Thread: Ruger Ranch II Bolt face - do I have a problem?

Got to the range for first time in a while. Shot off some 223 for shits and giggles on steel plates.

Mostly subsonics with Trailboss but also some.62gn Hdy BTHP over 21.5gn IMR3031. Hogdon give 20.3gn as Start and 22.0 as max for 62gn pill.

On cleaning the cases today I find one with a blackened head and what appears to be a pinhole alongside the edge.of the primer



I have put probably 500 rds thru the rifle to date, about 50% of that load dev on the range. The rest being mostly Belmont 62gn ammo and PPU Factory. Have not encountered this before with this rifle or any other. Here is what all the rest look like which is normal



So that lead me to race off and examine my bolt face, rifle cleaning being scheduled for this arvo. Yip, it was pretty black. After a bit of isopropyl on a cotton bud, it looks like this...





I have had the rifle from new. I rarely load to max in any calibre and scrutinize my primers quite carefully when doing load dev.

So does this bolt face look like just rough manufacture or does it look like it has been etched by repeated primer fails? Can't believe the latter as I would have picked it up at the time. This was a Murom SP primer.

Would someone with the same rifle care to post a photo of their bolt face?

Cheers

Gas cutting from leaking primers. WSR are supposed to be had for it too

Have had factory rounds do it to me b4

Greetings,
Caused by a defect in the primer. Not unknown but not common either. I will leave the bolt face to others for comment.
Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by Jhon

So does this bolt face look like just rough manufacture or does it look like it has been etched by repeated primer fails? Can't believe the latter as I would have picked it up at the time. This was a Murom SP primer.

Both - bloody hell that's a rough bolt face. Looks like it was finished with a bucket of gravel. What's with it being beaten to all get out around the rim?

Yes you do have gas cutting. Either weak primer or loose primer pocket. It happens - if it happens often you might need to change primer or discard brass that have too looser primer pocket.

winchester large rifle primers are known to do this

being 223 obviously not large rifle but good to see winchester making an appearance

NRANZ don't stock large rifle Russian primers for this very reason.......in TR rifles this was common. Reloaders would not sell their stock for the same reason.

Your supplier needs to be asked the question if small rifle primers had the same reputation as large rifle, and if so should they have been sold.....?

The bolt is buggered ....needs repair or replacement

Now i am going to check my ruger ranch bolt face, yours look like it was used as a makeshift bush hammer when not shooting shit and i'm not talking about the possible etching.

That would not bother me ,so it's rough looking ain't going to come to much

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Photos are not great but there doesn't appear to be pressure sighs. A check of the primer pocket for excess expansion will tell you more in that area.

Most likely as other have said, a faulty primer. Winchester had a bad rep for it several years ago. Murom generally has a good rep for consistency at least.

Mate has several Rugers and they are the roughest machined bolt faces I have ever seen and his don't have gas etching.
Unfortunately when you have a primer blow like that you will always have gas etching to some degree. Pisses off but mainly cosmetic. Although yours appears to have multiple etches - has this happened before?
You should remove the striker and firing pin assembly and clean out the bolt internal as debris can blow back into there and cause mischief.

When you say Murom SP I hope the SP doesn't mean small pistol?

You also aren't clear whether it was from the Trailboss load or the 3031 load.

Here's a comparison with my 7.62x39, had shot 100's reloads, china milsurp and factory ammo.



Just got to admire that workmanship

I have had a whole box of federal blue box ammo etch a bolt face in 7-08 before I noticed the primers where leaking.

Originally Posted by Makros

Both - bloody hell that's a rough bolt face. Looks like it was finished with a bucket of gravel. What's with it being beaten to all get out around the rim?

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Don't know. It looks terrible in the photo as I used magnification to get a decent photo. In the flesh you see very small marks. I can only think it happens when a round is being picked up from the magazine. Otherwise I don't have a clue.

Originally Posted by mimms2

I was going to say those case-heads looks very peened. And yeah, can see why!

Bolt face looks fucked, but not erosion/blowby. I'd definitely have that remedied.

On the first pic, has the case holed, or the primer, or both?

Generally If it's not sealing up (/blowing by) it's due to underpressure (not swelling brass to seal chamber) though with a load half a nudge under max that's unlikely.
A chamber cast/measure would tell you how loose it is.

Is the bolt really fucked? It shoots fine. I put 50 rounds thru it yesterday, all but 15 were the Trailboss subs. No other primer showed an issue. The case heads in the flesh look bog standard..the photo magnification picks up every nuance and these have been fired 2-3 times. Which is why you might think they look peened. I'm not dissing your comments, I just don't understand what is happening here. I shoot and reload several calibres. 49 case heads look no different to normal whether Subs or normal. Can't see how there is any "blowby".

The 223 brass looks no different to multiple fired 222 brass or 22-250 brass I have. Or 30 or 30-30 or 308 for that matter. Using the same Murom primers or Winchester or CCI or Federal.

And yes these are Murom small rifle, "SP" was a typo I did not pickup.

I could understand the bolt face looking as it does if I had multiple cases showing blowback past the primer. That is simply not happening. The one I showed is the first I have seen in years of reloading any calibre. I am more likely to believe the marks on the boltface are manufacturing marks- but what the hell do I know?

Originally Posted by Slug

Now i am going to check my ruger ranch bolt face, yours look like it was used as a makeshift bush hammer when not shooting shit and i'm not talking about the possible etching.

Yeah true that.

I guess the next questions are
1. What is the downside of keeping shooting it? If the rifle still groups, which it does, and there is only one blown primer out of 50, what further harm is going to happen?

2. How do you fix it? Machine the bolt face ( change the headspace?) or replace the bolt or bolt head?