Pillars........

[sixonetonoffun]

Edges of the sear touching? Or bolt release? Hard to see had some do that. Relieve the stock all was good.

[22BVGord]

Thanks, Six. Happy to know that it does happen from time to time. I decided to try a different route with the action off of the stock.

Rear Action Bolt:
I used a 6M bolt that I thought was the right length - put it through the pillar - & into the action (with the bolt out) so I could see the head of the bolt coming through after tightening down very firmly from the bottom. This way it was steel to steel and very firmly in place. I estimated how much to dremmel off the upper end of the bolt - the amount that was sticking through the floor of the action plus a tiny fraction just to make sure that when tightened, it would not come through and interfere with the bolt when installed in the stock. I tried the original bolt but for some reason it did not work - I still got the pin dropping by pressing down on the tang safety. Back to the 6M bolt and it worked fine. Go figure.

By pure coincidence, after taking off a bit from the bolt, the bolt ended up to be the same length as the original action bolt from the old stock. Hopefully the original bolt will work as the 6M from a hardware is just a tick sloppy in the threads.

The trigger unit is held in place by two pins starting from the side opposite the bolt. They fall out easily and don't ask me how I know :( Luckily they just dropped out on the carpet below my work station. I can see why the current thought is that replacing the trigger unit is a piece of cake. This unit is spring loaded and the unit must be sprung up and tight to the receiver bottom. I tested this with the action off by putting the rod over the action bolt, inserting through the trigger part, into the receiver bottom (bolt out) and tightening it down to more than firm. The trigger unit was tight against the bottom of the receiver.

As I was fumbling around with dremelling the area around the trigger compartment in the beginning, I had taken down the "shelf" a bit when perhaps it need not have been taken down. This affected the length of my lamp-rod pillar so the pillar now sits a bit above the wood shelf (which I think is a good thing as it is steel to steel all the way from the stainless trigger guard and into the bolt housing base. The base of the rod is flush with the trigger guard. My rod ended up being 2.5 cm.

Front Action
I left in the plastic "semi pillar" that came with the Boyd's stock rather than drill it out. I cut a length of rod to sit on the top of this plastic piece - 5mm - and the top of the rod is flush with wood stock (perhaps just a smidge above) so now there is - from the bottom: action bolt head to plastic, to steel rod, to steel of receiver bottom. The front hole is just big enough for the lamp rod and a bit of room for bedding. Fitting into the recoil lug seems fine. If this rod is high, the action will not sit properly in the recoil lug. The original action bolt works fine for the front.

When all was put together and tightened more than just firmly - everything functioned as it should. I Un-did everything and installed the action back on the stock and low and behold everything functioned just fine. The tang safety was very positive both ways and no way that pressing down on it was enough to drop the firing pin. Initially I had dremelled wood around the tang area and did not have to take any more off. I don't know if I would have had to take some wood, but probably so. At least I didn't take off to much as when the safety is in the safe position it looks bang on.

What's left.
Floating the barrel. There are a couple places of about 2" each where the barrel is rubbing on the stock. This will be the easy part of the fix with dowel/sandpaper. Once this is done, it will be range ready.

Hopefully any/all of this might help someone starting from scratch as I have done with the help of others in the Forum. Thanks for the help.

[sixonetonoffun]

The extra work will pay off. Yep this is a great community of folks!

[DrThunder88]

Good work. I've also had that problem with what I attributed to the rear of the trigger touching the wood surrounding the rear trigger guard screw. It seems like it was worse with the Timney trigger, but it may have popped up with the factory trigger.


65 in-lbs or 5.4 lbs, what is the equation for determining that it would exceed yield strength? Also if the action were bedded how would that affect it since the contact patch would be much larger? I'm also guessing that if the pillar deformed at all the contact patch would get larger, at what point would the increase in contact patch reduce the pressure enough so that it wouldn't exceed the yield strength of a brass pillar?

The axial load I calculated using Force = Torque/(Coefficient of friction * Diameter) (http://www.engineersedge.com/calculators/torque_calc.htm) and then solved for the yield strength of brass I found. However, I used tensile strength when I should have used compressive strength, which is probably closer to 50,000psi for a permanent 0.1% deformation. And good point about the changing contact patch during elastic deformation. I had not considered that previously but suspect you are right.

[short round]

6 millimeter is not right, screw thread is 1/4" 28, be careful, there is a good chance the threads in the receiver can be ruined with 6MM screws.

[Bodydub]

Ok question. I know the trigger guard will hold the rear of the action when I tighten the bolt. But what about the front? A washer will just keep the bolt head from sinking in the lamp rod and not keep the front of the action secured......

[sixonetonoffun]

Proper torque should be adequate. No washer needed. In fact I wouldn't use a washer.

[Bodydub]

So with no washer the only thing holding the front of the action and pillar is the epoxy??

[sixonetonoffun]

It is very strong. The washer would be a pita and could cause issues itself.

[Bodydub]

Ok thank you......So with a 1/2" lamp rod I should drill it out to a 3/8" hole???

[sixonetonoffun]

3/8 rod...1/2" hole?

[Newsshooter]

A tip I got on the rimfire central forum is to take a small dremel cutter and cut a circular notch in the middle of the hole drilled out for the pillar. Gives the epoxy a nice secure hold.

[Bodydub]

3/8 rod...1/2" hole?
Lol. Yeah sorry, I was at work and in a hurry. The lamp rod I have is 3/8.....

[22BVGord]

Thanks again Six. I managed to find some 1/4" x 28 bolts at a local hardware - $.40 ea - and have removed the 6M bolt. Indeed, the 1/4" inch one is a nice tight fit. Didn't shoot it with the 6M bolt in and went very carefully so luckily, I didn't damage the threads of the receiver or the trigger assembly.

With the pillar and the bolt being sized, the action is now functioning 100%. I made very sure the top of the bolt was not intruding into the bottom of the bolt housing but catching enough thread so the action bolt can be tightened down very firmly.

[NASIROKLA]

While checking out my rifle after doing pillars/putting into a Boyd's stock and doing dry firing, I found that when I tightened down the action screws firmly (not anywhere near 35 "/lbs), cycled the bolt, and then pressed down hard on the safety tang - the firing pin fired. Not good. The action seems to be seated well, and the trigger functions as it should and the tang safety is working fine for off/on switches, yet there is something very wrong. When tightened very firmly, the tang safety locks up and won't move either way.

Anyone else running into this, and if so - what seemed to be a fix?

This happened to me.. At the very rear of the stock on the inside where the the trigger guard screw protrudes a tiny bit of material was sticking up and contacting the trigger adjustment spring. Two seconds with a chisel took care of it