doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com HELP Bolt is stuck in my Mauser 98 action!

Hi:

while working om my Mauser 98, I got the bolt stuck in the action.

It is in the battery position, ready to fire, but it only has the firing pin, firing pin spring and the shroud attached. Th es four pieces went very easily into the action but now I am unable to lift the bolt handle to remove the bolt. Nothing will move! The trigger group is removed. I can see the rear of the firing pin and may be able to get a grip on it to pull it to the rear. As now, everything is very tight with no movement. I tried tapping on the bolt handle in hopes to get it out of battery but to no avail.

How may I remove the bolt?

Is there a Mauser expert anywhere that I may contact about my problem?

Suggestions?

Tia,

Franchi

Take a picture (or a few)and post them.
Easier to approach the problem
Tom

Franchi: Start by flipping the rifle action over and look into the hole where the trigger sear normally protrudes up and engages the cocking piece. See if the bottom of the bolt cocking piece has moved forward over the sear hole. If it has, gently take a brass [if you have it] rod or the like [e.g. punch or a small screwdriver will do, but be very easy or you will marr the face of the cocking piece!] and try to drive the cocking piece's BOTTOM 90 degree edge where it joins the bolt, down [from the bottom view] and back with short but firm taps. All the while pulling on the bolt handle with light to moderate pressure [you may need a second person or a shop tool such as a small winch etc.] with a short cord looped over the bolt handle's root and anchored to some fixture, with pressure exerted while the action is secured in a vise. Go easy... I believe you have simply wedged the bolt body in there in the cocked position and you can't turn it and it is hard to extract with the cocking piece in the rear position. Some strategically placed lube will help. GOOD LUCK Jerry

Franchi, Is the extractor collar in place? If so, Rotate it until the mortice aligns with the extractor cut in the receiver.

Franchi,
You said the trigger was removed. Was the sear removed? sometimes,a commercial sear gets hung up in the "notch" on the bottom of a military cocking piece. If this the case,remove the sear. If the extractor collar is hanging it up, the bolt would rotate, you just couldn't pull the bolt completely out.
Mike

Assuming that you have an original Mauser type bolt shroud safety or a M 70 type 3 position bolt shroud safety insert a brass punch through the sear hole in the tang & pull the cocking piece back until you can put the safety in the middle position (straight up for the Mauser type) then you should be able to lift the bolt handle & remove the bolt.

If you have a side safety attached to the trigger group then you will need to pull the cocking piece back in the same manner while pulling up & back on the bolt handle.

Does the bolt shroud plunger have anything to do with the problem.
Perhaps if the shroud wasn't screwed all the way onto the bolt body when it was inserted into the action,,something like that.
Just guessing..

Any luck yet?

Hi All:

Problem solved!

I got lucky and got this thing apart early this morning,3:00 A.M. Lol I could not sleep thinking about this challenge. Being a fairly limited person, it dose not require much to confuse me!

The problem was solved in two steps:

First problem was to get the bolt to turn in the action or be able to lift the bolt handle, the key to this problem had something to do with the extractor being "hung up" on the receiver bridge. After forcing the extractor away from the receiver bridge, I was able to tap the bolt handle open via a plastic faced hammer.

Once the bolt, firing pin, firing pin spring,and shroud was out of the action, I could now attack the problem of getting the shroud off of the bolt to release the other parts.

I discover that the firing pind could be wedged back with a scriber placed in a gas escape hole in the bolt body. This was levered against one of the notches that retain the cocking piece. Even though the movement was very slight, I could rotate the shroud very little to unscrew it. I was able to get a pair of parallel jaw pliers on the end of the firing pin and pull it to the rear allowing the shroud to be turned very little with each pull on the firing pin. The shroud then came off and I was able to remove the firing pin and spring.

I will have to figure out why the firing pin locked the shroud in poisition when it was in the fired poisition. This must be due the way that the firing pin tenon drops into mortise inside the bolt when it is rotated 90 degrees. How do they cut that tenon insde of the bolt for the firing pin to enter when the gun is in battery?

After messing with this 98, I have a much greater respect for the ingenuity of Paul Mauser!

Thanks to all of you who made suggestions.

Stay well my friends.

Franchi