That is one reason to get rid of it and use a better pin.

416; ref your last post; yes do that.

I was able to run a little rotary grinder on the holding pin so that it seemed to polish the edge and end. The pin is now flush with the cocking piece and should provide even more reliability.

HOWEVER, when I tried to do the same for my wife's LeftHanded 375Ruger - - - I discovered that the Menck Disassembly tool only works for right-handed Ruger bolts. the left-handed bolts are reverse threaded and the firing pin assembly will not screw into the Menck tool.

Does anyone have a good work around suggestion?

Even not so good recommendations are welcome on how to disassemble a left-handed Ruger bolt-firing-pin

Turn the bolt counter clockwise until the disassembly hole appears in the cocking piece and put a bit of wire or a pin in it to hold the cocking piece back and then unscrew the fire array. Make a small collar about 1/2 inch long or so out of a small bit of pipe about .200 in diameter and drop it inside the bolt body. Then insert the fire array and push the shroud down and turn until the threads bite and continue turning until the pin in the cocking piece is exposed. Then you can do your grinding or knock the pin out and remove the cocking piece. If you need to replace the spring you can unscrew the shroud, taking care not to let the the shroud, spring and pin go hell winding when the threads disengage from the bolt body. Putting them back in this manor takes a strong set of hands. Mind you, I can do it and I'm not that rough and tough. Just mean.

Thanks, Speerchucker, your advice worked great.

It is so good, in fact, that I could have saved myself $30 for the Menck firing pin tool.

What I found to work was a nylon spacer from the nuts and bolts department of a local hardware store. The spacer was 0.6" long, 0.39" wide, and with a 0.25" hole. Any hole over 0.2" would have worked as long as the outside diameter of the spacer was under 0.42". The length of 0.6" turned out to be a necessary minimum in order for the retaining cross-pin to get out so far that it cleared a little plunger on the bolt shroud. Two spacers of 0.4" length stacked on top of each other would have worked, too. After putting the new spring on my wife's 375Ruger bolt, dropping the handle end of the bolt on the carpet allowed the nylon spacer to hop right out.

Very neat little tool, that spacer and a finishing nail for retaining the striker.

By the way I did not find the spring very difficult to reinsert. It required adult strength and is probably not recommended for a twelve year-old, but I do not consider myself blessed with hand-arm strength and it went right into place. A person just needs to be able to lift and carry a 50-lb suitcase with one arm.

I'm starting to wonder if the Zimbabwe PH-training dude may have been on to something.

I went to the range yesterday with a mate who had just got a fine-looking s/h CRF Ruger 9.3x62. It failed to fire the first three cartridges, leaving just shallow dents in the primers. In trying to take the bolt apart to search for grit, the striker was let down and we saw that the pin had plenty of protrusion.

I went out to change my targets at the ceasefire, so dunno whether someone did strip it - but the explanation I heard was that they just "oiled the spring". It worked fine after that but I would never trust that rifle again - they should not be that sensitive to lack of oil.

Not only is it possible that the pin was causing some drag, it is very likely. When the mis-firing is intermittent, the cause is likely to be intermittenet as well. In this case, the tolerances between the various parts mean the positioning of the striker might not be the same each time so that sometimes it drags, other times it doesn't.
Another thing to check is that the trigger lever is totally clear of the sear when the trigger breaks. I there is no clearance below the contact corner, the trigger is on the heavy side, and your trigger pulling varies, this is another potential source of drag. I do think replacement of the spring is a good idea. I see an awful lot of Ruger springs with three or more dead coils at each end. Regards, Bill

An update and another idea.

For almost two years the rifles have fired flawlessly.

Well, yesterday i went to the range to test some flat-nose solids in the 500 a.r.Nyati, Ruger action. Neither the CEB nor the GSC solids were feeding properly. The flat-nose would hit against the magazine/box wall. I needed to nurse the round over a lip for it to feed fine.

Then it happened. I fired a shot and heard nothing. I pulled the bolt open expecting to find nothing but a round popped out. The primer crater looked very shallow, like the pin made weak contact. So I put the round back in the chamber and BOOM it fired normally.
That happened a second time yesterday. However, rather than remove the round I simply lifted the bolt and re-closed the bolt. Again, firing was normal and the groups were tight, 1.1", which isn't bad with one of the rounds a dud.

My first thought was that I would try the 28# firing pin. But then I did a little thinking.

There were two duds with the ‘solids’ in this shooting session, possibly caused by push feeding the round abnormally deep in the chamber in order to snap the claw over the rim. Perhaps this resulted in the cartridge being too deep for ignition? The shoulder on the 500AccRel is slight, only 0.054" long and a fairly shallow 21degrees. Would the bolt and claw be able to force the round a couple of thousandths deep? Opening and re-closing the bolt would pull the cartridge back by a camming-action and the closing would then place the cartridge in its normal position.

My first concern will be to get the flat-nose solids to feed smoothly.
However, if I ever force the claw to jump the rim in the future, then I will want to cam open and re-close the bolt in order to guarantee normal resting in the chamber. I am not yet planning to put on the 28# spring, nor will that help if the bolt/claw is forcing the case.

Thoughts on this?

I wouldn't be using it on a bet. I would email Wolff and get the biggest, nastiest mainspring they make for it and solve the problem once and for all.

https://www.gunsprings.com/RUG...II/cID2/mID52/dID226

quote:

Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:
I wouldn't be using it on a bet. I would email Wolff and get the biggest, nastiest mainspring they make for it and solve the problem once and for all.

https://www.gunsprings.com/RUG...II/cID2/mID52/dID226

Well, I already have the biggest, strongest 28-pound spring waiting for installation. I guess I'm good to go.

But I am wondering whether my thought above is possible? Did the CRF-bolt and extractor claw cram the round a few thousandths of an inch too far into the chamber, crushing it into beyond a 'no go'? I can't check now because the fired round has already conformed to the chamber and it would be rather difficult to have measured the head spacing changes before the firing, if that happened.

Well, considering the amount of force that is needed to resize a case, (a lot) and the amount of force that you can push forward with the heal of your hand. I'm saying no. I think it would be physically impossible for you to resize the case, unless it was 22 Hornet or something similar in size and body taper. Even then you would really have to hammer on it.