I am loving my M70 in .404jeffery but the other day I noticed a bit of play in my bolt handle. It seems the sleeve that the handle is atttached to is press fit on the bolt in a sort key-way arrangement. Can I silver solder this sleeve back onto the bolt?

i wouldn't...

jeffe

Wonder what kind of response you would have got if it was a remington

Fredj338,

By the way did you rent the reamer and headspace gauges or did you by them, or GS have them. I'm building a 404 on mdl 70 like yours.

Gringo, my GS bought the reamers. My buddy is also having him build a .404 on a BBK02 action, so he could justify the cost. Keep me posted on how yours turns out. The more I shoot mine (about 80rds now) the more I like my big varmint rifle.

Fredj338,

My gunsmith rents the odd reamers but 404 wasnt on any of his lists. He wanted to buy the reamer and gauges, but I wouldn't let him, I doubt if he would have built enough to justify. I'm having it long chambered at Pac-Nor. I'll buy a go gauge, he said he can shim it for no-go.

Got a blank comming, hope its not to skinny for the 404.

Will keep you posted, heck I'm so excited I'll probably tell the whole world.

I went PacNor #5 on mine. At 23" it seems right for me (I'm 5'-10" w/ 33" sleeve). W/O the scope it weighs in @ a tidy 9.2#, just about right. It's a little heavy @ 10.2# w/ the scope but it's nice to shoot, recoil is very managable w/ 400gr bullets @ 2200fps.

Never silver solder a bolt handle is good advise I think..it should be tig welded IMO...I have seen more than a couple of silver soldered bolt handles come off, like on Remingtons for instance..Be it the person soldering or not is a legit question but I will just have mine tigged and let someone else play with the solder...

Check out HD Rifle Celt pins on the bolts of the Rem 700. Very nice work.

Of course you can silver solder it back on since that is how it was supposed to be secured in the first place! The new M70 handle is sleeved onto a knurled protrusion at the end of the bolt. An acceptable system providing the silver solder joint is good. Obviously in your case it isn't.
As long as the joint is well done the Remington systen is just fine too. In those cases where the handle comes loose (in both brands)the fault lies with a poorly soldered joint.
I have pinned and silver soldered handles on mausers as well (so did BRNO on some of their rifles) and the joint is nearly invisible and apparently more than strong enough. Regards, Bill.

Right on, Bill.



And, of course, the bolt handles on Stolle Panda/Teddy BR rifles are silver-soldered on as well. Back in the days when they had a 4-piece (!!!) handle, often not all the Stolle solder joints were well done, so the bolt handles had a rude habit of coming off in the first dozen shots or so. However, that was because the joints often had much less than 50% coverage with solder. (Whaddya expect for an action that is only $900 U.S.? <G>



Once we solder them back on with a full contact layer of silver solder on clean metal, they stay on pretty much forever plus a week.



I also had a bolt handle come off my Remington 700 in 1962. I re-soldered it, and it is still working just fine today.



One should be careful to use a heat stop coating and a heat sink when doing it, of course.



AC

Also silver soldered bolt handles: BAT, AMT, Hall..... Not soldered: Nesika, Geske..... Any more to add?

Thanks for the input guys. I'll get it fixed this weekend & then back to practicing!