alright, have your fun, and then help me out.

I took the extractor off of a mauser bolt, but not the extractor retainer ring, and then proceeded for some stupid (yes I admit it) reason to put the bolt into the receiver.

And of course, when it got a little ways in that retainer ring expanded inside the rear bridge. Not enough to slide off the bolt, but enough to cause the bolt to become stuck.

Needle nose pliers don't work to get in there and squeeze the thing back together.

Short of cutting off the top of the rear bridge is there any other trick to get the bolt out in this type of situation.

Thank you.

Dear 22 WRF:

Have you removed the bolt stop assembly on the LH side?

You should be able to gain access with needle nose pliers, and be able to pinch the bolt collar closed, and then push the bolt back.

Give me a PM, if you want some more information.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I have great success using 2 miniature screw drivers. I insert them from the rear of the bolt guide slot and put one screw driver tip on the top of the extractor collar ear and one below the bottome ear. Then I pinch the screwdrivers (like you would use chop sticks) and draw the bolt and screwdrivers out the back. It works every time.

You are using the wrong tool. Take a small punch (a nail will work) and put it under the projections on the extractor ring and push up. Pull to the rear at the same time and your bolt should slide out. Bill

quote:

Originally posted by fishoot:
I have great success using 2 miniature screw drivers. I insert them from the rear of the bolt guide slot and put one screw driver tip on the top of the extractor collar ear and one below the bottome ear. Then I pinch the screwdrivers (like you would use chop sticks) and draw the bolt and screwdrivers out the back. It works every time.

Makes me feel better to know that I am not the only one that has done this.

Now to find some screwdrivers that will fit.

Taking off the bolt stop doesn't gain enough access to work.

A real pickle. If the needle nose don't work you may need an extra set of hands and squeeze with some dental picks. This is solveable, but frustrating.

use some thin shim stock as a "guide" to slip between the bolt and the bridges... and pull the bolt out... or use a set of feeler gages... they go down to .001

that extractor collar has a very strong spring to it. very hard to squeese together in such a tight spot. Might have to go with making this receiver a square bridge by cutting it off and then welding on a new one.

Hmmm - since its confession time . . . I've done this too.

I made up a little tool to slide down the raceway to squeeze it shut again, it looked a little like one of those things golfers use to fix divots. The slot needs to mimic the slot in the extractor.

Good luck

Work the collar lugs back to the right side slot.
Since there is no recess in the top of the bridge, the bridge will stop the top lug.
Just run/wedge something under the lower lug until the gap is closed and pull the bolt out.
Even a kid can do it.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
that extractor collar has a very strong spring to it. very hard to squeese together in such a tight spot. Might have to go with making this receiver a square bridge by cutting it off and then welding on a new one.

A little drastic. The collar can be jammed in a couple of ways. First, the edges of the collar could be caught on the raceway shoulder where the rear receiver is cut for the magazine opening. Second, the little lugs on the collar could have rotated into the safety lug cut-out in the bottom rear of the receiver. I have had this happen a couple of times and easily fixed it with a small jeweler's screwdriver inserted in from the front to rotate and lift up the lug while withdrawing the bolt. Put the plasma torch and cut-off wheel away.

Tweezers will do the trick.

Its only stupid and to others funny the second time around...always remember the extractor and collar ALWAYS comes out, then the bolt goes in...dont ask!

quote:

Originally posted by D Humbarger:
Tweezers will do the trick.

You must have some strong tweezers?

Here is my tools for this operation. Make a collar saver out of an old broken extractor and place this on the collar before inserting the bolt. I don't like to remove collars unless it is necessary. The spring wire is 1/16 dia. X 3 inches long. This will slip in from the rear of the right slot of the reciever and slip over the collar lugs. You will have to rotate the collar to be in the correct position as if an extractor were on the bolt.

quote:

Originally posted by LesBrooks:
Here is my tools for this operation. Make a collar saver out of an old broken extractor and place this on the collar before inserting the bolt.

A twist tie off a loaf of bread or a piece of thin mig wire works equally well.

perhaps no one mentioned that the "ears" aren't the only thing that sticks - the ring expands and catches on the way back..

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
perhaps no one mentioned that the "ears" aren't the only thing that sticks - the ring expands and catches on the way back..

Yes, but it is "fixed" the same way.

Twist ties and Tweezers? I must be missing something because the collars I have worked with have needed to have the "f---" squeezed out of them to get them to compress down to bold dia.

As Yale would say,

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

Thank you so much for all of the suggestions.
I have cured the problem.

No suggestion was less valuable than any other suggestion, and I appreciate every single one of them.

The method that I used was a modification of Mr. Brooks suggestion. I procured some stiff wire and shaped it like Mr. Brooks did in his photo. After twirling the collar around to the right side so that I could see both "ears" I inserted the wire on either side of them from the front and then pulled on each quite hard so that it was firmly around the collar.

Of course, since the collar is a pretty stiff spring, just pushing the two sides of the wires together didn't do anything. The wire just bent. I think a tweezers would work if one had one that was small enough to fit in there, and if it were strong enough to compress the collar without bending.

What to do, what to do.

Then it hit me. I got a pliers and started to twist the two wires together like I was getting them ready to put into an electrical insulator.
I basically twisted the wire until I couldn't twist it no more. And that was enough to squeeze the collar sufficiently such that when I pulled the bolt rearward it came out.

Never again will I put a bolt with a collar but no extractor into a mauser receiver.

Again, thank you all.

And a very special thank you to ZLR who offered to take a look at it gratis if I sent it out to his place. That is going above and beyond, and I am humbled by his generosity and kindness.