Bolt lift kit?

**justinp61** · 02-25-2021, 09:15 PM

I bought one for my LH 22-250 mdl 11 build and am pretty disappointed with it. Using my scale it's only a couple ounces lighter. This rifle has over 12lbs of cocking effort, my mdl 16 only has about 5lbs.

The kit came from e-bay and has the thrust washer (bearing) and two races. Are all these kits about the same?

**Robinhood** · 02-25-2021, 10:19 PM

No. They are not all the same. The better ones will have a ball or point that only touches in the middle of the solid washer. If the assembly is installed without the screw being shortened an equal amount or a spacer between the bolt handle and the Bolt Assembly Screw(BAS) the increased spring preload negates any improvement a lift kit may offer. Fred understood this when he set up the Savage bolt during a timing and true.

So there are a couple of ways to skin this cat.

This has been the tried and true with the correct amount removed from the BAS or a spacer of the correct dimensions installed.

**justinp61** · 02-25-2021, 10:24 PM

The kit I bought came with a spacer. My thinking was that if it helped I'd make a fixture to hold the BAS then turn off the thickness of the bearing and races in my lathe.

**Robinhood** · 02-25-2021, 10:40 PM

I have made several kits for myself. I never liked the thrust ball bearing ones. Any misalignment increases lift force and maybe increased contact may increase it as well.

**GrenGuy** · 02-26-2021, 05:47 PM

All of My Savages have the 38 Special bolt lift adaptations. They add about.072” to .075” to the spring tension. I remove this amount from the Cocking Sleeve. That helps with bolt lift, but not enough. The main culprit with Savage heavy bolt lift is excessive firing pin spring. I have removed 2 coils from My Bench Rest rifles, which gets My bolt to a point where it doesn’t upset My rig in the bags. This reduces the Lock Time some, but this past weekend I was able to put 2 bullets into the same hole, at 600yds. Twice. That’s enough Lock Time for Me.

Observe this testimony, as you see fit, at your own risk...JMO

**celltech** · 02-26-2021, 06:15 PM

I am curious on the thought that Savage's have too much firing spring. What is the consensus on cutting some coils off?

**GrenGuy** · 02-26-2021, 08:35 PM

It only has excessive spring if you want lighter bolt lift. Much has been written about lighting Savage bolt lift, this site has lots of information pertaining to it. No one thing gets it where it needs to be. Lift kits help, they do what they do, but they don’t do it all. Much of the process involves smoothing and polishing all the moving parts. It’s all here at the end of a “search”.

Shortening the spring was not My idea, it was suggested by several on the net, and denounced by others. Before I did it, I made sure I had a replacement spring, in case it didn’t work. I am convinced it did.