I have been playing with a full camo 10/22 I bought a few years ago and hadn't fully broken in yet. It's been a very picky eater. I have been getting a lot of stovepipes in the gun. I've been shooting up some older federal champion 40 grain that's hit and miss out of other semi autos. Some will function ok with it but this gun needs hotter stuff. i pulled the bolt out today and I got my sandpaper and iron bar I use to smooth stuff out to work on it. i noticed there were extreme chatter marks in the recoil spring area of the bolt and on the ejection port guide rail side as well. Must have been made by some trainee with a dull bit on a Friday at 5pm.
Well, I smoothed the surfaces out a lot with sand paper backed by the square bar stock but it's so uneven, there are still little divits in the mettle below the polished flat surface. I decided to measure the headspace too... dang, close to 0.65 inch. So I pulled the extractor polished the flats on that and carefully smoothed down the bolt face to about 0.50 inch. I believe 0.43 is minimum to prevent slamfire. While the extractor seems to be ok, I'm still getting lots of stovepipes but I think the extrator is getting a little better bite at the rim now with the reduced headspace and ignition is perfect. I'm using an aftermarket bolt handle I picked up from ebay to try and smooth this action but my bolt isn't really kicking any of the cases all that far. My old faithful really slings them clear of the action. I suppose I can try some different action springs to see if it helps with reliability. It is cycling much much smoother by hand now.
Well, I smoothed the surfaces out a lot with sand paper backed by the square bar stock but it's so uneven, there are still little divits in the mettle below the polished flat surface. I decided to measure the headspace too... dang, close to 0.65 inch. So I pulled the extractor polished the flats on that and carefully smoothed down the bolt face to about 0.50 inch. I believe 0.43 is minimum to prevent slamfire. While the extractor seems to be ok, I'm still getting lots of stovepipes but I think the extrator is getting a little better bite at the rim now with the reduced headspace and ignition is perfect. I'm using an aftermarket bolt handle I picked up from ebay to try and smooth this action but my bolt isn't really kicking any of the cases all that far. My old faithful really slings them clear of the action. I suppose I can try some different action springs to see if it helps with reliability. It is cycling much much smoother by hand now.