I'm completing a 50 year old unfinished gunsmith project. The gunsmith took a down payment for a 22 250 in a AAA tiger maple Fajen varmint stock, waited 10 years and handed it to his nephew to complete. I bought it from the nephew last year and am just about to wrap it up. I fired it last week and noticed it was hard to open after firing and first thought is was due to a tight neck chamber, I cycled the stripped bolt today and it was sticky on opening.

I marked all three lugs and the bolt handle root with a sharpie and cycled a few times with a bare bolt and looked at the likely areas of contact and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Where should I be looking when a bare bolt is sticky opening? It seems to close more smoothly than opening. The lugs seemed to be contacting normally and evenly on the back about 3/4 the way across. The action is new and now has 15 rounds through it so wear isn't an issue. I compared all bolt parts with another FN and all appears normal.

If there are bases on the rifle, are the bases screws a tad too long and touching the bolt?

I had a similar situation with a FMAP Argentine action. It had been re-barreled and apparently the rear portion of the front ring had been pinched slightly when the action wrench was applied. This caused it to rub on the bolt body at that point. I eventually stoned the bolt body until the interference was eliminated.

Bobster - Are you talking about the perimeter of the bolt nose ahead of the lugs? I'll mark and check there. I already checked on the front of the bolt and didn't get any indication. Where exactly was your interference?

I'll check the base screws tomorrow.

The interference area was on the bolt body just behind the locking lugs. I identified it by applying black magic marker to the bolt body and cycling. You might also check the small projection on the boltface where the ejector passes. It could be contacting the breech face of the barrel.

I misrepresented a bit, the bolt wasn't completely stripped, since it still had the extractor. I removed the extractor and all is smooth. I don't know why the extractor is causing sticky bolt lift yet. Any ideas?

I learned that since the extractor collar springs out with the extractor removed, you can't install the bolt with only the collar in place. I took some copper wire and tied the collar tight to the bolt for testing.

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I don't know why the extractor is causing sticky bolt lift yet. Any ideas?

Is it the extractor or the ring? I bent a ring removing it one time. When I reinstalled it the extra drag caused by it being out of round made the lift harder than normal. Does the ring rotate easily around the bolt body when the extractor is removed?

Is the groove at the front of the bolt the extractor slides in clean and smooth? Is the extractor bent and simply putting more pressure than needed against the bolt body?

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Originally posted by ramrod340:

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I don't know why the extractor is causing sticky bolt lift yet. Any ideas?

Is it the extractor or the ring? I bent a ring removing it one time. When I reinstalled it the extra drag caused by it being out of round made the lift harder than normal. Does the ring rotate easily around the bolt body when the extractor is removed?

Is the groove at the front of the bolt the extractor slides in clean and smooth? Is the extractor bent and simply putting more pressure than needed against the bolt body?

I had to put the project away and didn't fully evaluate the situation. The collar cutout seems smooth and the collar isn't damaged. As noted this was an until recently unfired gun. It might be that the collar is just tight in the groove with the extractor installed. I'm going to polish the groove and the inside of the collar a bit, in place with 500 wet or dry. It may be that the proper way to relieve a tight collar is taking a bit off the lugs on the collar or from the groove in the extractor.

Most likely the extractor is rubbing on the barrel. Sand or grind a few thousandths off the nose of the extractor and try it again.

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Originally posted by Toomany Tools:
Most likely the extractor is rubbing on the barrel. Sand or grind a few thousandths off the nose of the extractor and try it again.

Based on my testing with marking and looking for rubbing, I polished the nose. Then I thought it was foolish since the extractor doesn't even turn, but I suppose an extractor nose pressing on the barrel stub during lock up could increase bolt lift effort.

I think it is a tight collar and I'm going to do some measuring of the collar dovetails and the groove in the extractor to verify if its tight. As shiny as the collar groove in the bolt is, I think it might be tight. I was relieved to see it wasn't rusted there.

It seems there is several ways to relieve a tight collar, and I assume one should stay away from modifying the extractor to gain collar clearance. I'll also assume I should stay away from the groove in the bolt. That leaves reducing the collar ID or trimming the collar tangs that enter the extractor dovetail. I'm leaning towards reducing the collar ID at this point.

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Then I thought it was foolish since the extractor doesn't even turn,

If the nose is in enough contact it will put pressure on the front groove as well as the collar.

As to the collar I'd keep it simple and just polish the inside. If you have one try a different collar.

Simple enough to check collar and extractor 'stiffness' just rotate the extractor on the bolt when removed from the rifle and a cartridge is clipped onto the bolt face. This part of the process in terms of collar rotation smoothness is not going to change when the bolt is in the rifle.

More likely as has been suggested, something in the extractor recess in the receiver or the nose of extractor is contacting the face of barrel.

Check bolt cocking cam/striker nut surfaces, might be soft and galled up especially if it's had a bolt job.

Sorry didn't read first post properly,the stripped bolt is sticking....strange.

If you trim the collar tangs or relieve the extractor groove, the collar will expand slightly. The risk is that it expands beyond the bolt's diameter, ever so slightly, and then you've got yourself a new problem!

