I believe you are totally correct to keep our breech plugs clean, and taped.

"Is it worth the expense to modify a breech plug?" you wrote.

Here is a picture of a breech plug that shows severe flame cutting to primer seat.







One could toss it, and replace it with new, but one could also find and old washer laying around the house, and cut it down on the lathe which is similar to what was suggested by sabotloader in another thread.








As suggested by Screwbolts a letter 'C' drill was used to make the primer pocket deeper in the breech plug with flame cutting damage. The intention was to remove the flame cutting from the primer pocket and use the washer to reduce the depth of the pocket, so the primer would fit tight. The washer i found here was about 1/32" thick. The washer was cut to a diameter just a few thousandths larger than the diameter of the primer pocket, so that it could be installed, and would be a tight fit. The depth of the pocket, with the washer installed, ended up being 0.012" less than a factory breech plug, which seemed like it might work. It did, however, make for a tight fit when closing the breech on the Omega.

This morning i headed up into the hills to see if this thing would shoot. The blow back was virtually zero using this steel washer; it was certainly was much better than it was before the flame cut damage was removed. It may be that one should make the primer height difference less than the 0.012" inch this ended up; perhaps 0.008" would be tight enough to have little blow back, and loose enough so it would be easier to put the rifle into battery.


So, mick669 was it worth the expense?