I recently picked up Swede mauser that was missing bolt. Bought a bolt separately, and now I have complete rifle! The bolt cycles buttery smooth. However, it closes with some effort on a chambered round. I only have some old handloads with modern Lapua brass. There is no cosmoline residue in the chamber. After I open bolt and extract a round, there is small indentation on a primer, and the case head has a polish on it. The bolt appears as if it came from a rifle which saw very little use. I don't mind tight closing, as long as it is not a safety issue. What if it is short headspace? can it be relieved by grinding bolt face? Thank you.

Headspace gauges are your friend, here. If it is too tight, the easiest solution would be removing material from the rear of the bolt lugs.

My suggestion is to buy a box of factory (green box remington)and try that before you do anything. You can't know about the reloads.

Of I checked it with guages ......and found headspace to be too tight. I would ream the chamber deeper by hand with a reamer extension. No big deal at all.

I don't think I'd remove material from the bolt lugs.....

You CAN'T check chambers with reloaded ammo!!!
Get some factory loads.
I would bet that your chamber is fine; I have had many of these and the tolerances are better than today's work.
Anyway, a slightly tight closing is fine too.
Do not grind anything, and forget gauges.
Dis above, said it, correctly.
Then if it won't close on a factory round, call me.

Removing material from either the bolt face or lugs may jeopardize the case depth.

What DPCD said. Forget about cutting anything until you have factory ammo or have a set of headspace gauges.

If you have a tight chamber its easier to resize your brass smaller than spec than to cut anything. There is nothing wrong or dangerous about this provided you only use that ammo in that rifle.

If you do find the chamber is on the smallish size the easiest and quickest thing to do is cut it a little longer with a pull through reamer...--no lathe required its a hand tool. But again, you are going to need a set of headspace gauges to check your work. Might be cheaper and mo better to send it to a gunsmith than to invest in all that stuff...couple of three c-notes for all those gauges and reamers etc.

Removing material from the lugs is really bad idea for a lot of reasons...especially if you don't have a lathe.

I wouldn’t attempt it without a lathe (who doesn’t have a lathe?) but with a lathe and a Labounty jig it’s a pretty damn easy operation. Not saying this one needs it but...

quote:

Originally posted by Woodhits:
I wouldn’t attempt it without a lathe (who doesn’t have a lathe?) but with a lathe and a Labounty jig it’s a pretty damn easy operation. Not saying this one needs it but...

The bolt is case hardened, turning, grinding or chewing off the case or some portion there of is easy.

Re case hardening the bolt isn't so easy.

I’ve done it on properly heat-treated bolts where the hardening depth is far deeper than the few thou that needed to be removed.

Yes it is easy; OP; DO NOT do that.

quote:

Originally posted by Woodhits:
I’ve done it on properly heat-treated bolts where the hardening depth is far deeper than the few thou that needed to be removed.

Did you do it on though hardening steel such as 4140 that most modern guns are made from?

Or a case hardened mauser with inconsistent hardening depths made 100 years ago?

Because whatever a few thou is, it might have removed most of the case hardening leaving a very thin skin.

And since you have no idea the depth of the case hardening, how do you know taking off a few thou is OK?

Do what dpcd said. You know the old adage measure twice, cut once? In this case measure a whole bunch of times before doing anything. I wouldn't mess with the bolt at all. I'd try that Remington loaded ammo first.I had two twin brother friends that both had new 30-06's. One was a Remington 700 and the other was a Winchester 70. I loaded ammo for them using new RCBS dies. The ammo wouldn't fit the Remington as it was tight such as you say your rifle is. It fit the Winchester just fine. On your reloads that don't quite fit I'd say the shoulders need pushed back little more. Whoever reloaded them may not have had the sizer die turned into the press enough. Could have been too high a shell holder too. I believe you have a simple problem that can be readily resolved. If it's tight with that Remington factory ammo call dcpd.

Reamers and gages are available for rent...Why not do it right in the first place.

Personally, I would not remove material from the lugs ....maybe a very light lapping

Right, of course.
But, I get this all the time; "My chamber is too tight; my ammo sticks in it, or it is hard to close", or a similar story.
First thing I ask is, what ammo are you using?
It is always, Reloads I got off the Internet, or from a guy I know, or some I reloaded.
In EVERY case, it is the ammo. The chamber is never too tight/small/short, etc.
Not saying your problem is the ammo. Try factory ammo and then call me.

I agree. I've got four Swedes and swapping ammo between them is problematic. Some will chamber easily and some not. A lot of folks don't know that FL resizing dies don't always return ammo to factory spec. For instance, LEE Precision dies only resize the base, the neck, and the shoulder diameter. Not the length of the shoulder. This was conveyed to me by LEE. I found this out when trying to use ammo between Swedes and Argy's loaded with their 6.5 and 7.65 dies. Also, your reloads may only be neck sized.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Right, of course.
But, I get this all the time; "My chamber is too tight; my ammo sticks in it, or it is hard to close", or a similar story.
First thing I ask is, what ammo are you using?
It is always, Reloads I got off the Internet, or from a guy I know, or some I reloaded.
In EVERY case, it is the ammo. The chamber is never too tight/small/short, etc.
Not saying your problem is the ammo. Try factory ammo and then call me.