How can a person slick up one of these actions? A buddy of mine has a MKII .308 that the action is difficult to work. This is the stickiest rifle bolt I have ever seen. Thanks for any replies.
Mike J

Mike,
Is the bolt dragging along the rails when sliding, or is the bolt difficult to open or close?

If the former, it's possible that there is some residue leftover from manufacture still in the action.
Remove the action from the stock and the bolt from the action. With the barrel pointing downwards, spray Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber (or a similar product) down the
action from the rear. The spray the bolt lug recesses again. Spray the locking lugs on the bolt.
Apply a SMALL dab of graphite to the bolt raceways, and on the back of the bolt lugs.
Re-insert the bolt, and see if that helped.

If more slicking up is needed, get some very fine lapping compound (600 grit) and apply to the rails. Slide the bolt back and forth a few hundred times, then clean the action as described above. Do NOT cam the bolt into battery with lapping compound on it! You could affect headspace.

If the bolt is difficult to open or close, is that with an empty chamber? If so, have a gunsmith check it out.

If the bolt is difficult to open after firing a round, your ammunition may be to blame. If you have difficulty closing the bolt on a loaded round, then your ammunition is not sized for your chamber.

George

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Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!

Is the rifle stainless? By now I'm sure you know that unlubricated stainless galls rather easily. Might want to try changing whatever oil he uses. Funny as it sounds, toothpaste that mentions "whitening" in the label has very mild abrasives in it. "Crest" is one brand, but they all should work. So if you want to try lapping the bolt in a little and don't have any lapping compound you can use that. I would first examine everything and see where the shiny spots (high spots) are, as George mentioned there might just be a burr or raised edge somewhere.

It's a ruger. That's life.

Thanks for the replys (except for yours, 500grains :-)) I have tried to smooth out the contacting surfaces using very fine lapping compound but did not gain much if anything. I should have detailed the first post a bit more... the bolt (blued gun, not SS) opens & closes normally, but sliding the bolt in and out is where the problem occurs. As mentioned, it sure acts like a galled stainless action. But a super cleaning and re-lubing did not help, and that is when we tried the lapping compound. Maybe we need to keep after that.

Thanks again,
Mike J

Sometimes you run into a situation where the bolt and reciever which are of similar material are also of about the same hardness and not very hard at that. This is a certain recipe for stickiness. There are no simple cures. Not so simple ones include having the bolt nitrided or perhaps teflon coated. Hard chrome is a possibility as long as the plater is advise to treat the bolt to avoid hydrogen embrittlement.
By ordering bake on Teflon/moly from Brownells you could accomplish this at home. Regards, Bill.

Just had the same problem with a NIB (old model M77) 338 Win Mag Ruger. I plan on taking it to RSA with son for his first safari in May.
I gave up and used Clover compound (course) for the first run and then fine later. Afterwards I sprayed with carb cleaner and then put Wilson Trigger Slick on the bolt in a few spots. It helped it no end. Still not as slick as my Sako toys etc. but I think we will get by now and some use should improve it too.

I have had problems like that with my Ruger, and the fix was cleaning the bolt as stated above, and loosening (just a tiny bit) the screw just in front of the trigger guard.