What's the best example?

I was just looking at Tikka, I don’t think I can buy a 300 blackout Tikka, not factory. Has to be re-barreled, to go that route might as well just buy a custom rifle.

To me the American Gen II is the most attractive factory option in a 16” 300 blackout rifle in my price range. And for that I can deal with some machine marks and bolt noise, and it is fixable. I would probably just put a very thin smear of genuine MOS2 paste on it, at least 60 % moly (not the graphite “moly” from walmart, autozone etc) that stuff is pretty much liquid ball bearings and the bolt surface will only help it “stick”.

I don’t know I guess I will just concede that it is a Tikka killer

I had two RAR's and both had the "zipper bolt" syndrome. I smeared some Iosso bore paste?JB's on it and worked it back a forth a zillion times and it seemed to help. This rifle in the Blackout seems like a good option.

Ruger sacrifices surface finish for speed of production to keep that rifle at a working mans price point. That zipper noise is just the result of relationship of the tool nose radius and feed rate while they are turning it down. Making a finish pass costs more, and grinding it costs more than that.

Of course you're right.

However, the bean counters might want to do a cost/risk/benefit analysis.

Clearly the number one complaint about the rifle is the finish on the bolt. I'm a manual lathe guy, so I can't speak to CNC machining time. I've seen CNC videos, and my thinking is the CNC lathe spends 5% more time making a high speed/ low feed pass, and it would solve the problem. When they turn that time into dollars, my bet is the juice is worth the squeeze. Less complaints begets happier customers, begets more recombinations for their rifle, begets more sales of said rifle.

You could literally pay somebody else to refinish your factory bolt and have it fluted or what have you, get custom work done to your bolt, for less than $100. They could have made it a factory option, or talo exclusive or etc and got that money.

That’s a great point. I’d sure like the spiral flute the bolt to match the barrel, would look pretty cool.