Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Fluting a blued bolt

If I get my blue 700 bolt fluted will I need to get a coating (like cerakote) applied to prevent corrosion in the flutes?

Yeah, I know. I shoulda got a stainless!

Hey Jeff,
I'm no expert on this but......
Unless you want to oil it all the time, I would get it coated or blued. I would have the whole bolt done if it were me.

I suppose a cheap way out would be to cold blue the flutes yourself.

Tim

Thanks Tim.
I keep my bolts smeared with a light coating of CLP and the guns stay in the safe where it's about zero humidiity.
The contrasting flutes would look good on the bolt, but I don't want to hassle with it if it's gonna be prone to rusting.

Have the flutes cerakoted silver and the rest of the bolt cerakoted blue.

Good idea Tom !

Is there a clear cerakote ?

yes

That would be a good option too.

grin

I don't have a problem, but I'm not paddling boats with it.

The flutes should be coated, then the surface around the flutes should be polished IMO. Over time, the outer surface will have wear marks from working the bolt so I don't coat the outer bolt body. It's real easy to wipe down the polished area with some Corrosion X, no rust issues.

This bolt was coated with KG guncoat and then polished giving the flutes a nice contrast. Be careful when blasting, although the bolt lugs were coated in this pic, I was careful not to blast the bearing surfaces (the coating was very thin on the bearing surface of the lugs - not enough to cause any issues)







MtnHtr

Jeff,

Get it coated with something or it'll start to surface rust a little.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but just because you have a stainless steel action I still believe the bolts are 4130 or 4140 chrome moly, this helps prevent galling,and a better material for bolts!

IIRC, in the article Shoemaker did about the SS Rem 700 his daughter found in the river the bolt hadn't rusted, but the lugs had. So, I guess you'd be partially right...

Just the bolt head is CM on the SS bolts to prevent galling as you stated. The bolt body and handle are SS (as Pointer noted).

MtnHtr

I had my bolt Ceracoated along with the barreled action. This made the racking of it feel gritty as though it had sand in it. I sat on the couch and racked it 100 or so times and it smoothed right out. That was a Wby MK V. When I had the Rem 700 done the same way I hit the lugs on the bead blaster at work and it came right off. I am happy with the end result.

CeraKote has proved to be virtually impervious to the elements. So much so that I never even think about it anymore in inclement weather.

Makes sense, probably the best way to go on a 3 pc bolt!