Better lap/polish the inside of the collar and the bolt groove till the excess tension is relieved.

After much careful study my conclusion is that never in the history of manufacturing has so few parts resulted in such a complex mechanism.

Even though the extractor installed on the bolt rotates smoothly, it dramatically increases the bolt closing and opening effort. I kind of think that the addition of the extractor may move the bolt off center and possibly cause it to contact the bolt bore next to the barrel.

I've reduced the opening effort and it isn't as free as I'd like, but I'm crying uncle at this point.

Def not wear or galling since the action is unfired as of a few weeks ago.

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Originally posted by Lucky Punk:
After much careful study my conclusion is that never in the history of manufacturing has so few parts resulted in such a complex mechanism.

That is worse than blasphemy IMHO(You're God Darn right, that you read that right..... : ) )

Millions of Mausers were built for battle and none of them(or darn few) exhibited the problem you are describing. So it is safe to say that the "complex system" is not at fault.

It is pretty clear that the gunsmith did not finish what he started and left behind a screwed-up job. I would bet that a good Mauser smith could diagnose the problem in about 5 minutes and fix it in 10.

JMHO.....

What I mean is that something that appears simple has very much going on. The genius of parts interaction is amazing.

You might be right about a Mauser expert figuring it out quick and fixing it pronto. But maybe not.

A screwed up project it definitely isn't. Just not as smooth as it potentially can be. Its essentially a 50 year old new gun with some final adjustments needed before it can be called done.

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Originally posted by ramrod340:

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Then I thought it was foolish since the extractor doesn't even turn,

If the nose is in enough contact it will put pressure on the front groove as well as the collar.

As to the collar I'd keep it simple and just polish the inside. If you have one try a different collar.

Thanks for explaining how pressure on the extractor nose can cause rotational friction on the front groove and collar. I'm going to check that again.

I suppose the extractor does rotate relative to the bolt, but doesn't relative to the receiver.

I am not a gunsmith but I remember that a poor gunsmith once returned a rifle to me with that same problem. He had set-back and re-chambered the barrel on a mauser for me. I tried everything to make it open smoothly. It was fine with the extractor removed. But was stiff if the extractor was in place. I tried to find areas on the extractor that were binding but could not. I sanded, smoothed, and polished the extractor. Then, after very close examination, I found out what the problem was. The holes in a one piece scope mount wouldn't quite line up anymore. The action was twisted, but ever so slightly. The gunsmith had twisted it, perhaps when replacing the barrel.

I second the idea that the action has been
twisted. Easy thing to do.

Lacking a precision flat surface and parallels, any suggestions on checking for twist? I have a precision square set, a precision straight edge and dial indicators.

I think I'll try laying it on the precision straight edge and look for a gap with a thin feeler gage, linear and x check like for a cylinder head surface.

I polished the nose of the extractor a bit and it smoothed up a little. Somehow posters have gotten a conception of how large the hitch while opening is. Its small, maybe not noticeable to some shooters. I'm a detail person and a bit of a perfectionist.

Likely a Mauser specialist would know exactly where to polish to and when to quit looking for places to polish. Maybe someday I'll understand the secrets of making a Mauser action snick on both strokes. For now I'll press you further and be appreciative of the help.

What exactly do you mean by bare bolt?

Are you feeling the pressure caused by cocking the firing pin spring?

When I hear of a mauser bolt being difficult to open, the first thing that comes to mind is a soft cocking cam. If the stripped bolt is still stiff to open, the fault lies elsewhere. Mr. Wiebe's instructions should allow you to figure it out. If the stiffness is noticeable only when cocking the rifle, it's probably the cocking cam. Regards, Bill

I mucked things up early on in the thread by calling a bolt with the extractor installed a bare bolt. Bare! bolt smooth, sticky on closing with extractor installed, even stickier on opening with extractor installed.

Thanks everyone for your assistance, I'm pretty sure at this point the extractor nose is making contact with the breech end face of the barrel.

I've learned a bunch about how a Mauser works, and aspire to fully understand one someday. Every suggestion for possibilities has contributed to that end.

Ramrod 340 nailed it. I polished the bolt raceways and while I was at it decided to polish the barrel stub where the extractor rides. It had some electric pencil or vibrator engraving on it.

I took a chopstick and crazy glued a small circle of 320 wet or dry on the flat end. I intended to chuck it in a drill and polish that way. The chopstick was bent and this wouldn't work without a guide. I used it as a polishing stick and worked that area for a few minutes. It helped! Its pretty dang slick now. I didn't want to take any more off the nose of the extractor as I didn't want to weaken it. I just polished the nose flat with wet or dry and took a few thou off it.

I made a tool to polish the raceways with a wine bottle cork. Thinned it and rounded one side with course sandpaper, wrapped with 500 then 2000 wet or dry secured with a staple driven into the cork on the non contact surface. drilled a hole in the end and crazy glued a rod for a handle into it. Just a light polish till I could feel the cutting slow. Worked great.

Thanks again for the help.