Bolt ejector smearing/marking up brass?

[Baer45]

I just bought an expensive custom barrel in 308 for my Desert Tech Covert A2 and before firing for the first time, I chambered a new piece of brass, closed the bolt and when the brass ejected it had a heavy mark left on the case head not unlike what you see from doing load workup and getting a hot load. I have another barrel in a different caliber from this company and it works fine. Someone suggested I go ahead and shoot the gun because as the bolt is relatively new it is just a matter of breaking the ejector in and after a 100 or so rounds, it should disappear....I painted the base so the mark would show up better in a picture...the gunsmith and I have been trading phone calls...any ideas or has anyone seen this before? Thanks for any input...

 

[Curmudgeon]

Did the smith have the brass and action when he cut your barrel. Did he headspace your rig with new brass? Did he have a dummy round and bullet to cut the throat? Do you have a full length spring under the ejector? Have you pushed the ejector down with your finger to see how much pressure is needed to compress the spring? Have you removed the ejector to see how the brass chambers ? I have seen jammed up ejector springs make a round difficult to chamber. Personally I wouldn't fire it till I figured out what what is wrong. Trying to answer your question by Braille is difficult.

 

[243winxb]

Sharp edge on the ejector plunger? As the bolt turns to lock, it scraps the brass?

 

[Baer45]

The Smith is one of several that has an excellent reputation for making interchangeable barrels for the Desert Tech modular platform rifles and has years of successful barrel chambering for same. It is a well known name but I don’t like to name companies and have my comments inadvertently hurt their business. I think you are on the right track about the ejector. It is hard to make it move when pushing down on it and it has a spring and is not mechanical...I know on AR platforms some people cut a couple of coils to reduce ejector pressure but I did not know about bolt guns...I’ll take the bolt down and make sure the spring is installed correctly although it is hard not to...thanks for the comment

 

[10XSHOOTER]

Very minimum head space, and heavy ejector spring.

 

[Baer45]

Sharp edge on the ejector plunger? As the bolt turns to lock, it scraps the brass?

Yes, it is more of a smear but happens either when I close or open the bolt...

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Better check to see if that ejector gets to flush.

 

[Baer45]

Better check to see if that ejector gets to flush.

Should I be able to push it flush with my thumb or is it ok to use a punch, or both?

 

[mr45man]

You should be able to push the ejector past flush with your fingernail.

 

[Baer45]

You should be able to push the ejector past flush with your fingernail.

Well, think we have gotten down to the problem here. I’ll break it down tomorrow and see what I find out and post the results...thanks for all the help!

 

[243winxb]

Take the edge off the face of the plunger. Like this Rem 700.

Or maybe the hole it sits in. Theres a sharp edge some where.

 

[Whit holman]

Is it a short chamber and the brass needs shoulder set back

 

[hogpatrol]

Try it with another brand of brass. If the results are the same, install a softer spring or remove a couple coils. If no mark, it's the brass.

 

[Kurz]

After removing the ejector and spring, use a flashlight to examine the inside of the ejector hole. It may contain small pieces of brass along with thicker fouling from lubricants. Clean out the hole, shorten the spring after cleaning it then check the length of the ejector itself after shortening the spring. Yours may be a shorter version so possible fits great without trimming.

Enjoy!

 

[Baer45]

Thanks for all the advice...I’m pretty sure the shoulders are set back enough according to my guage; it has to be the spring...I will try rounding off as well but as you can see in the picture, the ejector is “smearing” the brass vs. “scratching” it from a sharp edge...I think 10X has probably nailed it...I’ll post what I find out...

 

[antelopedundee]

If the same bolt with another barrel works fine as you indicated it seems that the ejector should be ok. Does the new .308 brass chamber hard or easy? If you FL size a new case does the same scrape show?

 

[carlsbad]

If you're trading emails/phone calls, it isn't clear to me why he hasn't suggested you send it back. Before sending it back, if you know how to remove the ejector, and you can confirm the bolt closes on a round smoothly without the ejector, then the smith should be able to fix it without the rifle, just the bolt. --Jerry

 

[antelopedundee]

Sharp edge on the ejector plunger? As the bolt turns to lock, it scraps the brass?

As the bolt turns to lock, should the case turn with it as long as there's nothing [like a tight fit or bullet jammed into the lands] to prevent the case from turning?

 

[carlsbad]

no.

 

[243winxb]

As the bolt turns to lock, should the case turn with it as long as there's nothing [like a tight fit or bullet jammed into the lands] to prevent the case from turning?

The plunger puts pressure on the round, pushing the shoulder against the chamber.
May keep the round from turning with the bolt. My guess.

Good question. The OP findings should solve the mystery.