Is this something to be concerned about or is this normal wear for the rear of the bolt on my pre 64 1894? The marks seem to be made from when they contact the hammer upon cocking.

I would say yes to some wear. No way of knowing how much the piece was fired. However, I am not a smith. You might need to have a smith take a look. Too much wear could be a safety concern. Another problem is bolt override on the hammer causing excessive hammer wear.

It’s weird to me because the rest of the gun doesn’t have a lot of “shooter” wear (there is finish wear from possible poor storage). I’ve looked at a bunch of used post 64’s and didn’t really see this. However there aren’t a lot of the pre 64’s around at the shops but googling I’ve found other pre64’s to show the same wear pattern. Even on otherwise very clean guns. Wish I had more examples to examine locally to see.

Not too many gunsmiths from my area that I would trust either unfortunately.

Boogsawaste wrote:It’s weird to me because the rest of the gun doesn’t have a lot of “shooter” wear (there is finish wear from possible poor storage). I’ve looked at a bunch of used post 64’s and didn’t really see this. However there aren’t a lot of the pre 64’s around at the shops but googling I’ve found other pre 64’s to show the same wear pattern. Even on otherwise very clean guns. Wish I had more examples to examine locally to see.

Not too many gunsmiths from my area that I would trust either unfortunately.

The only way that damage could have occurred is by the gun being fired "out of battery". By that I mean, at some point the trigger was depressed without the finger lever depressing the trigger stop...when that happens the cartridge is detonated, the bolt is propelled back towards the shooter and has damaged the rear faced of the bolt. I've seen this one time. Check for damaged or broken trigger stop located directly behind the trigger.