Tikka ejector scratching case heads

[ResearchinStuff]

Got a strange one here. Did some shooting over the weekend, first case fired, faint ejector swipe, think the load must be hot, shelve those, move into the next. Fire another of a different combo, faint ejector swipe again. Shelve those, onto load 3. Faint ejector swipe again, think wth is going on, chamber a factory shell, extract without firing, dang thing has a scratch on the base.

Came home, disassembled the bolt, isolated the problem to the ejector (originally suspected extractor), polished the ejector with 3000 grit sand paper, cut a coil off the ejector spring, lost and replaced the roll pin (2.5 x 6 mm btw), trying at every step to see if the problem was fixed, and it still persists. Bore scoped the chamber, looked clean, cleaned it anyhow.

Cases are barely getting out of the action with the spring cut short (1 coil reduced the pressure to compress the ejector fully by ~1 pound). Ejector looks like a mirror, everything feels smooth and slides well. Confirmed that the ejector can compress flush or slightly below the bolt face without bottoming out Older fired cases do not have the scratch, unfired but chambered cases now have a faint scratch, cases over the weekend have a noticeable scratch just from chambering.

By comparison, the ejector on my tikka 223 is super rough, the ejector is longer, protrudes more from the bolt face, and takes more force to compress - but it doesn't scratch case heads.

Any ideas? Should I expect a new ejector and spring to fix the issue? Should I just live with the scratches?

Super hard getting pics of this, these are the best i could manage.

Pic from first fired case showing this symptom:.


Unfired case from the range showing the symptom:


Ejector post polishing


Case head on unfired case now:

 

[Lawnboi]

That’s normal. Not ejector swipe you would see with pressure signs. Just a scratch from the plunger. My tikkas are all rough on the case head. It hasn’t caused problems with brass Iv got 10+ firings on.

That extractor* isn’t nice to the rims either. But either is ejecting a case on some rocks.

I’d get a factory spring and shoot on.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Thanks Lawnboi

 

[Tullis94]

I have seen the same thing on a tikka. I found the problem to be a burr on the actual bolt face on the edge of the extractor hole. Once I got the burr out the scratches went away.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Unfortunately not the bolt face. Without the ejector installed I can push and spin as hard as I want, no scratches occur.

 

[Lawnboi]

Now is also a good time to grab spare hardware. Another positive about tikkas. You can buy an ejector extractor kit, a firing pin, a trigger assembly and a bolt stop. With that there’s not much that’s going to shut you down.

 

[Sevens]

Weirdly enough, have the exact same issue with a defiance action. Did the same trouble shooting you’re doing and still have the swipe marks.

It headspaces fine, shoots great, and the ejector is polished and working properly, so I’m going to chalk it up to soft brass (Hornady).

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Anybody have the McMaster part number for the tikka ejector spring replacement?

 

[theddguide]

Unless your bolt is hard to open, I wouldn't worry about it.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

 

[Grillnugz]

@Lawnboi would you mind posting a picture of your 10x fired brass case head?

 

[Lawnboi]

@Lawnboi would you mind posting a picture of your 10x fired brass case head?

Hard to see but there’s a rough ring around the whole case head. I did order a lumley ejector kit to see if a different shape helps, but I can live with the scratching as long as it keeps kicking them out. This action has around 4K rounds through it so I don’t see it smoothing out at all

 

[ResearchinStuff]

The lumley kit did nothing to improve my scratching.

 

[Grillnugz]

@Lawnboi Here are my wipe marks after 2 firings. The first marks were from the Norma factory load and second was from some eldm loads that were well below the load manual maximum. No stiff bolt or anything with either load. Note the difference in wipe depth and thickness.

 

[Tandin93]

Ever figure this out? I’m having the same issue with a T3x 300wsm

 

[ResearchinStuff]

No. I actually just messed with it some more this week, it still scratches the case head on factory ammo just cycling it through chamber