I just went through a Remington 700 armorer's course and learned some interesting tidbits on 2004 and newer 700's.
In the last few years Remington has been designing there 700's to crater primers on purpose. They've added a very very slight bevel to the firing pin hole so that primer cratering occurs during case expansion. This causes the primer metal to drift forward and thicken at the lip of the cratering and the dome of the firing pin strike. The Remington rep said they even have primer cutaways back at the factory that proves it works.
Normally, cratering comes around from having too much pressure in a hand load and when the case contracts, it hits the bolt face hard enough to bounce the firing pin back and material flows into the firing pin hole.
On a side note, which was news to me but might be common knowledge on THR, Remington has started fluting the 700 firing pins to reduce lock time. The rep thought that the new style firing pins would be comparable in weight and lock time to an aftermarket titanium pins.
In the last few years Remington has been designing there 700's to crater primers on purpose. They've added a very very slight bevel to the firing pin hole so that primer cratering occurs during case expansion. This causes the primer metal to drift forward and thicken at the lip of the cratering and the dome of the firing pin strike. The Remington rep said they even have primer cutaways back at the factory that proves it works.
Normally, cratering comes around from having too much pressure in a hand load and when the case contracts, it hits the bolt face hard enough to bounce the firing pin back and material flows into the firing pin hole.
On a side note, which was news to me but might be common knowledge on THR, Remington has started fluting the 700 firing pins to reduce lock time. The rep thought that the new style firing pins would be comparable in weight and lock time to an aftermarket titanium pins.