How do you smooth out a bolt action

[longwinters]

I just got a new Browning Stainless Stalker today and athough it is a great shooter it has a couple of things that need some tender loving care.  One of which is that the action works like it is made out of sandpaper.  How can I smooth out the action?

Long

[gunnut69]

A book could likely be written about the subject but a few things to start with.  totally strip the rifle and clean well. Remove all burrs and reassemble,  lubing well with proper lubricants(use a high pressure grease on the camming surfaces). I'd bet the difference will amaze you. Further tham that can get a bit involved.  If one removes too much in certain areas, tolerances can get a bit 'generous'...  I forgot.. after the cleanup, cycle the action a few hundred times.. Remove the trigger assembly and raise and lower the bolt handle(burnishes the cocking cam). Cycling the action burnishes the steel and that will slick it up fast without affecting the tolerances. Be absolutely certain to clean the action again after working it over and re-lubing, before advancing beyond these procedures.

[bluebayou]

When you say "camming surfaces" what do you mean?

[John Traveler1]

A bolt action rifle has various camming surfaces that are critical to how smooth the bolt works.  When the bolt handle is lifted, the striker ("firing pin") is cocked on the lifting stroke (usually).  A camming surface on the receiver interacts with a surface on the bolt body to do this.  

Gunnut69's  advice to disassemble, clean and inspect is oriented toward looking for the wear on these, and other surfaces.  Smoothing up a bolt action rifle is a matter of cycling the action to highlight these wear points.  A professional action slicking up job involves stoning, polishing, and speeding up the natural wear-in process.  Suitable high-pressure  lubricants that help the process include "Lubriplate", and moly disulphide grease.  Unless you are trained to do this, the cleaning, lubricating, and action cycling is all you should do.

HTH
John

[gunnut69]

As JohnT has said and I tried to, going beyond simply burnighing cam surfaces can be a worrisome procedure. There are several camming surfaces on a bolt action. One initiates the extraction of a fired round. On a mauser action it is located on the top front of the root of the bolt handle. It's actuating surface is the angled surface on the rear of the back action bridge. I've heard it said that one of the reasons the old M70's have such a reputation for slick action is that they've been cycled many thousands of times. I don't fully believe that but cleaning and cyling an action will make a vast difference in the feel..  Also you should understand that short throw actions like the ABolt have much steeper cocking cams and are thus not as slick as some of there 90 degree throw cousins.

[jrhen]

Before I shoot a new rifle I take the action\barrel out of the stock and place in a well ventilated room and rest it on a shooting bag over news paper.  I clean the barrel\bore with patches and using some of those Tipon swabs and Hoppe's 9, I can really clean where the bolt lugs engauge the action.  I follow this up with the rubbing alcohol to really clean the metal.

My Mrs gave me some hair dye squeeze bottle's with screw on caps and fine tips.  I fill it with 90% rubbing alcohol and pressure flush the trigger assembly and use compressed gas (like for electronic equipment) to force the fluid out along with the machineing crud.  I do the same for the bolt.  I force the alcohol into the fireing pin hole and allow it to drain out the other end.  Then I shoot compress air into there to dry it.  You would be suprised at the amount of grit that comes out!

Now take your favorite oil (I use Remington) to lightly coat the bore. Then I use Wilson Combat oil drop by drop on the trigger assembly using the compressed air to work it into all the little crevices and using a small hobby paint brush coat it with non-melting grease.  I then put a couple of drops of oil (Wilsons) into the bolt using the compress air to work it around.  

I don't attempt to stone or polish any of the surfaces of the action.  I simply put the rifle back together and using a swab to oil the action and brush a drop of oil on the rails.  I then sit down to watch a tv show, and cycle the action until the wife howls at me to stop.  I do not "Dry" fire the rifle while I do this.  

Nothing fancy and little risk to your new rifle and for me the bolt smooths right out.  If you want experiance something great purchase a real "Tika" or Sako rifle not a T3 to experiance a smooth bolt.

[longwinters]

JR,

I have a Sako and a Tikka.  That is my problem, I compare everything to them :lol:

LOng

[bluebayou]

ah, so

Thanks for the explanations of camming surfaces.  I will take the Remington out tomorrow and look at it mechanically.  While the topic is still warm, what would any of you do, specifically, to a Remington 700?  What  John is saying about highlighting the problem areas makes sense.  If memory serves me right the bolt is stiff unlocking, then 1/4" before closed, and again actually locking the bolt closed.  

