Is this rem bolt repairable?

L

Leeroy

Machinest / Gunsmith
G'day gents..

Just looking at buying a second hand rem 700 and this is what the bolt face looks like.. :eek::eek:

boltface005.jpg


It's absolutly dumbfounding how any shooter could let it get to this point. The rifle has a match grade barrel (bore scoped and looks good) and is chambered in 17 Remington. With a bolt face like that it must be piercing every primer..
The errosion looks to be arround 25-30 thow deep..
Wondering if there's any reason this couldn't be completly faced off, a sako extractor installed, and the firing pin, ejector, and bolt nose suitably shortened?

The price is good and i can do the work my self, just after some opinions..

Cheers
Leeroy
 
Leeroy,

I recall recently that somebody flagged a neat method of bushing firing pins by using a ¼ UNF "bolt" - that is a ¼" body with a larger diameter flange on it. Might be worthwhile seeing if you can find that item as it could be a workaround for you. I thought that I bookmarked it but I can't find it.

John
 
G'day John
Yeah bushing would be another option.. I was just unsure how big you can go with the bush as the damage is quite a large percentage of the boltface.. It's also well into the ejector hole and this would need to be re drilled if a bush was installed..

BTW we haven't seen you at the last few 1K shoots in brizo? Would be great to meet you in person..:D

Cheers
Leeroy
 
No real need to repair it mate, it will still shoot fine, just redress the ejector.
The old fox shooters all used brass that was really worn out and leaked around the primer pocket causing the burning you see.
It is easy to fix though, especially on the small bolt face, just chop it out and press a new bushing in.
 
I posted a very similar pic not long ago of a Savage bolt head and I decided to make a stepped bushing. Since the area of the gas cutting was large, I think I cut the first step to a diameter of .250" and about .060" deep. The normal sized part is .187" OD and down about another .220" so the firing pin tip is always supported and the bottom of the bushing and has a full diameter to stop on. I re-drill the gas vent hole after I ream the fp hole then go back in by hand to debur. I was doing a couple of bolt heads and threw this in the chuck and made the stepped hole but haven't completed the job, yet. I use 4140 and press them in. I realize the cost for a new head is small but a 223 head is hard to come by for me and I was doing some anyway. A tiny bit of work and I have a bushed head.

http://benchrest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64508
 
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Leeroy said:
Wondering if there's any reason this couldn't be completly faced off, a sako extractor installed, and the firing pin, ejector, and bolt nose suitably shortened?

The price is good and i can do the work my self, just after some opinions..

Cheers
Leeroy
Click to expand...

Don't screw it up further by installing part of the Sako extractor system.

The bolt face can be machined deeper and the firing pin can be bushed with a machined piece pressed in that would bring the bolt face back to original headspace and the original extractor can be left as is.

P.S. PEI Bob typed faster and describes it above...
 
Something i was wondering is, if there is that much damage from shooting wouldnt the receiver had to have several thousand rounds fired from it? Maybe that doesnt mean anything either, but can a receiver begin to become weak from so much pressure abuse?? Like i said maybe that doesnt mean anything either, I personally wouldnt know. I would just have to think that that rifle has had a bunch of ammo ran through it? Lee
 
skeetlee said:
Something i was wondering is, if there is that much damage from shooting wouldnt the receiver had to have several thousand rounds fired from it? Maybe that doesnt mean anything either, but can a receiver begin to become weak from so much pressure abuse?? Like i said maybe that doesnt mean anything either, I personally wouldnt know. I would just have to think that that rifle has had a bunch of ammo ran through it? Lee
Click to expand...

A bolt face looking like this doesn't necessarly mean that it's been shot excessively hot, but that the previous owner's primer pockets had expanded enough to let gas bleed by the primer. He used his brass too long and should have scrapped it before it did as much damage to his bolt face as it did. It's too easy to keep on shooting brass longer than it needs to be used especially if there's a lot of work involved in making it. You definitely know it's time to scrap your brass when you pick up your loaded round and the primer stays on the bench. It should have been scrapped a long time before that. :)
 
I wonder what brand of primers they were using?
Remington 7 1/2 are the standard for the .17 Remington.

Hal
 
In the pic I posted in the link, which looks basically identical, it took less than 36 rounds. Leaking primers due to overpressure because of a powder change without working back up. We only shoot a max of 36 on Sat morning and I wasn't there to stop him that day.
 
Hal said:
I wonder what brand of primers they were using?
Remington 7 1/2 are the standard for the .17 Remington.

Hal
Click to expand...

Remington 7 & 1/2's are the toughest small rifle primer I have ever used... but leakage around a loose primer pocket and overloads will always do damage quickly... not the primer at fault.
 
I bought a Rem700 in 17Rem last year which had an identical looking bolt face. It now looks like new, with a bushed firing pin. Pete van Meurs at pro-Cal Trading has worked wonders on a few bolts for me now.
 
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