Guys,

Need to fit the cocking piece of a Mauser to a safety flag. Redoing the chamfer at the front edge of the cock piece did not help, so I think I remember the next step is to cut the front edge of the cocking piece back toward the back end.

Have a milling machine so the cut itself isn't a problem. My question is: How do you determine the amount of material that should be removed from the cocking piece?

IF I AM ON THE WRONG TRACK ... PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Thanks,

Excuse me, I'm just trying to follow along. What "safety flag" are you trying to fit your cocking piece to?

Are you talking about fitting a standard low mount type "flip" safety to your bolt? If so, try to make the adjustment to the safety cam. Change the taper so that it will fit under the forward edge of the cocking piece as the lever is raised. Only under certain conditions would you need to alter the cocking piece itself.

Westpac,

Have an FN safety flag (lever, whatever you want to call the thing you move to put the safety on and off).

The instructions for a Buehler safety (similar but on the other side) indicate that if one cannot engage the safety after attending to the bevel one should either 1) lengthen the nose of the cocking piece or 2) move the face of the cocking piece back relative to the nose of the cocking piece. Either operation should move the place that the safety engages the cocking piece to a place more likely for it to work.

Would rather cut a replaceable cocking piece ($4) than the safety itself which is very hard to find.

I ALWAYS alter the cocking piece, not the safety. I have probably 8-10 safetys that someone screwed up and brought to me to fix just because they couldn't read the directions. Bill

Put some layout blue (magic marker) on the forwad edge of the cocking piece. Assemble the bolt with the new safety. Cock the bolt and lift up on the lever. Scribe a mark on the cocking piece where the taper begins. That is where you will start trimming the cocking piece.

There is no magic number to tell you the amount of material you will have to remove, but here is where a steady hand and a dremel tool shine. Determine how long of a stretch you will have to alter and start taking a little off at a time.

It might help to assemble the bolt without the firing pin spring. Cock the bolt and press forward on the back of the cocking piece with your thumb to keep it against the sear while you do the fitting. Go slow, measure twice, cut once. Good luck!