Bolt lift trick

[Robinhood]

There are many complaints about the Savage bolt lift. This trick will not greatly reduce the effort to open but will smooth it out significantly if yours feels rough.


Take this part and put it in your cordless drill. Get some 600 grit sandpaper and smooth and polish the edges and major diameter to a mirror finish.

This part is optional. Get you one each of these in 300(yellow) and 800(orange) grit from Grizzly. They are 1"x4" in size. Amazon (the ones I use) has them in 325, 600 and 1200 grit. The one inch width works to your advantage here. Do not use a file.

Turn your action upside down and secure it. Look through the sear slot to see if the bolt raceway is smooth. you might want to use a quality flashlight and even a magnifier to help you see things better.

You should see a wear pattern if the bolt has been operated a dozen or more times. If there any waves or surface imperfections this process may be some help. If you do decide to hone it is not necessary but A black marker can be used to show witness prior to starting or any time during the process. (You are going to be honing the roof of the right side of the action on a right handed model.)

With the action gently snugged in the vice(use copper or brass jaw inserts or anything to protect the action) topside down, slide the 300 grit hone into the rear of the action with the diamond facing down. Slip your finger or suitable digit on top of it from the rear and another finger or suitable digit through the mag port. Use a little light oil. Keep it flat and applying pressure take a few passes using short strokes. Clean and inspect to judge how fast or slow things are going. Repeat until you see the wear pattern reduced in size. Now switch to the fine hone and work it for about a minute. Inspect and repeat. Take your time here and you will be happy with the result.

Remember to thoroughly clean any grit shavings and dirty oil, do the white q-tip inspection test, re lubricate and test. Good luck.

[justinp61]

Good tips. The bolt can be disassembled and polished too, the steps are posted in the Savage section on rimfire central. The diamond hones you have may be different but all of mine state to ONLY use water as lube, no oil. Be sure and check the instructions before using new diamond hones.

[Robinhood]

Thanks Justin. This post was what I saw to be something that is often overlooked. Polishing the ramp is some thing that had covered that at least a few times and this post was not meant to go into a complete bolt work over. Maybe I should have gone that route. Your post reference was multiple pages an was all rimfire so if I overlooked your intent please provide a little more info. Thanks.

As for the water or oil, I use light oil(I actually use Kroil) because it is near my workbench, water is harder to keep on the work surface due to surface tension where oil has better adhesion properties. I have not seen my diamond hones or the media effected by the use of oil. I guess it could effect some plastics. I will leave that choice to the owner.