In one of the local gunshops I frequent I found a pretty, used old BRNO in .375H&H they'd just taken in. Although I already have a .375, I asked to look at it. I pulled the bolt out to inspect the bore and found that someone had ground the face of bolt, removing material from the firing pin hole downward, perhaps .015-.025" deep for the entire lower half of the bolt face. I pointed this out to the store clerk and he put the rifle in the back as his boss the owner and self-proclaimed "gunsmith" was out. From my interaction with the owner I'm betting he's going to say it isn't a problem but my gut says it is--a BIG problem. What do you think?

[ 04-20-2003, 20:32: Message edited by: Toomany Tools ]

Toomany,

Yes that would definitely be a problem. I would be interested to know why someone would cut the bolt face like that in the first place. It sounds too me like some hack had opened the bolt face for magnum use and tried their hand at widening the bottom portion of the bolt so a magnum case head could feed into and under the extractor. Based on that alone, I would be suspect of the rest of the gun as well were it me.

Regards,

Malm

Toomany Tools---

Just a reminder-- BRNO is a town and an arsenal and a gun company and they made a BUNCH of 375s.

Whether it's a problem or not depends on what it is. What model was it? What action?

Jack,

I'll have to go back and get a closer look at the marks, but all marks were filled in with white paint. The receiver was what I think you refer to a double square bridge. It had a fixed rear site with two folding leafs. The rife appears to be relatively old as all the non-blued metal has a brownish color to it. Like Malm said, I was thinking that someone ground the bolt face to solve a feeding problem, maybe get the case head to slide under the extractor better.

If you could post a scan of that bolt face it sure would help.