Is this normal wear/safe to fire?

[Dubbed743]

Let it be know that I 100% understand that if there is ever any doubt about anything safety related a qualified gunsmith should be contacted and I will do so. That said, prior to doing that I want to educate myself as much as possible. The gun in question is not a Smith, but I think the individuals here are some of the *most experienced* (oldest?) around so here we go.

The gun in question is a Mid 1970s Ruger M77 Tang Safety in 7mm Rem Mag. Purchased used by my father in AK in 1982 and fired many times by him and presumably the previous owner(s). I recently inherited the rifle and on a recent range visit, it was failing to eject. I know it hasn't been shot in over a decade, so figured it needed to be cleaned/lubed and would be g2g.

Upon disassembling the bolt for cleaning, I noticed what appears to me to be significant wear at the edge of the bolt face. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the metal is deformed and lumpy and I did notice a flake at the area, although what is left appears solid.

Any insight would be appreciated, as this rifle has a lot of sentimental value.

Pictures:
M77 Tang Bolt Wear - Album on Imgur

 

[rosewood]

Good close up pictures will help greatly in evaluating it.

 

[five 0]

don't see any pics

 

[Dubbed743]

Sorry, for whatever reason the pictures weren't working. I have updated to fix it.

 

[rosewood]

Looks like normal wear to me. Could have had a case blow out or primer blow that caused some erosion. I don't see that being a safety issue.

Rosewood

 

[Greyman50]

I see the " rough" area on bolt face radius but it look blued? Take it to a good gun smith.

 

[OutWest50]

Here is a photo of another M-77 bolt face. The beveled perimeter doesn't look as rough as the edge on your bolt. If it is not ejecting, obviously some issue exists. Visit a professional gunsmith.

 

[RCL-09]

So it is extracting but not ejecting?

 

[alwslate]

The tang safety Ruger 77 bolt has a plunger ejector. I don't see it in the pic. Is it missing, sticking , spring broken or missing?

 

[2152hq]

Bolt looks OK.
The bolts are investment cast and then machined where needed to finish them up to specs.
The less machining they figure out they need, that's the amt they get. So over the production life, some areas that may have been machine finished/ground to a nice surface may later have just been left as they came on the casting.
Thus the somewhat roughened surface.

The ejector is a spring loaded plunger as alwslate pointed out.
Much the same as the Remington 700 and even the orig Winchester 92/94.
The case has spring tension from it against the edge of the base and a pivot point being the extractor claw.
As the case is being extracted, it can't go anywhere as long as it's still contained by it's length within the chamber or action.
Once the case mouth clears those obsticles, that spring tension flips the case clear using the extractor as the pivot.

No plunger or spring,,no ejection.
But it will still extract and the case will just sit in the loading port.
Sometimes the next round in the magazine coming up may jossle the empty off of the bolt face a bit and the empty will roll out of the port.

There are different ejector plungers for the Old Model 77 bolt rifle.
One for the Short Action,,one for the Long Action & Magnum.

Seems like there were a couple or maybe at least one odd ones for caliber specific rifle(s) as well but I don't remember what one(s) they were.
Maybe just mis-remembering and there are only the 2

Should be a plunger, spring and small cross pin to hold the pieces in place. IIRC the spring and pin were the same for all.


The bolt looks like it has hardly has any rounds fired.

 

[dave1918a2]

Your picture shows the front of the locking lug. The bolt locks on the rear surface of the locking lugs. Check those out. It never hurts to put a little lube on the rear surface either. I don't see any problems.

 

[Dubbed743]

Thanks everyone for chiming in! I don't think I was as clear as I should have been:

The rifle was failing to eject, so I took apart the bolt to clean it (which is why there is no ejector plunger or extractor in the photos). I discovered what I thought might be flame cutting on the edge of the bolt face adjacent to the extractor locking lug.

Upon reading responses here, looking at pictures of other M77 tang bolts, and contacting my gunsmith, the consensus seems to be that this area was in general poorly cast & finished by Ruger, which may have also contributed to some wear in the area on my particular bolt. The front of the extractor side locking lug also has some slight wear (which can be seen in the third and last photos), however my gunsmith said that this is likely from the extractor rotating around the bolt and overall he sees no reason why the bolt would not be safe to shoot.

Hearing this, I attempted to reassemble the bolt and the extractor band broke (which itself may have been a contributing factor for the failure to eject), so I am now waiting for a new part and can then see if bolt cleaning and replacing the weakened extractor band fixed the ejection problem. Thanks again, and I'll update here after I get everything reassembled.

For reference, here is a picture of another M77 Tang Bolt that also looks to have casting issues in the same area (albeit not as bad as mine).