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Tikka Blown primer. Options and questions
Good Day
Spent the afternoon at the range.The gun is a tikka heavy varmint in .260 REM.Load is Hornady 140g BTHP in front of 46.5g H-4831SC.Primers are new WLR. In the process I lost a primer on the 7th neck sized loading of my Lapua brass.The blown primer has done some damage to the bolt face.This is the opinion part.Have a look at the pics and see what you think.Replace bolt body or continue to use?Question part.Are CCI primers thicker or harder and not as likely to fail in the same way?This load will be dropped down to 46.0g in the future with new Lapua brass.Also will another bolt from a 308 based family drop right into this rifle or will there be headspace issues?
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4 Replies
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Tikka Blown primer. Options and questions
updated 7 years, 6 months ago
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Replies
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A new bolt is definitely not a drop in part. Headspace depends on the bolt closed to chamber shoulder distance.
As for the damage to the bolt – I have no experience. it looks like it was several blown primers to cause that amount of damage?
I wonder if a new bolt would cost %50 of a new gun. The way Beretta is monopolizing, prices are way high.
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If I remember correctly, all of the Tikka's have the same bolt length, so anything in the .30-06 bolt face 'should' work as far as I know. Since the case head is the same with all of the bolts in that group, headspacing shouldn't be an issue. I'm currently using the same bolt from my .270 Tikka T3 for my .280 Ackley Improved build and it works fine, despite the headspacing between the two rounds being completely different.
Price on the other hand, may be the deciding factor. I'd ask Jason if the store here has any spares in that boltface.
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Wow, that sort of failure seems to be primer related. Meaning you might have had a defective primer. Normally in an overpressure situation you see a piercing in the firing pin indent, where the primer cup is the thinnest at the time of the firing pin strike. The damage to the bolt face is not structural and won't cause accuracy issues I bet. You may see excessive wear due to the damage but should not see failures. Check the fireing pin for damage. Maybe pop off a few empty, primed cases to see if all works as should. Then look at your load and see if you are pushing things too close to the limit.
You should get a dozen loading screen from good brass at least, if you are getting less then your load may be too hot.
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I purchased a used Sporter that had an etched bolt face like yours. The etching is probably not deep enough to cause any performance issues but obviously, you need to find the cause of your blown primers. I can't offer you any insight on that subject but if and when you decide to “reface” your bolt, I would highly recommend Gretan in Rifle, Colorado. He will reface the bolt and concurrently “bush” your firing pin. He did a beautiful job! Here is a link:
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