All,
I have Mauser in for some work and the gunsmith told me that when you forge a bolt down you have to inlet some of the action area for the bolt to fully close and allow for full contact of the locking lugs. I have never heard of removing metal from the action to allow for the bolt. Is this common? I have built a couple of Mausers myself and have never done this and they seem to have worked fine and shot well. Any info would be appreciated. I trust this guy completely but was unaware that this was common or neccessary?

Thanks, Jason

I like my bolt handles tight against the stock. Yes, it is quite common to have to notch a military action to let the handle down.

All the commercial FN Mausers have the notch. It's 'way back in the tang area and is nothing to think twice about.

The bolt bending blocks I use provide some length of bolt handle before the bend starts.
Just follow the instructions.
MAUSER BOLT FORGING BLOCKS at Brownell's

I have:
1) Oxyacetylene set up
2) Mauser bolt bending jig as sold by Midway and Brownell's with a stake.
3) two sets of welding goggles
4) some big gloves
5) a home made brass heat sink with buttressing threads that match the inside of the bolt body [just a foot of brass rod with some threads that lean to one side]
6) a 75 pound vice that I can put in the middle of the shop floor
7) a can of welder's paste

1) The bolt is stripped. Taking the extractor off is easy, it will take some practice getting it back on. Do not remove the extractor retaining ring. The square bolt handle base has a radius ground per the jig instructions [I don't bother], no reciever modification is required.
2) The bolt body is filled with welder's paste and the heat sink screwed in.
3) The bolt body is put in the jig, which is put in the vice.
4) Goggles are adorned, and I put on big gloves.
5) My brother fires up the torch and gets the base of the bolt handle red hot.
6) I pound on the stake [A big drift with a radius in one dimension on the tip] with the sledge hammer and the stake pushes the bolt handle over at the base.
7) I like the shape the bolt handle with a curve so it wraps around the scope eyepiece but gives clearance, so the minimum of stock needs to be relieved.
8 For heavy recoiling 458 magnum rifles, no rearward sweep of the bolt handle is desirable. For 250 Savage, some rearward sweep is wanted.
9) When the bolt is bent, the bolt body is lifted out of the jig by the heat sink and lowered into a bucket of water with only the bolt handle sticking out of the water. The goal is to get the bolt handle bent without the nearby cocking cam [bevel at rear of bolt body] changing color beyond "straw" color.
10) My brother shapes his bent bolts with a die grinder so the bolt looks fancy. I just leave mine with the forged look.
11) I have bent 25 VZ24 and Turk Mauser bolts in a day. And I have seen others bend and re bend and re bend the same bolt handle all day.
12) I have had 91/30 bolts TIG welded and I have my bent Mauser bolts, both are strong enough to stand on the handle like a pogo stick to clear a stuck case.


Picture of a bolt I bent

Like has been said here before, it is typical that the receiver have a notch for the bolt handle. Here is one I did.





FYI, that receiver had just come back from being gas carburised, hence the color.



Here is a shot of why you need the notch.

FYI, that receiver had just come back from being gas carburised, hence the color.

Who did you have do the heat treating for you and what do they charge? If you don't mind my asking . I haven't had any done in a while but I used to have Blanchard's do mine. If I remember right they charged $ 50.00 for the first piece and $ 20.00 for each additional piece. That may not be the exact price but I think it is. I heard the guy at Blanchard's that did the rifle actions passed away. He was very good at his job.

Z1r,
Why don't you start the bend further from the bolt body so you won't have to notch the receiver and won't have to notch the stock so much?

--
A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.

Notching the receiver and/or stock is no big deal. I personally use the style on the middle action in the pic. I like the looks the best and it seems to allow lower mounting of the scope. Since I'm not using my stock as a club it seems to hold up fine.

The place I used for heat treatment about a year ago is no longer doing this kind of work. They were called accurate heat treating or something like that in SoCal.

Ron

Many people on this forum have recommended gas carburizing and many people have reported that it works very well. I have read somewhere that the original process that mauser used was cyanide casehardening. I have not talked to these people, but they do that process, or at least their website says they do. they might also do gas carburizing as well.

http://www.heinzelmanht.com/services.htm

Blue

I contacted these guys
http://www.heinzelmanht.com/services.htm
about heat treating my falling block 12ga action and didn't get any reply back from them. Do they work on guns or take small jobs?

Lars

As I mentioned, I have not talked to them. However, their website claims that they do color case hardening on guns, so I would imagine that they have worked on guns before. Why not actually give them a call and report back to us what they had to say as there are a lot of people who are interested in having their guns re case hardened.

Blue