Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing "Fun" day at the range - primer failure / bolt face pitting

I guess if you shoot enough, maybe this eventually happens. First time for me. Shooting a relatively minty Husqvarna 4000 (1640 action) in 270. First five shots with Remington factory ammo (older stock, but still in yellow and green box) go off without a hitch . . . though the accuracy is not that great at about 2.5". With the sixth shot I get gas in the face. Uh oh. The bolt lifts fine (not difficult). Primer is toast and the face of the primer falls on to the ground (I didn't bother putting it back on for the pics). I check the bolt face, sure enough, a "nice" ring has been etched into the face.

So, none of the 5 prior shots showed any pressure signs (no excessive primer flattening, no cratering, no excessive head expansion, no difficult bolt lift). The sixth didn't show pressure signs either (no hard bolt lift, no excessive head expansion). Am I looking at just a primer failure? Should I be concerned about the safety of the rifle? Is there a way to get the damn etching fixed on the bolt face?

I measured the case heads on all the fired brass at 0.470" (including the blown one). Fired brass from my pre-64 70 from similar factory ammo measures at 0.469". Seems alright, yes?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

The last pic shows to fired cases side by side (the top one is the blown primer case).

Bad primer. I would contact Remington. Wow that one primer did a job on that bolt face! That is a shame. The gun is still safe, just marked up.

cold welding between the brass and bullet maybe a cause

bolt face can be fixed, my cost $65.00. doesn't hurt the saftey of the rifle but only the looks.

Bushing or TIG?

can do both but I add metal by surface plate, does a better job and you wouldn't know it was repaired

Would like to see before and after pics if you have any available.

Gundola

Bad primer....unfortunately it is more common than you might think.
I had several in one lot of F...... primers do this with very mild loads when I was shooting 1000yd BR. Nice new Bat action the bolt face was trashed. Apparently the primers were supposedly stored in a warehouse with nitrate fertilizer and damaged the integrity of the cup. Also had some Win primers that did the same thing. Winchester had a recall and replaced them if you called in and gave them the lot #. I haven't heard of any problem with Rem primers and I have been using them for about 4 years with no problems so far. Really sucks to see a bolt burned up like that.
For sure I would call Remington.


Lefty C

Thanks for all the responses. I went back to the range with some fresh ammo and everything seems fine (and the group sizes shrunk to about 1.5" with gusty winds). Still sucks about the bolt face.

I guess I'll contact Remington and let them know what happened.

Gosh that really stinks. That bolt face is blow-torched pretty good. Poor Husky; 1640's are my favorite action.
I've never had that happen with a factory round nor my reloads, just old surplus.
Glad you didn't get any gas in the eyes.

If you think about it and it isn't too bothersome, I'll jump on carbon12's wagon and ask if you can do a write up with pics on your plating process. It could become a sticky.

Have you checked your Head space? A little extra when you have a brittle primer adds up fast

Had some Remington factory ammo trash my bolt face also. They paid to fix it.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11454993/1

I work on guns near everyday and must say that is the worst bolt face gas cutting I have ever seen for just one shot. It must be kind of soft steel.

Gemby58, I too am interested in this surface plating process.