My first B-Mag, modified my bolt

I bought my first B-Mag 3 weeks ago, looked nice, price was right. After owning it for 5 minutes I put a dent in the beautiful thumb hole stock from the bolt going down before it was ready to lock up. After looking at the bolt mechanism I immediately began thinking how to fix this bad design. It took me 3 days in the workshop to come up with something that works very well (listen up Savage it wasn't that hard).

First was to get a new bolt handle then make a polished steel bolt cap, this cap eliminates the round spring clip and holds new bolt handle very tight. Because the bolt handle no longer wiggles, this allows for a larger set screw point to be made to further reduce play (stock screw had .072" point, new one is .095"). These things alone help but will not stop the bolt from going down when pulled back.

I then cut a slot in the end of the bolt shaft so a hand crafted locking pin could lock the bolt from turning. Since there is no round spring clip anymore this clears way to drill a hole in bolt handle for a spring loaded push pin to activate the new locking pin.

The bolt now locks in the up position and has very little wiggle. When the bolt is pushed forward the lock is released and allows it to go down. I then fixed the dent in the stock and that will never happen again.

I also added a .005" shim on the bolt handle flat to take up slop.

https://i.imgur.com/vsQeIlb.jpg

Click below for pictures:

https://imgur.com/a/GJub5

Additional information:

I originally was going to make a simple "U" shaped locking pin (a bent nail) and a small spring in the retaining cap to push it back but there was not enough metal material in the bolt handle to drill a hole that large all the way though without the drill going out the side towards the back (it's tapered). Since I had to work with what I had I used a 4-40 cap screw with a turned down head. This allowed me to make a larger hole in the front part of the handle and a smaller hole in the back. The larger hole was needed to have the push pin meet up higher with the back of the receiver.

A very simple "U" shaped push pin could be used in production if the handle was made with a little more metal in that spot. Having worked in engineering for 30 years I know that reducing cost always wins.

Just a suggestion.