Winchester primer damaged bolt face

[Prose]

I’ve got two bolt faces that have been cut by Winchester large primers. See pictures attached. are these bad enough to have them sent in to one of our experts or are they OK?

 

[LHSmith]

They seated with normal resistance and they mic'd comparable to the competition's primers?

 

[Ggmac]

Generally it is the primer pockets that are the problem . Never had an issue with bolt faces being scored , purely just looks

 

[bobm]

My 788 .222 bolt face from a batch of Federal SR primers. Fired about 200 shots during a PD weekend and did not notice the issue until I got home and cleaning the rifle. Typical cup shoulder burn through at the top of side split cups on many fired cases in the boxes. Won't hurt a thing except for future resale value.

Teslong borescope images. (2)

 

[Walt Krafft]

You are a long way from problems

 

[358WCF]

One rifle has been unaffected by the pits. Another has given noticable bolt lift, when firing otherwise normal charges, with a visible mark on the cartridge base from the pits. This was with 80s-90s era Remington brass. I changed to Peterson & the problem went away. Methinks that bolt should still be bushed, but the urgency for doing so is less now.

I had 2 different lots of Federal 210s do the same thing the WWs are (were?) doing. The radius on the primer cup is the weak spot & they perforate. I spoke to Federal & was told too bad/so sad. At least WW is, or was, paying for bolt repairs & giving credit/replacing the primers. Brittle metal that cracks at the radius when formed... or after they sit idly on a shelf for a few years... couldn't get any more details from the guy at Federal. He said it was due to age. He also couldn't tell me where the expiration date was.

Federal lot #s are 1A 7743 & 3A 5746

 

[DukeDuke]

winchester LR primers did the same to the bolt face of my K31 and my buddy's TRG-22.

 

[Eric Leonard]

I had a couple 7 1/2s leak in the radius like they had little holes in them. They didn’t leak around the pockets and were not pierced

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I dont think your boltface is damaged at all. Look at the pics after yours of that 788 to see damage. Yours should be able to be cleaned, maybe with a bronze toothbrush and some carb cleaner or carbon removing bore cleaner. Either way its not an issue so dont let it slow you down

 

[Emmett Dibble]

I had a couple 7 1/2s leak in the radius like they had little holes in them. They didn’t leak around the pockets and were not pierced

Yup... was using in my my 6CM and 1 out of every 50 or so would pin hole at the radius and flame cut the bolt face... Pull the primer and the pocket is fine, literally a pin hole in the primer. Have several bricks of them left, using them in my straight wall pistol cartridge lever gun loads now.

 

[Ggmac]

Remember, you can only bush your bolt face once , maybe twice without having a effect on the amount of bolt thrust area that’s actually part od the bolt head .

 

[Prose]

Thanks for the advice fellas

 

[whatsupdoc]

That is annoying but it does happen, have a action with over 5k of CCI450 reloads
without an issue. First time I used Federal 210M in Lapua brass one of the 50 rounds
had two pinholes in the primer and etched the boltface.

 

[AlNyhus]

I’ve got two bolt faces that have been cut by Winchester large primers.

Are these current production or older? -Al

 

[powderbrake]

I suggest the original poster contact Winchester for repair and replacement of the primers.
You have the lot number, look at the primers to see if they failed at the radius. (see picture, small triangle at radius).
I had this happen and they paid for repairs and new primers.

 

[DukeDuke]

mine was exactly like that

 

[Dgd6mm]

So were mine.

 

[Prose]

New bolts. Well below max loads. No issues with other primers.