OK, frustration is setting in now.
I took the bolt out and gave it a close inspection. There were several burrs on most parts of the bolt. The biggest burr was along the edge of the rail that catches the fresh round out of the magazine, and it was on the side that was creating the grooves in the magazine in the previous photo. It's the right side of the rail in the center of the bolt in this photo. You can't see the burr all up and down that edge in the photo very well, but it was impossible to miss in person, especially by feel:
I filed this burr away, and I filed several other burrs away over other parts of the bolt assembly. Then I put it all back together. The magazines will seat properly now. GREAT! But.....trying to get a 9-shot mag out was impossible without opening the bolt and pushing it out from inside the action. The Hogue stock was rubbing on both sides of the mag, holding it in place. I filed and sanded away at the inside of the stock in the mag well until I could see daylight on all of both sides of the mag.
OK, so now the stock is fixed. The burrs on the bolt are gone, and the mag seats right. So I load a round in the magazine and cycle the bolt in hopes that it will chamber. It won't. :AR15firin
THIS is ****ing me off now. I took the Volquartsen barrel off of the action to look at the chamber. It looks fine. I decided to stick a round under the extractor in place on the bolt face to see if it's lining up dead center in the barrel hole. I was going to use the drilling jig as the "chamber".
Well, I can't get a round to seat in the little recessed area on the bolt face. I took the bolt out of the action to seat a round in it. I CAN NOT get a round seated into the recessed area on the bolt face. I discovered more burrs around the slot for the firing pin that the rim of the cartridge is hitting as I try to slide the round into place. I filed those burrs away. The round still won't fit into the recess.
This is as far as it will go:
So there are 3 possibilities, as best I can tell:
1. The recess on the bolt face is too small - diameter is slightly smaller than the rim of the cartridge.
2. There are burrs on the under side of the extractor "hook" and/or the gap between the bolt face and the extractor is too narrow.
3. The ammunition I have on hand is out of spec, and the rims are too large.
Ammo in question:
I figure I'll buy some different ammo to see if it will fit. If it won't, then it's either #1 or #2 above. I'd need to take the extractor out of the bolt to see if a round will fit into the recess on the bolt face. If it will, then the extractor needs work. If it won't, then the bolt is going back to Select Fire to be fixed or replaced.
I really think that the recess is smaller than the rim on the case. There seems to be plenty of space between the bolt face and the extractor. Crazy.....
How do you remove the extractor?