What would do this to breach bolt face?

[Dutch Oven]

UPDATE: After a long wait on hold today, I got a very nice and helpful Rossi customer service agent. After putting me on hold a couple of times to check things out, she said they would send me a new breach bolt and I wouldn't have to ship them the rifle. I still don't know what caused the damage, so I'm trying to figure out what my lesson is from this. Of course, I'm out of warranty so it won't be free - but it will save me over $100. Even so, maybe the best thing from today's call was the friendly Georgia accent from the service agent. Now we'll see if I actually get the part.

[Archer]

Glad they are shipping you the part.
Since you got it apart you should be able to swap it and if you have to do any fitting it shouldn't be much.
I surely would be more happy doing fitting myself than trusting the factory reps to get it right without screwing something else up. Even good gunsmiths sometimes have problems and accidents happen but unfortunately Rossi has a reputation for more of those issues than many other companies.

[Dutch Oven]

Yeah, I've heard stories. Customer service has been pretty good so far. What sort of fitting would I be looking at? Smoothing rails and sharp edges? I don't know much about headspace if that was something to look at.

[Archer]

I would be looking at smoothing edges & function. Headspace should be ok if it really bothers you you could get the gauges and check but you are talking a c note for the go and no go.

[Dutch Oven]

Yeah, I was thinking about the gauges, but the cost put me off. Am I right in thinking headspace is a bigger deal if you're reloading? Although, I still don't know what caused all the damage.

[Archer]

Headspace is NOT and was NOT your problem with regards to the bolt damage.
Headspace on the .44 Mag is essentially space for your rim thickness. The space between the bolt face and the end of the barrel that the rim sits in. Too little and you can't close the bolt. Too much and the brass just above the rim is not supported. Even if your headspace was excessive the problem would not cause any damage to the bolt where you have the divots. IF your primers were pierced OR if the primer cup cracked OR if your primers backed completely out you MIGHT get some plasma cutting BUT you should NOTICE the damaged or missing primers in your spent shells. Even with excessive headspace, say the primer backed out a little, typically you still get a gas seal and the case will often slam back into the bolt reseating the primer and reinforcing that gas seal.

Yeah IF there is excess headspace it may stretch the brass more than you want. This also happens when there is an unsupported feed ramp like on the early Glocks. That bulged brass may be weaker than it would be otherwise and repeated stretching can cause problem. Case head separation can happen faster in that sort of situation but can happen anyway with the repeated cycling of the brass and there are things you can do to check for that before it happens.

You can also smash some modeling clay to check how much room is there if you really want to.

[Dutch Oven]

Thanks for the headspace explanation - and all the other comments and questions. Sounds like I can pretty much cross that off my list of possibilities. Maybe it did come like that from the factory and I somehow missed it. Otherwise, I don't know what could have done that - short of someone banging on it. Hopefully, I'll get the new breach bolt in there and that will be the end of it.

[TinMan]

In following this conversation I have learned much.
Many thanks to all participants for the education.

[9x80Drilling]

I agree with TimMan-both quite an interesting and informative thread. Thanks to all who participated.

[Archer]

Was just thinking, another potential effect of excessive headspace can be that the cartridge sits far enough away from the bolt face that the firing pin protrusion is not enough to set off the primer.

In some designs the cartridge may be held by the extractor claw against the bolt face such that you don't notice this effect. Depending on the design you can get the opposite, the extractor can push the cartridge away from the bolt face. Likewise some firing pin/striker design can have more 'reach' than others. Typically long skinny firing pins like the 1911 will have more reach while most striker designs have a rather short protrusion and it often limited by shoulders on the striker itself. This was a design 'flaw' often pointed out by Jeff Cooper regarding the striker fired guns.