I have a win 94 in 30-30 I'm reloading for and took it to the range a few weeks back. I started in the middle of hodgdon's range for the leverevolution powder and I'm using 160gn hornady ftx bullets. Primed by CCI large rifle primers. As I flinched in anticipation of instant death for my lightest load it went off without a hitch. I inspected the case (knowing that the gun would probably fail before the case but might as well see what I can see.) The primer looks like I have really hard firing pin strikes and my pin isn't exactly pointy on this 30 something year old gun. That isn't the part that made me double think this though.
It looked initially like my primers were splashing a bit because of some ripple looking marks on the primer. There was no venting, the primer didn't change shape at all and it was still the same depth as before I shot. I was kind of confused so I asked a couple of the old timers nearby to see what they thought. They were kind of stumped as well. Figuring the loads were safe I increased the loads until I was .5gn under max safe load. All the primers looked exactly the same and the groups were starting to get smaller finally too.
Upon really close examination it looks like the boltface is marking the primer. The face isn't smooth. Around the firing pin hole it's raised and a little rough, so here's my question. Should I take a file to the bolt face and get things smoothed up or should I seek a gunsmith. I know it isn't causing any real problems yet but I also don't like that my firing pin is striking so hard either and to be honest the inner workings of a lever gun elude me. I get that it's generally the same as any other bolt in its basic functions but I have no idea how to go about things like tuning a firing pin (if there is such a thing.)
Anyone got any ideas?
