Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Rem 788 Hard Bolt Lift

My '60's era 788 has always had a seemingly hard bolt lift when
cocking. It's easy to lift once the firing pin is in the cocked
position. The last few years, it seems to be getting worse, even
though there is enough lubrication where needed. Someone
suggested turning the spring 90*, and that helped very little
and for just a few firings.

Any suggestions how to correct this problem?

Try polishing the cocking cam on the rear of the bolt body with 320 grit or finer wet-or-dry or emery cloth and apply a little bit of good grease to the ramp.

I've seen lots of Remingtons with rough cams and polishing really helps.

not sure if it would help at all, but I have a custom rifle on a 788 action, and an original .222 788. I had a friend that is pretty savy and we took the bolts apart, and we cleaned and dry lubricated the springs, and inside. I wonder if this would help your bolt. Might be dry, or gummed up inside there. Good luck.

My eyes are getting too old. The cocking cam looked good until I
put magnification to it. It appeared that some of the metal had
actually moved, almost like metal in the threads on a partially
stripped bolt. Nothing real deep, but had to be interfering.
Started out with 220 wet/dry and went to 400 grit. There were
also a couple other areas where it appeared friction was a culprit
so they got a polishing job.

The problem areas are also going to get a treatment with Moly
Fusion (NOT the same as the moly used to coat bullets), but it's
just to darned cold in the reloading room to do that today.

I will also clean the older lubricant out of the bolt as well as
the spring, then use a dry lubricant.....it CAN'T hurt!

Thanks for the suggestions. Will let ya know how it turns out.

Stop dry firing it. If you have to fire it to check after polishing the cocking cam...use a brass w/a primer in it. powdr

UPDATE: Prior to completely assembling everything, I just
put the firing pin assembly in the bolt. Under magnification
I observed the mating surfaces of the sear nose and cocking
cam. The sear nose does not make full contact with the cam.
In fact, it barely touches (.010"?) For it to make full
contact, metal would have to be taken away toward the O.D.
of the bolt. That would increase the angle toward the top of the
cam, which may or may not make the bolt hard to lift just prior
to the nose cocking at the top of the stroke.

What to do? If I do that, there is no turning back!



My Dad bought this rifle in the '60's at a time when it was
considered voo-doo to dry fire ANY rifle. He never dry fired
it, nor have I. I doubt if it was ever dry fired, even by
accident.

Danno in my opinion it's still the cocking cam and mating surfaces. powdr

CORRECTION: It was dry-fired three times when checking trigger
pull weight after I installed a Timney trigger (boy, was THAT
ever an improvement). Forgot about that, but three times in
almost 5 decades ain't much.

Finally got the mating surfaces in the cocking area even with
a little improvement. Not satisfied, I did a shotgun approach
to the problem:

Everything was clean, but I cleaned it again, inside receiver
as well as bolt, spring, just everything.

Did an extensive Moly Fustion treatment to all surfaces which
had any wear at all on them. That's pretty tedious since the
metal has to be heated and allowed to cool many times.

Sprayed dry lubricant inside action as well as inside bolt,
spring. Put a film of Moly Fusion oil on all surfaces of the
bolt that showed wear, then reassembled.

How long this "fix" will last is anyone's guess, but it now
has a better bolt lift than the first time I ever shot it.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Danno

Good for you Danno. They can be a booger at times. I cannot stand any drag on a bolt action rifle. powdr