A friend asked me to take a look at his sons rifle. After firing he said it is sometimes hard to open the bolt.

On first examination there was a bedding problem with the bolt shroud. Fixed that. Put the rifle back together and cycled the action no problems. Dry fired it and it cocked easily every time.

Then loaded rounds and cycled the action witout firing. Still no problems. Then fired a round and couldn't get the action open. First thought excesive head space, primers looked good. Fired 3 more rounds same thing.

Took rifle apart and noticed that the Timmeny trigger was rubbing against the stock. fixed that with a little sand paper. Left the barreled action off of the stock and things where good.

Then lightly bumped muzzel on carpet then tried to cock the rifle to no avial. Jiggeled the bolt knob and was able to raise bolt.

Does the problem lie in the bolt or in the trigger? Or is there something else at play? Sorry to be so long winded but trying to figure it out. Thanks.

What safety does the rifle have... Might be moveing into a bind during fire. May have some more fiting to do..

To much fun...

is it possible the force of recoil (and bumping the muzzle on the carpet) is causing the safety to slide foreward enough to interfere with raising the bolt?

Fellas that was the problem.

I manipulated the bolt in different directions from horizontal to vertical to upside down. Noticed that the tip of the saftey was engaging the bolt.

How can this be fixed? How do you take a Mauser bolt apart? I'm use to Rem. 700's and single shots. Thanks.

Got it apart. In the saftey there's a hole drilled that I would assume is for a ball detent. But there was none. What now?

I assume it was a side-mounted safety that was missing a detent ball. Check with a gunsmith. Brownell's sells a kit of various sized detent balls. All you need is one - the right one.

Is this the safety? There are a few different styles..

link to a safety

Actualy the saftey is the flip type mounted on the bolt shroud. It is designed to allow the use of a scope.

Or this? Another link....

If it is one of these styles, some use a little plastic button to keep it from rattling. I am not sure if any use a detent ball. If you touch the long part of the safety with a file, you should be ok. Usually the problem area is galled by the force of the bolt lift, should show you the long spot. After this, some wrap a bit of black electrical tape around shaft of safety during installation to eliminate the annoying rattle.

Hope this helped....

The saftey is a tight fit in the hole but does have a galled area in the transition area from the angle to the flat area on the part that engages the bolt. Filed it down and it still sometimes hangs up. Would a new saftey catch solve the problem? If not any other ideas.

One other thing the bolt cocking piece that the saftey engages has a beveled rim. Could this be part of the problem also? Thanks again.

Send me an email or PM. I make up the mauser side swing two position safeties and they are much superior to the "flip up" style.

Jim

How far down have you dissasemble the bolt?

I broke it all the way down. I will talk to the owner and see if he wants to get another saftey. I looked through my Brownells catalog and it seems like the other safties require some machining. I will talk to the owner and see what he wants to do.

On the top of the bolt most rear position, there is a small notch. This is where the safety rotates to lock the bolt handle. Take the shroud, and install the safety and look in to the back of the shroud where the bolt would be if assembled. You should see the end of the shaft of the safety. Look closely at the clearances while rotating the safety. I feel this is where your problem is.. Some trimming (fitting) is all that is required.

Obviously there are much better designs out there...


TO MUCH FUN.. Hope this helped...
Warning label here... This should be done by a competent gunsmith.

Your insight has helped alot. There were a few burrs I have polished them and now the saftey works. It will however still catch on the bolt if held upside down.

I have mentioned to the boys dad about different types of safties.Another swing saftey, a winchester type, or get a trigger with the saftey built in. He picked it up today and said that if it continues to give them problems he will change to another saftey set up then. Thanks for all the help.