Okay.

I'm working on a couple of three Mausers, relieving the rail for new bolt handles.

Not my first time, but I'm concerned.

If Kuhnhausen addressed this, I missed it.

Likewise, Dunlap.

Now... one consideration is the slop in a Mauser. In the battery position, a bolt will usually move back a few thous. I don't want the bolt handle to be hitting the receiver at ignition.

And... I'm concerned with the correct depth of the relief: As it was explained to me, we look to place the slot in the bolt face that accepts the ejection whatever it is at TDC.

And that the only way to judge this is empirically, i.e., by cutting until it looks correct, then testing to see if the trigger and safety work.

Is there a more scientific way to do this?

TIA,

flaco

I create a slight witness mark on the bolt in line with a markon the receiver prior to cutting off the old bolt handle.

Then after welding on a new bolt handle I grind the slot in the receiver to match the bolt until the witness marks realign and then I'm done.

I buff off the witness marks and make sure the safety asnd trigger work!


Maybe there's a better way!

Pull the firing pin assembly. As you cut away the receiver material to lower the bolt handle into place, pay careful attention to the alignment of the cocking notch and the receivers groove. When the right hand edge of the cocking notch aligns with the right hand edge of the groove, stop and check function. Nothing looks worse than having your bolt handle bounce up when dry firing because too much material was removed.

I have relieved the receiver and I have relieved the bolt handle and I have relieved both.

These days I am relieving the bolt handle, so that bolts will be interchangeable.

I need the bolt handle to be strong enough for me to jump on it like a pogo stick or hit it with a mallet when a case gets stuck.

The relieved bolt handle seems to be strong enough the way mine are welded.

If yours are welded too low, you can't do it that way.

I relieve the action. Leave the bolt shroud and original wing safety in place and remove metal until the wing safety will move into position to lock the bolt. This will be the original position the bolt had when it left the factory. When doing the cutout, put some blacking on the bolt handle and wiggle it back and forth in the closed position to see if it is touching somewhere other than the bottom of the notch.

quote:

Originally posted by Westpac:
Pull the firing pin assembly. As you cut away the receiver material to lower the bolt handle into place, pay careful attention to the alignment of the cocking notch and the receivers groove. When the right hand edge of the cocking notch aligns with the right hand edge of the groove, stop and check function. Nothing looks worse than having your bolt handle bounce up when dry firing because too much material was removed.

On virtually every current Model 70 Classic that I have every looked at, and I have looked at a few, the bolt handle will jump when the trigger is pulled and the rifle fires. Since it does it on every one I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that it was designed to do that.
was it?

By the way, on Mausers, the best bolt handle jobs I have seen have the underside of the bolt handle flattened just a bit to meet the flat cutout of the receiver. This in contrast to the rounded cutouts that are used on receivers like the Mark X where the bolt handle is left round.

If the bolt handle moves it's an indication that there is contact between the striker and the bolt body. The more the movement the more the contact. Too much contact can cause erratic ignition. Ideally, you don't want anything to interfere with the forward movement of the striker. It should have a clean path to the primer.

Factory guns are sloppy by custom standards and are going to have some movement, and a small amount of movement is perfectly fine, but here we are talking about custom work, and custom work should always be a little better than what you can walk in and buy off a rack.

Sorry flaco,

A friend just mentioned something which made me go back and re-read my first reply to this topic. I see where I may have left the wrong impression when determining the correct depth for the bolt handle. DO NOT under any circumstance remove material until the edges of the groove and cocking notch align. If you do, YOU SHOULD STOP because you may have gone too far.

Use the safety notch in the bolt to gauge your progress. When the notch is almost at top dead center, stop, assemble the bolt and check the safeties function like Jim mentioned. If you go beyond this point, then you induce slop. Thanks Rick!

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:

the bolt handle will jump when the trigger is pulled and the rifle fires.

I hate it when it does that.
In 22s if the notch is too shallow, it jumps down, and if too deep, it jumps up. So I cut the notch. If I over cut, then I need to swage the metal or add epoxy to tune to no movement.

I think in Mausers the shroud is involved.