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

I bought the rifle on TradeMe, and failed to do my due diligence and ask for photos of the bolt-face. So while I’m not certain of the cause, the seller did acknowledge that they used Winchester primers, which apparently a bad batch of is well known for this etching of the bolt-face around the primer perimeter.

The rifle shot very well, but the rough bolt face created brass shavings from cycling the bolt. It was still functional, but gave me the shits, so decided to get it fixed.

Mark bushed the bolt-face and was able to maintain the same headspace. I asked Mark to use Jim Borden’s method as per this link https://bordenrifles.com/wp-content/...g_pin_bush.pdf

Originally Posted by Jhon

Was there evidence of gas leak like blackening of the case head and bolt face? This is what has me stumped.. I concede I'm not perfect and on the face of it there has been primer failure and gas etching I simply have not noticed...fuckit! So I'm keen to understand what someone else was seeing re their case heads when it was happening to them..

Case and bolt head looked very similar to yours, however occasionally some gas/rubbish would blow back along the bolt and you could just feel it on your face. Was a very uneasy feeling but made me pretty certain it was gas cutting on the bolt.

After trimming the brass it was obvious that the neck thickness varied a lot, I decided to replace it as the first step in trying to solve the problem and it ended up working. I've used the same and different batches of Winchester primers and CCI primers since and had no issues.

Hadn't thought about the fact that cleaning the primer pockets could have caused it but I did put a lee tool in the drill to do those 200ish rounds of factory brass so it may have been the cause. That would definitely explain the randomness of them.