I have a Howa 1500 LA, that I have put about 300 rounds through, but I have cycled the bolt quite a bit to run it in. But I have noticed right behind the one lug, the bolt has a wear mark that I'm not sure is supposed to be there. See pictures. I'm also wondering if I should lap my lugs, since only one side seems to be contacting, and not even that much. The rifle shoots as advertised, sub MOA at 100 yards, at least in the HS-Precision stock I just installed. Should I leave it until it's time for a barrel replacement, and look into having it blueprinted. Or is lapping in the lugs fairly simple and something I should consider doing? I am fairly mechanically competent, I'm not new to lapping, just new to lapping in rifle actions.
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It’s the bottom lug that when closed is “not contacting” right?
You need to actually measure the lugs to know.
The bolt droops back a bit naturally with gravity so that bottom lug will show less contact as it’s hinged away in normal cycling. When fired you can be certain that it’ll be in contact, as evidenced by the clear outside line. It’s touching, it’s just not dragging while closing.
Grease you lug and cocking ramp, lightly oil the bolt body and it’ll be smoother and show less wear.
You need to actually measure the lugs to know.
The bolt droops back a bit naturally with gravity so that bottom lug will show less contact as it’s hinged away in normal cycling. When fired you can be certain that it’ll be in contact, as evidenced by the clear outside line. It’s touching, it’s just not dragging while closing.
Grease you lug and cocking ramp, lightly oil the bolt body and it’ll be smoother and show less wear.
If everything you are thinking of doing to the rifle was done, how much better than its current performance do you hope to get?
-Stan
-Stan
As for now the rifle does what I want, but when the barrel is done for, if I can get it blueprinted I might want to try using it for the hunter or sporter BR class, and some long distance shooting, 1/2 mile to a mile. But as I stated above, as for now I am satisfied with the accuracy, but was wondering if it could be bad if only one lug was taking all the recoil.
