Hello all !

I was wondering if anyone else has tried to adjust the primary extraction dimension as described by sharpshooter in this thread http://savageshooters.com/SavageForu...p?topic=3429.0

I'm currently working on tuning a Stevens 200 243Win. I've trued the front receiver ring and barrel nut in the lathe, and taken a very small cleanup cut off of the bolt head locking lugs. After swapping out the bolt handle for a SSS tactical handle the primary extraction distance dropped to about 0.049" - just below the 0.055" quoted by sharpshooter. I don't blame the new bolt handle for the change, the original handle had a 'bird dropping' of a slag or casting protrusion right on the extraction ramp that added about 0.025" to the extraction dimension.

Anyway in an attempt to correct this I tried to shorten the bolt body by putting the body in a spin/index fixture in my mill with the intent of shortening the bolt body by an appropriate amount, however after trying a 5 thou test past it just dulled my end mill ::) Turns out the bolt body is harder the the hubs of **** ! I assume the hardness is for the cocking ramp.

So if you've shortened your bolt body to correct the primary extraction, how did you do it ? I'm considering chucking up a small grinding stone and trying my same setup and taking it off a thou at a time or so ...... I'm not relishing the idea of getting grinding dust all over my mill. Yeah I can cover up the table and slides etc, but I thought I'd ask if anyone had a better way ??

My other options would be to remove the material from inside the bolt bore ( I really don't want do this ), or to pull a Bubba and grind the back of the bolt body by hand and eye on a bench grinder.

I hope someone has a better idea :)