Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Bolt Removal BSA Hunter 222

It is a beautiful mini-Mauser but has no bolt release.

Some on the web say to open the bolt part way and push the trigger forward. Tried, that trigger is not moving.

Tried pulling it and removing bolt, does not work

Others say you have to take the rifle apart to remove bolt.

Anyone been down this road ?

Thanks.

I had a bsa many years ago, wasnt a hunter model...but to remove bolt you pushed the trigger forward diagonally. In other words you pushed it forward on an angle to the left I think. Give it a go anyway!!

bolt 1/2 way back, pull trigger rearward, hold it back, withdraw bolt

or, if it's a monarch or herters u9 version,

bolt 1/2 way back, press trigger forward (very hard), hold pressure, withdraw bolt.

and, if you are larry root, GFY

already tried both. does not work. the trigger will not move forward at all.

always a good idea to read the question before answering.

what did this larry root do to you ?

you are ?

always a good idea to read the question before answering.

? [/quote]

Did read question. To the best of my knowledge, you will not feel any forward movement in the trigger. But with the rifle I had it was that forward sideway movement that enabled the bolt to be withdrawn.....

I have a Herters BSA. I settled on a small strip of metal yhat will slip between the bolt and the trigger sear. Slip this in while pulling the bolt to the rear.

I have a Herter's BSA .338 Win Mag. Took me a long time to figure it out... but sure enough you just gently slide the bolt out while holding the trigger forward. No excess force is required. Sometimes you have to repeat the procedure. A thin feeler gauge snipped to a narrow strip will work in a pinch, but it oughta fall right out in your lap.

Either pulling or pushing the trigger will work. I have three BSAs and one is opposite the other two. It can be touchy about how you manipulate it. One way or the other though it will work.

Once you figure out whether it's push or pull and when you need to be pushing or pulling, they are easily repeatable.

Just a stupid idea, but take it iyt of the stock and place barrel/action upside down in padded vise, or have someonehold it while yo do as folks have said to do.

That way you can see what the parts are doing as you manipulate them and can figure out which (if any)of the methods is correct for your gun.

May just be some "gunk" keeping the parts from moving completely.

Safety glasses, nitrile gloves ON, brake cleaner to bare action, wiggle pieces/parts and spray again if needed.
Dadgum WD40/old lube hardens and gums up a lot of stuff.

Took your advice.

Out of the stock it was squeeky clean.

After some experimentation, it became clear that with the barreled action upside down, the only way was to to pull the front screw on the trigger group and then pivot it upward, being careful not to lose the tiny ejector spring. As the rear of the trigger group is retained by a pin everything (except that tiny GDMed spring), is kept together. Now the bolt can be removed.

There are two things that keep it from being removed. The first is the ejector. Instead of the usual Mauser design, this one comes up from the bottom and is slotted into the bolt. Pushing it down allows the bolt to come back a bit to where the sear stops it. Even after removing the bolt (see above) neither pulling or pushing the trigger does anything to the sear. Only with the rifle cocked and locked will the sear release to fire the rifle.

While I had the rifle apart, I cleaned the bore down to bare metal with Wipe Out followed by Sweet's followed by JB followed by brake cleaner. The new Lyman bore scope is just great to see if all the copper is really gone.(it is)
Finally I applied the Dyna Tech bore coating (my first try with it)

Guess I'll be cleaning it (happily not often, if the DT lives up to the hype)) with Wipe Out and a pull thru.

Dam ndest thing I've ever seen. The action is basically a small ring Kurtz action. Just wondering why they could not have used the simple Mauser bolt release & ejector setup ???

LouisB thanks for the advice !

Also did 2 other rifles at the same time: a S&L M54 in 7x61 and a Marlin XL7 rebarreled with a med hvy 280 AI bbl made for a Savage (bought here). Both rifles were already tack drivers so the DT should only help.

The only trouble with having the Lyman borescope is that you see that even a fine Danish steel bbl like the 7x61 is not like a mirror inside.

Thanks to all, it seems BSA's were "unique".