My bolt is very hard to lift in the fire position! when the safety is in the mid way position and you are able to lift the bolt its fine, but when its in the fire position the whole thing becomes stiff, any help would be appreciated! If it involves the dismantling of the bolt then I am going to need instructions..

many thanks

griff

It sounds to me that you either have a rough cam surface on the bolt/cocking piece or you may have significant lug setback on the receiver where the locking lugs turn into the receiver. The former is more likely than the latter.

masterifleman,
how does the safety in the fire position affect the bolt lift?


regards
griff

Sorry, I didn't address the "or". You can easily remove the striker from the bolt by closing the bolt and putting the safety in the mid position, open and remove the bolt from the receiver. There is a small angled button on the left side of the cocking piece, depress that and unscrew the striker from the bolt. At this point, you can easily see the cam surface on the bolt and the mating angled surface on the cocking piece (sear). Check those for any roughness or galling. These can be polished by using 400-600 grit wet and dry paper, just be careful not to actually remove any metal. Or, if you do discover any roughness, point this out to your smith and let him take care of it.

Answer to your second post is, it shouldn't at all. The safety wing (lever) shaft shouldn't come in contact with the striker, which is what you are caming back when you lift the bolt. If it is, there is something drastically wrong with the safety. If you feel comfortable in dis-assembling your striker, you could check to see if it is rubbing on the sear. Taking the spring off the striker is the most difficult thing as you have to compress it with a tool in order to remove the "U" shaped collar that holds it on and be careful not to let the spring go flying around the room. Then you have to drive the pin out that holds the cocking piece on to the striker/sear. Once it is dis-assmbled, you can look to see if the safety shaft is rubbing on the sear. You can usually get dis-assembly procedures at a good sporting goods store in the Gun Digest disassembly manuals for rifles.

masterifleman,
took the firing assembly out of the bolt and tried it in the receiver, n o problems,so it seems that it is whatever bearing "surface" that needs a stone or wet and dry. how is the angled bearing surface affected by the safety in the fire position.
regards
griff

Griff,

I think he assumes that you are having diffuculty when you open the bolt in the "Fire" position because you are re-cocking the firing pin.

Do you have trouble working the bolt when the firing pin is cocked?

Does the rifle have the original trigger? With the bolt assembled and dry fired, try holding the trigger back as you open the bolt to see if it's hard to lift, if it lifts easily, you need to work on the sear surfaces of the triggler (get a smith to do it). I have encountered sticky bolt lift in Mausers that had aftermarket triggers, and in my case it was always the sears binding. At what point in the bolt lift does it get sticky? Does it hit a point and bind, if it does its probably camming surfaces. If it binds at the beginning and then gets easier it could be camming surfaces or lug setback. You should be able to see any rough cam surfaces. You may just need to really clean it.

the bolt is hard to lift with it cocked when it is in the fire position, when it is in the middle position it is nice and smooth.All I can describe it is like is when you have case that has not been sized and you have to camm it down,
and extraction is much the same.
tell me what part to polish and we will see if that does the trick.

going away for 2 days so wont be able to reply to you all, will give it a go when I return.

regards
griff

regards
griff

I know this is an old post but wanted to revisit it. I have a pre-64 Featherweight .243 and the bolt effort lifting and closing is noticeably harder with the safety in "fire" position than in the middle position, even after it has been worked to cock it.

Is this likely either some interference in the bolt that needs polishing or adjusting, or build up of crud in the bolt? I suppose I need to find someone to look at it. Otherwise it functions just fine.

I hate to start taking the bolt apart and then not be able to get it back together. I generally end up with extra parts or loose something small when I do things like that.

It has been called into service this year (being used by the third generation of my family now) until I can get to the range and check zero on a couple of other rifles.

Of course it is hard to lift when in the fire position; you are cocking the firing pin; and it is very easy to lift when in the mid position; you aren't moving the cocking piece/spring at all. This is normal, unless you are talking a very hard, gritty, bolt lift. But just being much harder than in the mid position; it is supposed to be.
Send it to me and I will check it out for you.

On my rifle, it is harder both to lift and to close even after it is cocked. I pulled out a newer Model 70 and it is not the same at all.

When it is cocked, the cocking piece has to rest on something and that is a little detent on the bolt body rear; it is probably too deep, or burred. Look at it and put some blue on it (magic marker will work) and see; stone and polish it. Probably is it.
When the safety is on, the cocking piece is not resting on the bolt, so you don't feel that.

I just did one, It had been reblued and is normal, in my experience for which I have not answer, for the safety to sometimes be very hard to engage. A simple matter to hone or file a bit off the camming surface of the cocking piece; smoothj as silk now.

They aren't saying the safety is hard to put on; it is the bolt lift and down that is hard; and I explained why.

Sometimes the bolt notch is soft and that can make any bolt action hard to cock...heat the notch of the bolt cherry red and quench in water, then polish it and it will slick right up.

I appreciate the suggestions. I will try to take the bolt down and see what I can see. I will probably not mess with it until deer season closes next month.

This rifle has been in the family since my father purchased it used in the mid-60s. I have not noticed any issues until this year. To me that suggests something has worn or become gummed up, clogged with grime, or needs some smoothing/cleaning. I am not the expert though.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
They aren't saying the safety is hard to put on; it is the bolt lift and down that is hard; and I explained why.

Never mind, went back and read it,

Ok, Mr Helm, put the safety in the middle position. Remove the bolt. Press the little button you see on the left side of the bolt shroud and unscrew the shroud from the bolt. That is easy and no tools are used. Clean everything you can get to, and take a picture. Look for burrs, galling, etc. Post the picture here.
If you don't want to do that, well, put some good lube on the cam and threads, and hope for the best. But, as I always told my soldiers; "Hope is not a course of action".

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Ok, Mr Helm, put the safety in the middle position. Remove the bolt. Press the little button you see on the left side of the bolt shroud and unscrew the shroud from the bolt. That is easy and no tools are used. Clean everything you can get to, and take a picture. Look for burrs, galling, etc. Post the picture here.
If you don't want to do that, well, put some good lube on the cam and threads, and hope for the best. But, as I always told my soldiers; "Hope is not a course of action".

I will take it apart when I get the down time and see how it looks. High probability of lots of accumulated grime at the least.

There are two detents on the safety lever.
The detent that controls the fire position may be not as deep as the detent that controls the center position. A detent that is not to full depth will hold the safety lever plunger ahead further allowing it to drag and bind on the back of the bolt. I may be necessary to remove the safety lever plunger and file or grind some length off the safety lever plunger itself. That would be off the square end not the end with the 90 degree included angle point. If you
unscrew your firing pin assembly and find a scrape or gouge around the end of your bolt where the safety screws in then it is the safety lever plunger that is giving you grief.
check it out, it may be the problem.