Alright, here's the setup.  Circa 1993 Springfield Arms M1A.  All USGI except for receiver.  TRW bolt and barrel.  Love this gun, F'ing love it.  

A few years ago, I desperately wanted to setup a BHD Shughart style rifle, so I slowly acquired the ARMS #18 old style split rail mount, correct ring, plus Aimpoint 30mm pro.

Setup kicks ass!!  Field of view is awesome, top of front sight is visible from the bottom 1/3 fov, easy target acquisition, super fast follow up shots. 

I modeled this after the Shughart BHD cinematic rifle I saw in the theatre. 


Here's the problem....I'm getting brass strikes directly on the bottom of my Aimpoint pro.  Nothing terrible, just small dings at first.  As time progressed, more and deeper dings began appearing.  Then I started getting malfunctions.  Empty brass getting stuck in the chamber during the "reload" phase of the bolt (I think!).  It's not terribly annoying, but I can count on one of these malfunctions every few magazines. 

This is unacceptable.

The optic sits directly at the 12o'clock position and the dings are directly underneath. 

NOW...given the information provided, what is the probability that the ejector/extractor spring needs replacement, given the age of the weapon?  I'm almost to the point of stripping off the mount and optic and running straight irons.  Accuracy is superb, contact is violent,  and the retro vibe is intoxicating.  However, I really need to fix this quirk if possible, to keep running my setup.   My experience tells me to keep the optics and fix the ejection problem.  I'm looking for obvious items from those more knowledgeable than I, and would greatly appreciate any insight! 

Rebuild the bolt and replace the op spring

Sounds like your extractor isn't working.  You could also have a gummed up chamber and need to clean it out real good.  But what he said is good too.   Buy a USGI extractor and parts though.  You can use a Garand's extractor.  www.billricca.com is one place to get USGI parts.  

When I was first reading your post I was thinking the mount might have been causing it, but if the brass isn't even coming out of the chamber, the mount has nothing to do with it.  Now, the dings on your optic, not much you can do about that.  I'm assuming you have the ARMS mount that is split.  You can get a different mount that is solid and the brass will hit the mount and not the optic.  

There is one guy that researched it really deep and I think the consensus was Shugart used a brookfield precision mount.

And you know you get a Gibbs slap upside the head for not posting a pic.