that the problem was wife threw bolt away. Think they are
still laughing about it in Ilion. It did take some time for them to look in the
bin and find another matching the headspace requirements. It was fine,
but two weeks later, I got some bad primers as you did. The old bolt
was modified with sako extractor for a PPC I was building, and the new bolt
is still in use and works fine.
Actually I think the issue lands on the retailer who took the primers
in . Someone may have know there was an issue with those primers.
and got rid of them. I would think taking powder or primers back in on trade
is a no-no. If that was the case.
If you have a 270 that shoots 1/2 " groups off the tailgate, with
factory core-locts in 270, you have the best 270 barrel ever made. I would not let it out of my sight. Even UPS can change great things like that.
 
Primers

Years ago federal built or rebuilt their primer dies, they edm the primer form. The problem was they didn't polish them enough and left pits in the corners, you could see on the primers. Under loads they would blow out.
This is not to say that the primers you have didn't have another problem.
Bob Dodd
 
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