Gunsmithing Milling Savage Bolt for Better Primary Extraction

[Wannashootit]

Haven't modified a Savage bolt before- I've got .029 gap between the baffle and rear of the bolt.
Can I mill all that off the back of the bolt body (and the big ass bolt) without it fucking with the closing ramp, or do I need to leave maybe ten thou clearance?

 

[memilanuk]

No idea on the amount of tolerance you need to leave behind, but I do recall a few things that came up on the old savageshooters.com forum:

One, that bolt body is supposed to be pretty hard stuff. Hopefully you have carbide tooling.

Two... have you tried shimming the rear baffle? Some people used to put shims between the baffle and the rear of the receiver, eventually epoxying them in place. Others would drill and tap the baffle, and put some jack screws in there to space the baffle off the receiver. It's not ideal, and definitely kinda janky. The other option is to buy a handful of rear baffles, and test fit until you find one that works better.

 

[Wannashootit]

The other option is to buy a handful of rear baffles, and test fit until you find one that works better.

Well, that's scary...
Spun up a Bartlein for my son's .338 LM while he was visiting last week, working up loads yesterday it was a tack driver- one group in the 1s, and several others in the 2s and 3s. Need to improve that primary extraction though. Shims would probably be the better way to go, that way I can easily adjust until I find the optimal clearance. Thanks.

 

[memilanuk]

The other half of the primary extraction cam equation on those particular actions is on the angled surface on the bolt *handle*. Sometimes you can look at where the bolt part touches/rubs on the rear baffle, on that ramp, and get an idea of what is needed.
If it's only making partial contact, sometimes just taking a feeler gauge and sticking it in there will help you get an idea on how much you need to make up.

After that, how you fix it is up to you