Quote Originally Posted by Mach2 View Post
Cycling the bolt is like revving an engine that coughs. All you are doing is damaging the engine and making your neighbor mad.

Polish the bolt surfaces that ride on the black pin. You will see a diagonal cut in the bolt body. This diagonal surface is smooth and very hard, heat treated steel. If the pin and the bolt surface don't meet properly it causes excessive friction thus a sticky bolt. Look at the surfaces. They may be rough or angled wrong.
Make sure you know the difference between polishing and filing. Make sure the bolt metal you polish is polished so that it meets the black pin at the best angle which is 90 degs.
You can replace the bolt but what that does to fix the problem is change the surface rubbing up against the black pin.

If those two surfaces on the black pin and the bolt don't meet flat then cycling the bolt is just sawing into the black pin. The surfaces must meet flat.. Cycling the bolt will get you nothing but a sloppy. clunky bolt action rifle. Basically you are just weqring out your rifle.

Take the bolt apart to polish these surfaces. Polishing case hardened steel takes patience and a little skill. You need the right polishing tools because the surfaces are tough to reach. Dremels can cause uneven surfaces. That is a linear diagonal cut. You don't want bumps or hills in it.

In a nutshell the 45 deg cut in the bolt that meets the black pin is improperly machined. (rough or not meshing properly to the black pin)
These are your options: replace the bolt or pin or both. Polish the 45deg cut in the bolt. If the 45 deg cut isn't meeting the black pin at a 90 deg angle you have to form a 90 deg angle first. Then polish the new surface.
If you see any cutting or wear marks on the shaft of the black pin get a new pin. The black pin should be flawless. The 45 deg cut in the bolt rides on the surface of this pin.

Sitting in your lazy boy cycling the action 500 times will do nothing but cut a groove into the black pin. You are also wearing out the lug surfaces. Don't do this. Do you really think a good gunsmith would do this?
Well little too late. I cycled it about 200 times already. I will admit it is much smoother...but hopefully I didn't wear it out like you stated. Even my wife says it's much easier for her to cycle it now.