One of my Sako L61R's broke the bolt stop spring a couple of weeks ago and that part is proving to be impossible to find. I took out the broken spring and also another one from another L61R and I believe I might could make one if I showed a lot of patience during the process. I mic'd the spring and it measured .025" in diameter. I swear I think if I got a large safety pin I might could use that to pull it off. Any advice would be appreciated.
Looks like this:
You only live once, but...if you do it right, once is enough.
Get yourself some piano wire of the same diameter, you should be able to bend one up cold. Expect a few tries. Brownell's sells a nice assortment of sizes in 3 foot lengths, straightened. Good hobby shops sell 3 foot straight pieces too.
Do remember that piano wire is harder than the jaws of your standard wire cutter. I use the dreaded Dremel with a cutoff wheel.
The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh
There is a local company that makes springs. Fascinating to watch the machines run endlessly from stock wire rolls to finished springs. I've been there, working, a couple of times. I have no idea of thier rates, or minimum order size, but they might accept an order.
An unemployed Jester, is nobody's Fool.
the only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker, is observation. all the same data is present for both. The rest, is understanding what you're seeing.
Sure looks similar to the bolt stop spring for a Remington 700. If not exactly the same close enough to make fit. Otherwise, the suggestion to find the proper size music wire is the way to go.
I have a few sizes of music wire from building hammered dulcimers. I will check the wire size when I get home. If I have what you need, I'll just mail it to you.
An unemployed Jester, is nobody's Fool.
the only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker, is observation. all the same data is present for both. The rest, is understanding what you're seeing.
I have .016, .018, .020, .022& .024 music wire. If you would like to try winding your own, PM me with mailing info.
An unemployed Jester, is nobody's Fool.
the only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker, is observation. all the same data is present for both. The rest, is understanding what you're seeing.
Use music wire. Bend the angled shrt leg first. Make it longer than necessary. Clamp this leg in your vise and wind the loop around a punch which is smaller in diameter than you want the loop to end up. Bend the two right angles at the appropriate place and cut off. If you are like me, the third one will be great! GD
Sure looks similar to the bolt stop spring for a Remington 700. If not exactly the same close enough to make fit. Otherwise, the suggestion to find the proper size music wire is the way to go.
Well....not one soul had one. Sako, Beretta, Numrich, assorted gun parts dealers, Sears & Roebuck...nobody. I had to make one myself, or at least try. Straightened out a safety pin and went to work slowly. By the way, the broken Sako spring and the safety pin measured exactly the same in diameter: .025". I lucked out and the replacement worked like a charm. In the photo below is the broken pin on the bottom and the safety pin spring on top....thought I did pretty well. The angle of the photograph doesn't show it, but the curves match up well in the respective springs. The little 90 degree turndown is where it broke. And yes, my original picture in my first post, taken off the internet, was the wrong spring.
Last edited by Godogs57; 10/15/19.
You only live once, but...if you do it right, once is enough.
![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/VNqxscVX/Sako-spring.png)
But if you don't care that could work particularly with the same wire diameter.
![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/bJD4SMS8/Sako-spring.jpg)