The rifle in question is a M70 in 7mmRemMag with around 1,500 rounds fired from it.

Today while cleaning it, I took the firing pin assembly out of the bolt and noticed that the spring has a wear mark or polished-looking spiral the whole length of the spring...it looks as though someone polished a loose spiral on it from end to end.

This is the first time I noticed it, since I usually dont take the bolt apart, so it might have been there forever.

Just playing with the rifle after reassembly, I benched the rifle and found that when dry firing it, the bolt "jumps up" a bit from the closed position when you dry fire.

Obviously my firing pin spring is hitting the bolt body when firing which is causing the wear mark.

Is this stuff normal??

Yeah the springs do drag which causes that wear and the handles do jump on firing with a lot of bolt actions. It`s generally caused by the spring unloading and the vibration and stresses caused by this. The bolt cannot jump open because of the cocking piece and its engagement in the cocking cam.

Yes it is normal for the FP spring to rub on the inner bolt cavity. And the bolt jumps because the cocking piece/sear is hitting the bolt cocking cam notch a bit..
Don't fret.

You are in big trouble. I'll pay for you to ship it to me so you can remain safe.

As smarter men than I am have said. Nothing to worry about.

I have owned a number of the newer Model 70 Classics that have this "jump" that you talk about.

If you cock the gun and lift the bolt handle just a tiny tiny bit and then pull the trigger you might notice no jump. At least that is what happens on many of mine.

I don't know anything about sears and such, but on a couple of the first ones I had many years ago it bothered me so I had a welding guy weld a little tiny bubble on the notch where the bolt went and then since the bolt couldn't go down in the notch as far there was no more jump.

I suppose you could have a small plate (or whatever you want to call it) of steel welded on the bottom of that bolt notch, filed up, and reblued, and you would never know the jump had been there.

It is not just with Model 70s and they don't need fixing.

Thank You for the comments Fellas!!

I had a feeling that this was normal but wanted to run it by you.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Yes it is normal for the FP spring to rub on the inner bolt cavity. And the bolt jumps because the cocking piece/sear is hitting the bolt cocking cam notch a bit..
Don't fret.

X2
A bunch of my rifles do the same, nothing to worry about or fix.
BB