I finally got my left handed Zastava 458 Win mag out to the range. I bought over a year ago but I hadn't shot it yet.

I bore sighted it at 25 yards and loaded one round in the magazine. I chambered the round standing on the shooting sticks, squeezed the trigger and "click".

WTF? I opened up the action and the primer had the barest hint of a firing pin mark on it. I re-chambered the round and got the same click.

Luckily I have a friend who builds precision rifles near by so I swung by his place and he looked it over for me.

He found two issues in the bolt:

Apparently when my rifle was assembled the shroud at the back of the bolt wasn't screwed all the way on.

The firing pin was put in the bolt upside down. The firing pin has two wings that fit into slots in the front of the bolt body. One side of the wing is tapered and the other is straight, if you turn the pin upside down the tapers don't line up.

When we took the bolt apart and removed the firing pin spring and dropped the pin into the bolt body the pin would not protrude. We flipped it 180 degrees and then it would.

We got it all assembled and the firing pin lit off an empty primed case. I'll take it back out tomorrow and test it.

Sounds like a Monday morning(w/hang over) or late Friday afternoon(in a hurry to leave) build. Glad it was an easy fix.

Keith

No, it sounds like left over commie era attitude of some worker there in factory.
Plain ole bullshit.

Aren't you glad you tried it first before taking it into the field? Damn

Frank,

Didn't the fellow who rebarreled it test fire it?

George

Mauser firing pins should have the tapers on both sides of the "wings". All of them. They work both ways if made correctly; there is no top and bottom. As for the bolt shroud; someone, perhaps post factory (they have proof laws in Serbia) didn't screw it in all the way.

I don't know Mausers.

I'm going by what my friend (FFL Gunsmith) showed me and there is definitely a difference in the two wings on the firing pin. One way it will not fit all the way in the bolt body and the other way it will.

George, I don't know if John test fired it.

Here's what it did today with the first six rounds using some 300 grain bullets that I had for my 45.70, just to try the gun out.

Frank, sure looks like a winner now! :-)

I just got the same rifle. Mine worked perfect right out the box... well other than a stock that's not really finished, a recoil pad that's about as soft as concrete and sights that may or may not be perfectly lined up. But all in all nice gun for the price