Kinda stoked about this burnishing idea.  I was thinking about taking it to a smith to smooth it up.  This could save me some duckies.

[John Traveler1]

blue,

For your Remington M700 (or winchester, or mauser), I would first remove the bolt and clean it thoroughly using a good solvent (paint thinner, lacquer thinner, acetone, etc.  Do the same to bolt contact surfaces inside the receiver: the bolt raceways and locking lugs.  Dry with clean rags.  Do not use an oil-containing solvent such as kerosene or gasoline.  The idea is to degrease the camming surfaces down to raw steel.  Be careful not to get any solvent on the stock, as they can ruin some  finishes.

If you have some molybdenum disulphide ("moly-D") gun grease, use it.  If you don't, a cheap source is a tube of automotive wheel grease marked specifically, for "high pressure, high heat applications" and containing mody-D.  This is a "miracle" lubricant and has the real benefit of burnishing high pressure contact points.  Apply a dab of moly-D grease to the firing pin (striker) cam and it's cocking cam on the bolt body.  Lightly lubricate the bolt body and locking lugs.  Reinstall bolt in rifle, and work the action several hundred or a thousand  times without dryfiring.  Let the firing pin down each time by holding back the trigger as you close the bolt.  This will exercise the came surfaces.  It might take several evenings in front of the tv set or while listening to your family.  Clean bolt again, and lubricate all contact points with moly-D grease, and reassemble rifle.  The action should be much smoother now, or at lease APPEAR to be from all the exercise!

HTH
John

[gunnut69]

JohnT is on target and the bit about 'exercising' the gun is great!!  You'll get some exercise too!!  I totally agree with his directons and his praise on Moly as a lubricant.. I might add that a dab of high pressure lube should be applied to the rearof the locking lugs of the clean bolt to lube this important area during use. Oil simply doesn't stay put in an area such as this.  Be sure to limit the areas where greaase is used as tempurature extremes can alter the consistancy of some greases and oil. Synthetics are much less affected..  Also it may be a good idea to renove the trigger from your rifle or at least clean it thoroughly after this burnishing as it can hold contaminants and oils creating a dangerous situation. An excellant product for this cleaning is carb cleaner in a spray container. Caution! it leaves all metal totally clean and it will begin corroding very quickly!. Never use any oil in a trigger assembly, instead lubing with powdered graphite or moly in either a dry state or with a volatile carrier. You should also know that carb leaner contains acetone and that will destroy almost any finish...

[bluebayou]

Feeling kind of goofy sitting in the living room doing this....yeah, the wife thinks that I am nuts now.  I hope that you guys aren't just pulling my leg.  Seriously, after about 200 cycles with the moly-d the bolt is noticeably smoother at the cocking stage.  The closing and opening is still stiff.  One objective difference (but not sure what the real world application is):  with the rifle muzzle down and the bolt fully open the bolt would stay open supported by the lugs and something in the receiver.  Now the bolt slides closed when the rifle is pointed muzzle down.  The kink at 1/4" from closing is gone too thinking about it.  The stiffness that remains is in the lugs locking.  

I will hit it a few hundred more times just cuz.

[John Traveler1]

No one is "pulling your leg" at all.

These are standard bolt action slicking operations without resorting to a gunsmith.  A gunsmith would start with these steps, or may finish with these steps except that he would use shortcuts, more aggressive abrasives, and polishing operations (time consuming) that justify charging for his time (probably close to US$100).  What he would do is use oil and  powdered emery abrasives to lap the action, hand stone, polish, and generally reduce all unnecessary friction to a minimum.  Not cheap work because the time and skill required.  The moly-D treatment is well worth the effort as a starting point because that is all many rifles need.

I once had the pleasure of smoothing up a brand new Sako single shot varmit rifle that had the bolt bind on closing.  It took several dozen bolt cyles to show the friction points (burrs and minor machining defects on receiver bolt raceways) that caused this.  Generally Sako actions are excellent, but this one slipped by the inspectors.

[bluebayou]

After cycling the bolt about 800 times (I lost count a few times) and cleaning it out 3 times I am mightily impressed.  You guys really came through.  It still shoots to the same POA.  Is very light to open.  Keeping a film of grease on the rail inside the receiver and on the lugs makes a much smoother action.   It IS a little sloppy with an empty chamber now, but when loaded it is firm and like I said, it still shoots great, great groups for a cheap version of the Remington.  

Thanks again.  I meant to followup on this last month and forgot.