To begin, I'm not interested in purchasing either of these, as standard mil-spec C158 bolts have been my go to forever, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future unless something radically improved is brought to market. Think KAC E3.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this bolt in an email I received from Surplus Ammo & Arms.

http://www.surplusammo.com/products/saa-ar-15-223-5-56-also-300-aac-blackout-enhanced-bolt-assembly-nickel-boron.html

The appearance and specs all match those of the original Relia-Bolt from Sharps Rifle Company. The same S7 steel used for construction, the same NP3 coating, the same phosphated ejector and extractor, etc. The product title says it's nickel boron coated, but if you read the description, it's actually NP3, or nickel teflon, which is the same as the SRC Relia-Bolt. The only difference I can spot is theirs is cheaper than the one on the SRC site.

Here's a link to the genuine Relia-Bolt.

http://store.srcarms.com/product-p/reliabolt.htm

Like I said in the beginning of this post, I'm not interested in purchasing either, just simply curious if the SAA bolt is an exact rip-off of the original SRC bolt, or if SAA is simply selling genuine Relia-Bolts under their own name without mentioning SRC.

I emailed both company's asking about this, but haven't received a reply from either as of right now. To be fair, it's Sunday morning and I just contacted them, so they haven't really had a chance to reply yet.

If anyone has any info, post it up!

Sharps recently redid their Reliabolt finish and went with a DLC coating instead of the NP3Plus. Now the bolts are a black color while the NP3+ ones were a dull silver color. My guess, they (Sharps) found a buyer for the remaining stock of NP3+ bolts. I don't know that for a fact mind you, it's just a Sunday morning WAG.

I doubt it's fake, more likely to be a rebrand. SAA has been around for awhile.

I thought the black DLC bolt was just an option to the standard NP3 coated bolt? I believe both are still available on the SRC site.

Probably. Just found it unusual, as anyone who is familiar with the Relia-Bolt may have the same question I do.

Yeah, just checked and all three bolts are still available. Something that's unusual is the original NP3 Relia-Bolt is $80 on their site and the newer black DLC bolt is almost half that at $45, then they also have the NP3+ Bolt for $90.

Interesting, I decided to buy three and get the free shipping. 

Cool deal. You ordered the DLC bolts? Do you run these bolts in your Bump guns?

Just to add, they actually have four different bolts. The fourth is an FDE colored bolt, but is only available as a complete BCG.

They say the FDE bolt is zirconium nitride. Not sure if it's a DLC/Ionbond coating like BCM's FDE bolt carrier group, or if it's something like a regular nitride/melonite treatment that yields a different color. Im guessing its the latter since they call it zirconium nitride.

Yeah, I bought the DLC ones. I have one of the regular models in my BumpSAW, it unfortunately had ejection and extraction issues. SRC sent me replacement parts (I preferred to get replacement parts rather than send it back for an ejector/extractor swap). I also changed springs to Sprinco springs as that wasn't my only bolt to have issues that day and service life can be as little as 3k rounds for ejector springs. I'm running really fast with my bumpSAW, so it needs to get the shells ejected promptly. Unfortunately I haven't had it out to the range since.

These will serve as replacement bolts as several of my rifles reach higher round counts. I've got over 40k 5.56 to shoot up, so I can't expect parts to last forever.

I might put one in a binary build as well. I'm also working on my own fast trigger, hopefully I'll be able to hit 600+ rpm with it. Maybe someday I'll get my finger running that fast

Gotcha. I run BCM upgraded extractor springs in all my bolts as well as Sprinco chrome silicon ejector springs. Every bolt I own has this combo and it's always worked great for me.

BTW, good luck with your trigger.

lol $45 for a DLC bolt directly from SRC?
Ordered one.. I'm guessing it's an error but we'll see.

http://store.srcarms.com/product-p/xpb.htm the one I see for $45 is the Xtreme Performance Bolt, not the Relia-Bolt. I'm not sure what differences there are.

It lists it as S7. I'll compare it to my reliabolt when they show up.

Sorry fella's, I wouldn't trust them on any of my HD rifles: Sharps Reliabreakable bolts.


While I commend their customer service, I just don't know if I'm ready to trust using their product(s).

They had a heat treat problem. I'll know before long if they fixed it.

They're back at $79 now.  I got my three in and they look just like the regular reliabolts but covered in the grey DLC.

If they got the heat treat right, they will be a very tough bolt. I had issues until someone pointed me in the right direction. If you go by the recommended procedure, you will cook the bolt and make it brittle. Because of the thin sections , you can not bring it up and hold at a soak, then take to solution temp and hold. You ramp right to 1725-1750 and hold 15 minutes. Air quench and then temper before it cools below 125. Double temper is best. Craig

@jaqufrost

Can you post a pic of the new ones? The ones that you mentioned are grey.

I read a thread recently that had a guy using a Relia-Bolt and a stainless Noveske barrel. The Relia-Bolt was peening his barrel extension in the shape of the bolt face. I couldn't see the pics because the thread was an older one, but in the end, SRC wouldn't respond to the guy after he did the tests and took measurements of everything they asked. Everything passed, pointing to their bolt as the cause, that's when they quit replying to him. Unusual, because it's the only person I've ever seen post an issue like that.

Took a couple pictures for you.

My brother’s been running an SRC BCG in a 7.5” FA rig he converted to gas piston operation.  Almost 3K rounds with about half of ‘em suppressed...lotta mag dumps, etc. and no issues so far.

He ordered a couple of those BCG’s from Surplus Ammo.  One is going in a 14.5” FA build.  They looked fine to me but can’t tell much from just appearance except for crappy finish machining.  Time will tell.

I lean towards phosphate/ chrome-lined plain ‘ole BCG’s, but nothing wrong with trying new stuff IMO.