Pitted Bolt Face

[armydog]

I gonna go out on a limb here a say this is what caused the pits in the bold face of my Remington 700 308 win. I shot her Saturday and Sunday and when cleaning her I noticed pits in the bolt face, never shot any corrosive stuff so i did an Internet search and found loose primer pockets can cause this, checked my brass and found four with black crap around the primers. the are Winchester Large Rifle primers , Rem Brass, 168gr Sierra Match Kings and 43.7gr Varget, any thoughts on this? Am I right? Damage done now so I guess i'll just pay closer attention when i'm seating my primers and if they feel loose they go in the scrap brass bucket.

 

[turbo54]

It's not a brass or primer pocket issue, it's a primer issue.

Stop using Winchester primers. This has been a common theme with them over the last year or two.

Other primer manufacturers have had this issue also, but it hasn't been as prevalent as the Winchesters have been.

Sorry and good luck.

 

[Trevor300wsm]

I had the same issues on a rifle I had. I had leakage around the primers. I has using Fed 215M's, but I guess it can happen to any of them. I think mine was a combination of loose pockets and higher pressures. The scaring on the bolt face didnt affect accuracy.

 

[armydog]

so what primers should I go with? I only have about 3500 of the Winchester left over.............have they had any sort of recall? I have a call into Winchester to report the issue to them.

 

[turbo54]

so what primers should I go with? I only have about 3500 of the Winchester left over.............have they had any sort of recall? I have a call into Winchester to report the issue to them.

Winchester is aware of the issue and knows what lot number(s) are affected. The issue is caused by microfractures in the radius of the primer cup. Pressure blows out the crack and you get a terrible leak. [By the way, when I say "pressure", I'm NOT insinuating you are over the SAAMI prescribed max pressure. All but the lightest loads will blow out like this] I don't think Winnie has a formal "recall" out. I think they may send you coupons to go towards new primers.

Which primers to switch to? I dunno. I used to pay the money for CCI BR2, but when I bought some Russian TULA primers and my load/velocity/POI didn't change one bit, I started buying them instead.

 

[Belisarius]

I had the same occurrence yesterday, with fed 210s. First one ever with 210's. Lots of gas in my face, no damage to the bolt. Had 2 with Winchester LRP.

 

[Graham]

Don't worry about it. It won't affect accuracy.

If you could only see the boltface on my AE... Oh, the horror.....The horror...... [with apologies to Joseph Conrad].

 

[B3dlam]

Loose primer pockets dont look to be the issue you can see what look like pin holes in the rims of the primers that is your failure point assuming it really is a hole in the primer.

 

[Graham]

Agreed. It's not primers.

 

[MitchK]

I've had the same problem with Winchester primers. No issues with federal primers in the same cases.

 

[Bradu]

I was cleaning my AI tonight and noticed that the bolt face is pitted. I sorted through about 200 rounds and found about 10 Winchester primers with tiny little splits on the edge of the primer, bad part is I have over 500 rounds loaded up.