Two days ago I received a new winchester featherweight in 7mm08. Had to purchase it from 500 miles away as there are none locally. It has a real stiff safety, especially trying to get it on. In fact my wife cant even move it to safe. How difficult is it to fix, or should I send it back. I would prefer to keep the gun as it seems very good in all other respects, and I had to watch for over a year to get one. Thanks you in advance for your advise.

Not something most people could fix at home as repair usually means taking some metal off the firing pin where the safety engages it. I use the Bridgeport for that. So, unless you have a gunsmith local you're better off sending it in for repair.

quote:

Originally posted by bbell:
Two days ago I received a new winchester featherweight in 7mm08. Had to purchase it from 500 miles away as there are none locally. It has a real stiff safety, especially trying to get it on. In fact my wife cant even move it to safe. How difficult is it to fix, or should I send it back. I would prefer to keep the gun as it seems very good in all other respects, and I had to watch for over a year to get one.
Thanks you in advance for your advise.

Where are you located, you could ship it.

Im located in Canada which makes it difficult as I cant ship across the border and I dont know who does the work here. Thanks you for your input.

Use some moly grease and work it back and forth about 500 times and get back to us. It should become easier to move.
They are easy to fix but for the novice, not something they should try for safety reasons. No pun intended.

Surely Winchester has a repair center in Canada. Try calling the the company for that information.

Strip the bolt right down until you can get to the notch/ramp in the cocking piece that the safety works on.

Sometimes that ramp needs a bit of beveling on the outside edge to let the safety's cam get started. Just breaking the corner is usually enough. Once it's started it will still lift the cocking piece/striker to the original position so nothing is changed as regards the operation of the safety or how far it cams the cocking piece off the sear.

Its harder to explain than to do. A bonus is that nobody is ever likely to see your file cut, as its all hidden inside the shroud. I once made the entire notch on an un-cut cocking piece with a hacksaw and file. There was a lot of cut and try involved, but it isn't rocket surgery.

There could be several issues. It could be as simple as disassembly and de-burring and polishing some parts. It could be a timing issue requiring re-locating the cocking piece in the shroud. it could be the notch in the firing pin needs opening up. My recommendation is sending it to a gunsmith with model 70 competency.
Nat Lambeth

John is correct. You need to take it to a gunsmith so the angle on the firing pin can be re-cut. Don't try to do this at home because if you take a bit too much the gun will fire if you pull the trigger while the safety is still on and then move it to fire.