Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Dakota 3 pos. safety on Mauser, depth of cut?

My Mauser project is moving along again. I have a Dakota 3 position safety to fit. The bolt lock pin is no problem, my question is about milling the angle on the striker. I'm unsure how deep to make the angled cut to allow the safety wing to push it back. Is there a set depth? I know if it is too deep or too far back it will cause me to have to set the bottom lug back more as well. Just wondering if there is a pre-determined depth of cut.

Scott

First off, IMHO, throw away the Dakota! After you get a Wisner, it only takes a slight 3-0deg bevel on the cocking piece, assemble the whole shebang, cock it and squeeze the trigger. It will fire (empty chamber of course), recock it and measure the distance from the end of the cocking piece to the safety shroud and take a corresponding amount off the front of the sear surface on the cocking piece3, the underside of it.

Or you can send it to me and I will do it for you

Well.....hmmmmm.
What if I'm hardheaded and just have to have the Dakota?

I've read some comments about them not working well. But I've read comments about them working fine as well.

there have been some issues with it

Here is a link to Jim Wisnwer/s videao on how to do it

Thanks, I have seen that. The critical (to me) question is when milling the angle on the striker, what is the depth and how is it measured? I've seen the angle called out on prints, but that is the only thing I can find. Is there a specific depth to take the cut from the edge? take the angle all the way back to be flush with the firing pin channel? or is there another reference point I'm missing to measure?

Only enough to give you a small flat surface. If you take omre then you need to take more off the trigger sear surface on the cocking piece

There is no depth per se. You simply increase the "depth" as you refer to it until the lever can engage the CP and cam it back smoothly. Be sure to check the unaltered CP first. Sometimes the lever can be operated without the angle cut.

I had some other issues I had to address, the safety lever was dragging on the cocking piece. I had to sand just a little clearance on it. Now it slides very freely. However, as z1r mentioned, without cutting any relief angle the safety will now cam the cocking piece back. I've tried to show it here, hope this shows up:

Safety in fire position and cocked:


With safety lever on:


This is with a 2-stage military trigger that has been smoothed up considerably. I have a Bold trigger on hand but it's not working, the trigger barely moves and the sear doesn't disengage.

Good advice there, I have done it both ways as he suggests