Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Tightening up a bolt with bronze shim?

In one of his gunsmithing videos, Gordy Gritters shows how you can tighten up a loose bolt by putting epoxy between bolt and rear bridge (through the scope base hole) to improve accuracy. Has anyone tried doing the same thing by epoxying in a bronze shim between the top of the bolt and rear bridge? Seems the bolt would glide smoothly on the bronze shim and it would wear well. Thoughts?

I have heard of guys adding shims to Ruger 77/22 bolts to improve headspace

Never heard of it. Hint..............

Greg's not sleeving bolts anymore. He did a few for me and it worked great, but is the feasibility of the bronze shim that has me curious.

I've never had Greg shim a bolt,though he's bushed piles of them for me. Hint.................

Did have some Greg striker assembly/springs arrive not long ago though. Hint.



Had a maligned Second Hand Mesa,wearing a bent pin. Hint.






Just sayin'...............

While adding material to the underside of the bridge at the rear does reduce the bolt slop.....take a moment to think about how that changes the locking lugs fit to the lug abuttments in the receiver and the case head relationship to the bolt face. When done that way, the bolt is now running at an upward angle in the receiver as the rear is forced down.

Not that It might not help....because it can. If you just want to try it, you can carefully do a single wrap of clear tape around the bolt and try it. It will last for 15-20 rounds if you're careful. I use that trick quite often on factory rifles.

BTW, the epoxy through the base holes was being done long before being popularized or publicly discussed by Gordy.

Good shootin' -Al

The old trick was to get scope base screws that were a hair long and file or trim them back till you got the fit you wanted and would still allow the bolt to work and be removed.

Plenty of grooved up bolt bodies out there from that method.

Another method I've used to keep the bolt centered on 700's is to drill and tap the bottom flats on each side of the bolt shroud and fit flat headed brass screws. The screws are adjusted to keep the bolt centered. It's a good method on a factory rifle.

This is a bolt sleeve for a Kodiak repeater:


On this single shot follower I made, the notch at the rear is clearance for the front edge of the bolt sleeve:

Silly question Al, with the screw modification to the shroud centering back end of the bolt upon sear release. Is the upward tilt past center when cocked still an issue? Thanks

Not silly at all Mike...good question. Yes...the bolt will still climb up at the back from the firing pin spring pressure on the cocking piece and trigger connector bar. The benefit of the shroud screws is that the bolt body doesn't drop as far when the trigger is pressed...the shroud doesn't slam down as hard on the receiver.

The way around all of this is a full length, non-split bolt sleeve. This one is one of my 700's that Stan Ware did for me with the full length sleeve.You can't see it but it's ground with an eccentric like the 'Borden Bumps'. When the bolt is closed, there's right at .001 clearance. When it's open, the eccentrics give right at .004 so opening the bolt is like it's running on ceramic ball bearings.


With a full length sleeve, the shroud just floats in the receiver as you can see. The rub marks on one side are where it contacts the receiver after being opened and pulled back.


Didn't mean to get the thread off kilter but it's an interesting subject. -Al

Thanks Al, good info. Seems like a relatively simple mod that may show some benefit for my 40X prone rifle. I will be changing barrels very soon on it so I can just pull the action out of the tube stock and set up a dial indicator on it. How much play would you tolerate before considering the mods.? I know this action has a looser fit than my 40X clone with a 1 piece PTG bolt.

Mike, you're going to want to know the reciever I.D. before making that decision. They are rarely round or the same dimensions front to rear. -Al

How does Ware grind the ellipses on that sleeve? 2nd question, assuming I tried the bronze shim, I'd then need to lap my lugs but the action is nitrided (the bolt is not) and is there any way to put uniform pressure on the bolt nose for lapping the lugs with the barrel on? There is also the problem of seeing the lapping progress on the lugs to know when you have good contact. Thoughts?

You could use a wood dowel down the barrel to push back on the bolt nose to apply pressure.

I sure wouldn't touch the lugs or the abuttments if you're just trying it. -Al

X2. Dykem and targets before grit.

Back in the late seventies, I used to sleeve or bush bolts. Later on, admittedly inspired by the concept of the "Borden Bumps", I started using inserts dovetailed into the bolt body and machined to size. I have used this technique on Remington, Sako, Howa, Model 70's, Mausers, and Ruger. I just use short pieces of dovetail filler stock which I buy from Brownells. If one prefers the look of a brass insert, the insert can be made of brass, of course. I feel this is a much better way of eliminating excess clearance than is sleeving.
I cut the dovetail slots 1/16" inch deep and use red loctite as a retainer. I turn the OD to provide clearance of no more than .0005" (.001 on the diameter) in the receiver. GD

greydog, I have an XP I was going to sleeve this winter, but I think I'll do these dovetails instead.