thanks ole-cowboy, I will check into those options. do you know where I can get some spare parts. (gas rings,mach.tool extractors,ejectors,springs,ect.?) I ask S&W if they sold spare bolts, the answer was no. so if you have a problem the day before the big hunt your up the creek.
I'd first and foremost make sure the rifle cycles dependably with say 4 different types of ammo.
Then, pick which ammo you like/ which ammo the rifle likes best, and stick with it.
The BCG is pretty far from fragile, so the whole worry about spare parts should not be predicated upon hunting, but rather when China, India and Russia decide they have had enough of us, and they come to town to collect their debt notes.
One of my well worn 308BCG a few years back had well over 15,000 rounds cycled with it, and nary a broken part.
If anything, take the BCG apart and take the extractor to a shop and see if your extractor is a match for any other standard extractor on their shelf. (Not likely to match an LMT, LWRC, or Armalite.) But it should match the commercial extractors which are BM, DPMS, Remington, CMMG. The extractor spring and little O ring would be my first culprits if I had an extraction problem.
The brass scarring can be from feed ramps, or the brass pulling on the side of the chamber on extraction. Not an issue, either way.
