Savage/Steven’s bolt body

[jlsbassman]

Is there a difference in the length of the bolt body on a model 10t and a Stevens 200 short action? I changed the bolt from a Stevens 200 and put into a model 10t and it is really hard to close the bolt. Have push in hard to get it to close. The other bolt closes fine.

[Robinhood]

How did the bolt close on the stevens rifle?

[Robinhood]

A few of things could be happening.
If it is hard to close with a round in the chamber you need to reheadspace.

The Primary extraction ramp may be interfering. Back the BAS off one turn and see if it closes easily.

The bolt head may be longer and the end of the bolthead is touching the breach face.


Someone may have modified the cocking piece position or the bolt internals and it needs to be adjusted or correct parts installed.

Savagesmiths come in a variety of mechanical aptitudes. Therefore used parts and assemblies are like a box of chocolates.....

[jlsbassman]

The stevens bolt only closes hard in the model 10 action. With round or without. I moved them both back to original actions and both close fine in them. The reason I was changing them is I have a xlr chassis for top release but the 10t is a bottom release. The 10t has a nice spiral fluted bolt body and I was wanting it on the chassis gun. I will probably just switch them back.

[Robinhood]

Did you try to back off on the big arse screw on the rear of the bolt? One turn will work as a test.

[jlsbassman]

I haven't tried that but will.

[jlsbassman]

I tried loosening the screw and less than 1/8 of a turn on it and bolt closes fine but leaves the bolt handle loose.

[noname]

never had any problems when I switched them around.but did reset the head space..

[jlsbassman]

I changed the barrel on the 10t and properly set the headspace using go/no go gauges.

[sharpshooter]

The individual bolt assemblies are mated to actions when they are assembled. With a tolerance stack up, there are no guarantees that it will fit proper in another rifle.

[jlsbassman]

My question then would be, how do places like ptg or sharpshooter supply make bolt bodies that are the correct length for each individual action without having to measure it?

[mnbogboy2]

My question then would be, how do places like ptg or sharpshooter supply make bolt bodies that are the correct length for each individual action without having to measure it?

If I am correct the bolt worked smoothly after you loosened the BAS. That tells me that the rear baffle (primary extracion) "bound up" the bolt assembly in the action.
Because it only takes a few seconds my first impulse would be to just try and change the rear baffles because they vary a lot .010 to .015 on a couple I just measured. But because bolt handles also vary so much also this might open up a new can of worms with primary extraction problems. Also just interchanging the complete bolts most likely will cause a need to re-headspace.

If it were me with this problem, I would diassasemble both bolts and measure both bolt bodies.
They should be comparable in length (say within .005). I went out and measured three Savage LA bolt bodies one was over 30 years old 5.990, 5.991, and 5.889 not including the bolt handle stop tabs.
If the measurement was "real close" then I would switch out only the bolt bodies.

A more important measurement is the "cross pin" hole to the bolt handle end should be close to 5.697-5.703 on the LA (at least on the couple I measured). The actual Savage print should be close to this but who has seen it?

You have a short action so these LA numbers are only to show a comparitive tolerance.
As sharpshooter said; "With a tolerance stack up, there are no guarantees that it will fit proper in another rifle."

Then I would re-check the firing pin protrusion and reassemble each bolt.
After that I would then try each bolt with and without an empty brass.
If each bolt opened and closed smoothly I would then re-check the headspace with go & no go gauges. (my no go gauge is .002"-.004" of Scotch tape on the go gauge). The headspace should theoretically be the same as original because each bolt head matches the original barrel & action.

Down fall would be that the differences between recievers may affect the primary extraction. You probably won't know until you fire the rifle. Most likely it won't (but life is full of surprises).
If either action was customized the cocking ramp within the bolt may have been polished or otherwise altered. This again is one of the things that may change (change in cocking force).

My .02,
Randy

[Robinhood]

If I am correct the bolt worked smoothly after you loosened the BAS. That tells me that the rear baffle (primary extracion) "bound up" the bolt assembly in the action.
Because it only takes a few seconds my first impulse would be to just try and change the rear baffles because they vary a lot .010 to .015 on a couple I just measured. But because bolt handles also vary so much also this might open up a new can of worms with primary extraction problems. Also just interchanging the complete bolts most likely will cause a need to re-headspace.

If it were me with this problem, I would diassasemble both bolts and measure both bolt bodies.
They should be comparable in length (say within .005). I went out and measured three Savage LA bolt bodies one was over 30 years old 5.990, 5.991, and 5.889 not including the bolt handle stop tabs.
If the measurement was "real close" then I would switch out only the bolt bodies.

A more important measurement is the "cross pin" hole to the bolt handle end should be close to 5.697-5.703 on the LA (at least on the couple I measured). The actual Savage print should be close to this but who has seen it?

You have a short action so these LA numbers are only to show a comparitive tolerance.
As sharpshooter said; "With a tolerance stack up, there are no guarantees that it will fit proper in another rifle."

Then I would re-check the firing pin extrusion and reassemble each bolt.
After that I would then try each bolt with and without an empty brass.
If each bolt opened and closed smoothly I would then re-check the headspace with go & no go gauges. (my no go gauge is .002"-.004" of Scotch tape on the go gauge). The headspace should theoretically be the same as original because each bolt head matches the original barrel & action.

Down fall would be that the differences between recievers may affect the primary extraction. You probably won't know until you fire the rifle. Most likely it won't (but life is full of surprises).
If either action was customized the cocking ramp within the bolt may have been polished or otherwise altered. This again is one of the things that may change (change in cocking force).

My .02,
Randy


Sorry I did not respond sooner. Randy covered the jist of the loosen the bolt handle test. He also identified that the headspace is only correct using the bolt head that it was tested with. And of coarse sharpshooter gave you the abbreviated all encompassing data.

[jlsbassman]

Sounds good. I’ll check the rear baffles to see if they are the problem. If it comes down to it may just switch them back to their original actions. Mainly the looks was what I was going for with the fluted bolt. Thanks for all your help.

[J.Baker]

My question then would be, how do places like ptg or sharpshooter supply make bolt bodies that are the correct length for each individual action without having to measure it?

Because they assume (maybe wrongly so?) that the customer is smart enough to know that they will have to check and likely adjust the headspace when changing out certain bolt parts.

Contrary to personal fallacies and internet folklore, Savage's aren't lego's.

[jlsbassman]

Because they assume (maybe wrongly so?) that the customer is smart enough to know that they will have to check and likely adjust the headspace when changing out certain bolt parts.

Contrary to personal fallacies and internet folklore, Savage's aren't lego's.

Probably if you would have checked above you would have found that headspace was properly checked and had nothing to do with the issue. Thanks for everybody else’s help. Just went with putting the back to their original actions and the work perfectly.

[mnbogboy2]

Sorry if I misunderstood that you you checked it with both bolts.
I too was also under the impression that the headspace was only checked with the original bolt at barrel change. Because the bolt closed so hard I would not have checked it the second time until the problem was corrected.

Glad you decided to leave originals in their respective actions.

Did you end up resetting the headspace all 3 times?

Good shooting,
Randy

[jlsbassman]

No worries. I changed it with three different bolt heads, one without the ejector installed. Always had the same problem with the Stevens bolt in the model 10 action. Changed them back to original actions, checked headspace and everything works fine.