I bought this rifle back in February and I never thought to take apart the bolt to check out the firing pin assembly when I first brought it home, I was too excited to go out and shoot it. I cleaned off some of the excess factory oil. lubed the bolt, receiver, and put a drop or two down the firing pin hole on the bolt face. Needless to say, I won't forget to pull out the firing pin assembly to inspect it next time I buy a new rifle, and here's why:
About 4 weeks or so after I bought the rifle, it started to misfire, it was striking primers very lightly and wouldn't set them off. I figured that I set the primers too deep by accident... so I tried new primer depths but I couldn't find one that would allow the rifle to fire. After that happened, I took the rifle home and pulled the firing pin assembly out of the bolt and much to my amazement, this is what I had found:
I was stunned to find everything so badly covered in rust and corrosion. The firing pin itself was pitted as the rust started to eat through it!! I figured I could clean it up with my new Dremel and decided to see how clean and polished I could make it. I first coated everything with WD-40 and let it soak for awhile. Then I used the Dremel with different stainless steel brush attachments to knock off the corrosion, then took polishing compound with several felt attachments to make it shine. This worked out great!! I polished everything, cleaned out the entire inside of the bolt and oiled it all with Rem Oil after I was done. After re-assembling the bolt, I installed it back into my rifle and I was amazed at how much smoother and easier the bolt lift was and how much more clean the trigger felt when it broke. This is what everything looked like after cleaning and polishing:
About 4 weeks or so after I bought the rifle, it started to misfire, it was striking primers very lightly and wouldn't set them off. I figured that I set the primers too deep by accident... so I tried new primer depths but I couldn't find one that would allow the rifle to fire. After that happened, I took the rifle home and pulled the firing pin assembly out of the bolt and much to my amazement, this is what I had found:
I was stunned to find everything so badly covered in rust and corrosion. The firing pin itself was pitted as the rust started to eat through it!! I figured I could clean it up with my new Dremel and decided to see how clean and polished I could make it. I first coated everything with WD-40 and let it soak for awhile. Then I used the Dremel with different stainless steel brush attachments to knock off the corrosion, then took polishing compound with several felt attachments to make it shine. This worked out great!! I polished everything, cleaned out the entire inside of the bolt and oiled it all with Rem Oil after I was done. After re-assembling the bolt, I installed it back into my rifle and I was amazed at how much smoother and easier the bolt lift was and how much more clean the trigger felt when it broke. This is what everything looked like after cleaning and polishing:
