Polishing a Bolt

[jrebel]

Has anyone ever polished a bolt on a rifle using this method (youtube video posted)?

The only complaint I have with my Savage Stealth 6.5 creedmoor is the bolt is anything but smooth.  Matter of fact it is pretty crude and sticky.  The bolt is panted so was wondering if polishing it would help a little.  I don't want to do anything that would potentially effect accuracy as it is crazy accurate...but polishing the bolt shouldn't effect accuracy?  Should it?   

I own a lot of savages and all the bolts are buttery smooth except this one.  Wonder why they would make their "precision rifle" with such a crude bolt. 

[hunter399]

Larry potterfield say ok ,then it's ok.
Only accurate rifles are interesting.
I don't think it's gonna hurt anything,i think the locking lugs at the end of a bolt you don't wanna mess with though.

[RadSav]

I do not have any experience with the 110 actions.  So taking a blind run here.  But in my experience working with rifles it's almost never the bolt producing rough or sticky working of the action.  It's almost always the box or the rails.  Any burrs or misfitted box will bite into the soft bolt.  Doesn't take many cycles of the bolt to start seeing the wear marks if you have burrs there.  I'd concentrate on those first before sanding and/or polishing a bolt.

Box or magazine is the easiest to test first.  Just drop the magazine or box and cycle the bolt.  If it runs smooth life just got a lot easier!  If the box/magazine does not eliminate the issue next step is inspecting the bolt for wear.  That gives me an idea of where to focus attention.  Then run a Q-Tip down any surface that makes contact with the bolt in that area.  If there is a burr it will tear the cotton loose from the Q-Tip.  I use a Dremel with rubber tips impregnated with a fine polishing grit trying to target only the burr.  If that's not enough then I work the entire rail with a light polishing compound.

Sometimes a burr on the rail will create a burr on the bolt as well.  So I inspect that next.  Target burr only when dealing with anything remotely associated with headspace or locking.  Micro baby steps or have a smith take care of it at that point!!!

[AWS]

+1 for the above info.  The bolt is rarely the problem, drag on the mag lips and follower is the usual problem  If it still runs rough with the mag and follower out a little valve grinding compound in the rails and cycling the bolt will smooth it out, be sure and not get it behind the lugs as it is easy to wear them down enough to change the headspace.

Savages are notorious hard closers when turning down the bolt do to the design, there are a number of fixes for that by working on the internals of the bolt, I have a bunch of savages and have never bothered to mess with the internals of the bolt, they work.

[jrebel]

Thanks for all the input. The lugs lock and unlock very smoth.  It is only when the bolt is open (bolt handle up) and you are pulling it out when it is not smoth.  It pushes relatively smoth....just doesn't pull (if that makes sense).   It is with and without a extracting a case.  I will try taking the mag out....never thought about that.     

I will report back shortly.