Determining whether work was done as requested

[merbeau]

Hi

Background:

Four months ago I sent a Rem 700 LA receiver that was originally in 30-06 caliber to a supposed reputable smith for rebarreling to 6.5x55 Swede. I also purchased a new stainless bolt slightly oversize from PTG to be fitted. The work included re bluing of the receiver and bluing the barrel, crown work, headspacing and truing the action. In a letter I sent along with the receiver, I indicated the brass I use is Nosler which has a slightly larger rim than does Winchester or Remington.

The finished work finally arrived and after inserting a blank virgin piece of resized Nosler brass the bolt would not close. I took the bolt out and tried to insert a piece of brass into the bolt head and it would not go without a lot of pressure and was difficult to get out. I called the smith and now I have to send the bolt back to have the head enlarged. Either the smith did not read my letter closely, or forgot or never checked the brass/bolt head. In retrospect I probably should have sent a piece of brass along with the receiver and bolt.

Question:

Now I am suspicious of whether the bolt/receiver was trued. What can I look for to see if that task was completed? There does not appear to be any marks on the bolt itself. Would not lapping marks show?

Thanks

Robert

[Gunfixr]

The stainless bolt may or may not show, depending on how the finish is on the bolt now, as compared to a lapped surface.
As you wanted the receiver blued, that would generally be last, so it would not show.
Since the brass has a larger sized head, yes, several should have been sent for fitting purposes.
However, since you did not send any the gunsmith should have requested you send some before calling the job complete.
Therefore, errors were made on both sides, at least IMHO.
You could check to see if the action is true. Simple with some high spot bluing.

[merbeau]

GUNFXR: Thank you for the response. The bolt head on my original OEM Remington bolt which was not trued had some marks where the bluing was worn away. The bolt face on this bolt measured 0.4751 inches. I tried a piece of brass with this bolt and it worked smoothly.

The bolt head on the new stainless bolt looks the same color but as you say is difficult to tell. The bolt face on the new bolt is 0.474 inches thus it is smaller than my OEM bolt.

I called the smith and as was as polite as possible so as not to appear accusing someone of being dishonest. He assured me that the work was done as requested and the bolt was tested with some Remington ammunition. He apologized for the oversight. He is going to open the bolt face slightly to fit the brass I sent and will not charge for return shipping.

Robert

[James K]

.474-.475" would be right for a .30-'06 bolt head. For the 6.5x55 it should be .480+". I would say he forgot to alter the bolt, but then how did he test fire the rifle? Or did he?

Jim

[4V50 Gary]

I'm wondering if the smith even headspaced the bolt to the barrel.

[Bart B.]

I'd ask the 'smith what he did.

If he only squared up the bolt face and/or lug surfaces to the bolt axis, they're probably not going to be square with the chamber axis and receiver lugs if he later squared up the receiver face with the barrel tenon thread axis.

If he first squared up the receiver face with its barrel tenon threads, then lapped the bolt lugs to full contact with the receiver lugs, then finally squared up the bolt face (with it closed) with the receiver face and tenon axis, he did all the right stuff.

Some 'smiths square the bolt face to its own axis and unless there's no more than .0005" clearance between the bolt body and receiver boltway, it won't work too well for accuracy and keeping case heads squared up.

[merbeau]

The smith told me he 'blueprinted' the action and bolt and then fitted the replacement barrel to the action since new threads had to be cut on the barrel along with squaring the lug.

The rifle was head spaced and test fired with Remington ammunition which apparently follows SAMMI standards for the 6.5x55 round. Nosler and Norma follow CIP or the European standard. The American standard is 0.476 rim diameter whereas the Norma and Nosler are 0.480 standard. When my Nosler brass came in the rim would not fit into an RCBS #2 shell plate which is what they called for the Swede. I found out that the #3 is required for Norma, Nosler and Lapua which also is listed for the Swede. That is how I found out about the rim difference.

Hope this answers your questions/comments.

[Gunfixr]

In your op, you mentioned a letter, that you sent with the rifle, and in it, you told the 'smith you were going to use the Norma brass.
Therefore, he should fix the problem, without charge to you.
If he blueprinted the action, he should also have trued the action threads, and then lathe turned the barrel threads to the action.

[Bart B.]

Several people with only receivers faced and not their tenon threads that have won the nationals and shot test groups better than benchrest records. The boltway axis can be at a small angle to the bore without consequences.

[old roper]

merbeau, It's always good idea to send gunsmith sample of brass and if you mention that I'm surprised he didn't call asking for brass sample. I couldn't see gunsmith having Nosler brass on hand.

[merbeau]

Hi

Thanks to everyone who responded. I called the smith and was as careful as possible not to be accusatory about the work he performed. After discussing the issue, he said to ship the bolt back and he would open the face slightly. He agreed it probably was to tight. I shipped the bolt back with a piece of Norma and Nosler brass.

Today he called and indicated there was a problem in that the PTG bolt is one piece and the bolt handle cannot be removed. His equipment has only a 2 inch diameter hole to insert the bolt and since he cannot remove the bolt handle it will not fit. He suggested that I either send the bolt back to PTG to see if they would trade it for another bolt with a larger bolt face or he could install a Sako extractor. He does not install M16 type of extractors.

Since this bolt was a custom bolt to begin with and being oversize, PTG is not willing to trade or take the bolt back. And I noticed some people say the Sako extractor is dangerous on a 700 in that the extractor sets near the raceway and if a high pressure event occurs the extractor could break and travel down the raceway.

Opinions/options?

PS I looked into the extractor issue and it appears to go back to work that was done with a standard 308 bolt that was opened to accept a 378 Weatherby which has a rim diameter about 0.1 inch greater than the 308 The bolt then had a Sako extractor installed which apparently failed.