Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Heavy bolt lift with Gentry 3 Position Safety

I just had a Gentry 3 position safety installed on a Remington 700. I had the work done by a gunsmith who has been in business a long time and has a very good reputation - really nice guy too. He says he has done this modification many times before. When I contacted him about having a 3 position safety installed, he recommended the Gentry over the PTG so that's what I bought. He supplied the cocking piece (with 45 degree pin hole) which according to my invoice it is a PTG. I picked up the gun today and am shocked at how hard the bolt is to lift. I mean it is so hard to lift that I thought it was in the lock position. I questioned it and he said that's the way they are after installing the Gentry safeties. He said he could switch it back to the Remington safety if I wanted. I'm thinking something has got to be wrong as Gentry could never sell any of these things if they all worked like this one does. Also the safety itself is very hard to flip through the 3 positions. Anyone have any thoughts as to what might be going on and what needs done to fix it? I'd really like to run with the Gentry but only if the bolt and safety work smoothly. Thanks!

I've personally installed the Gentry safety on a couple of my rifles. They are a little stiff to actuate because the lever retracts the firing pin approximately .020" (IIRC) rearward pulling the cocking piece off of the sear. Reason being that if someone were to squeeze the trigger with the safety on the floating connector in the trigger might not reset itself if the cocking piece was in contact with the sear. Releasing the safety could make the rifle fire. If the angled surface that is cut into the cocking piece isn't correct or surface isn't polished the lever will stiffer to actuate. As far as the cocking force mine didn't change. The pin that locks the bolt handle might be dragging on the bolt handle causing the additional force, also if the pin hole that was drilled into the back of the bolt handle is off location by a little it would cause the safety lever to be stiff when moving it into the third position.

I've had to cut a couple of coils from the spring because they bound up in the bolt body. If you pull the assy and the spring is near stacked....this could be your issue.

Lesson learned, don't buy a Gentry, Just my personal opinion

Is your opinion based on personal experience? Did you go the PTG route? If so, do you like the way it works?

I've had several Gentry safeties installed and if done correctly the bolt should operate and cycle very smoothly.

They are a terrific upgrade on Remington's but take a bit of know-how and finesse to install. I had one that needed some filing to operate smoothly through the three positions, but this one was installed by a gunsmith that was not very familiar with the process.

It's very dependent on the smith in my experience.

OP,
Either a Gentry or LaPour/PTG shroud safety is NOT the same operation as a military rifle design swing safety.....aka 98,70,96,03.

The only resemblance is that the safety has to cock the firing pin to disconnect the sear/trigger.

Remington operation is NOT of military design as it is cock on open & cock on closed....unless TIMED correctly.

A Remington is NOT of military rifle design & should NOT be modified to attempt operation as such.