Taming the Jimenez JA-380: Bolt-Face

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The bolt-face on this handgun had become damaged by a few cartridges that had become jammed against it, before I worked the gun over. There was a damaged area in the side of the recess.

Looking at the arrows in the picture above, you can see where I did my work. The edge was smashed down, and this caused a small amount of metal to mushroom out onto the bolt-face. This prevented the cartridge from properly seating into the recessed area. I used my pocket-knife to carefully trim this mushroomed metal away (red arrow). As you can see by the yellow arrow, there is still some visible damage to the rim. This is because I only removed what was necessary to restore proper seating. It is important to keep this recess to normal size, because excess clearance will interfere with spent-case extraction (the extractor will not be able to get a full grip on the case rim).

I was careful to test fit with an un-fired cartridge as I worked. In this way, I was able to adjust for proper side clearance. I simply slipped the rim up under the extractor. Notice how nice and flat it sits against the bolt face. There has been no additional damage to the bolt-face since.

Please understand that there are no guarantees or warranties, implied or otherwise, and that the reader understands that no legal responsibility is held by the author for any information that is written here. This site is intended for entertainment purposes only. The author takes no responsibility for anything that a reader might do, or for a reader's interpretation or application of the information within. I am in no way associated or affiliated with Jimenez Arms, and I do not represent them in any manor.