Mosin Nagant 91/30 Pitted Bolt Head Question

[southwest1]

I have owned a Mosin for about seven months now and have shot approx 250 rounds. Love the gun and baby it.

I clean it everytime I come back from the range. I check the firing pin protrusion every time I clean the gun.

Yesterday going through my routine I noticed a pit on the surface of the bolt head. The indentation (pit) is about the size of a pin head. It sits about 1/8" away from the firing pin hole. Placing an empty shell over the bolt face, the pit lies just outside the striking area.

Should I worry about this pit ? Will the gasses congregate in the pit and cause trouble when firing ? I can always buy another bolt head but am worried about spacing issues. What would have caused this pit ?

If anyone out there has an idea please let me know..

 

[Shadow 7D]

You need to clean your bolt too, I believe that pits on the bolt face can be caused by leaky primers or you might have a head space issue (not sure about that, but you can get gauges to check, Yankee engineering makes a coin type) that lets chamber gas leak.

 

[Max C.]

I'm not a complete expert on metallurgy and bolt heads but so long as it isn't cracking, I think you should be fine. If you're worried about gasses getting in there, fill the hole with some JB Weld. It's high temperature safe and after it's set, it shouldn't get sticky or cause problems on it's own, especially since you said the defect was pin-hole sized.