If you jump over to huntamerica.com and check out my post on the recent Ruger tang model 30-06 I bought, you'll see just how good a Ruger can shoot. Look under "anyone need a tang model Ruger" in the Rifle section.
Anyway, my question is this:
When you withdrawl the bolt on this Ruger after firing, there is a minor amount of drag just after the empty case clears the barrel. Upon inspection, I found the case is popping to the right under ejector spring pressure and being forced into the right bolt lug raceway. This raceway catches the case and sort of pinches it if you know what I mean. I've knocked the sharp edges off the inside and outside of the raceway, but I'm still getting a very slight hangup of the case there, and it is marking the cases slightly.
Is this anything to be concerned about and has anybody ever had this problem before? I know it might be hard to understand from my description, but I wondered if anyone had seen this.

Bobby,

Not sure what you're talking about when you say "slight hang up" and "pinching". As you know, in a firearm equipped with a spring loaded, "bolt nose" ejector, there is constant pressure being applied against the left side of the case, forcing it to the right.

Without the support of the chamber, the case is pushed to the right where it contacts and drags along the inside surface of the receiver, marking the brass. The path in which the empty case travels after it clears the chamber, is determined by the position and amount of grip the extractor has on the rim of the fired case.

It is the manner in which the extractor grips the rim of the cartridge that will determine whether the cartridge rides high or low as it is withdrawn from the action.

It is the nature of the beast, that some marking of the brass case will occur due to this design. You can paint the inside of the action with a magic marker and extract some empties to establish a visible path of extraction.

You can lightly stone and polish this "path" to reduce drag "IF" there is roughness present. Becareful not to over polish of change any dimensions.

If the problem persists, a gunsmith familiar with this type of system, can reshape the extractor to provide a different grip on the case so as to allow the bolt to carry it in a different position as it is being withdrawn.

Good luck,

Malm

[ 09-17-2003, 09:26: Message edited by: G.Malmborg ]

I've done a fair amount of gunsmithing over the last 25-30 years, so I know what I'm seeing is not completely normal. The case is hanging up on the bolt raceway, because it's narrow enough that the case mouth is not contacting the inner reciever wall. The bottleneck portion of the case is wedging in the raceway causing the hangup. I did stone the edges of the raceway slightly and it is much smoother than before, probably fine now. I have not seen any such hangup in any of the plunger type ejection bolt rifles I've messed with. I suspect you're partially right that the situation is from burrs, as this gun, although older (1984 vintage)looks as if it's only been fired a few times. The metal edges inside the action still have sharp edges and the bolt doesn't have any shiny places from being cycled.

Oddly enough, this gun, although made in 1984, apparently had not been fired much at all. The inside of the action, the bolt lug recesses, had very sharp shoulders and looked like they were machined yesterday. They were so sharp as to dig into the brass as it passed by being withdrawn from the chamber. The plunger extractor forced the brass hard into this shoulder, and shaved a little metal off the case. I took a round ceramic stone and ever so slightly knocked the edge off the shoulder in the action and now, it makes almost no mark at all and extraction is buttery smooth.