Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Mauser and Timney?

I put a Timney trigger in my Mauser. (Its a 98, cock on open.) Now it seems the bolt is harder to open. This is on an unloaded rifle. Did the trigger cause this? If so, is there a fix? Its a fairly new to me rifle and I really don't remember it being this hard to open.

Just check that the sear isn't binding on the cocking piece.

The trigger sear may be binding in the slot in the receiver or the cocking piece. I have had occasion to grind a bit off the bottom of the cocking piece

i reckon your timney isn't quite free of touching the inletting somewhere. mark your trigger housing with something rubs off, and seat your action to spec. remove and check for rub marks.

pyscodog;
Good evening to you sir, I hope your part of Oklahoma had decent weather today and you're well.

Since you didn't say whether your Mauser was a commercial or military model, I'll offer the following observations.

Despite my best efforts tonight, I seem unable to post photos of the difference between a commercial and a military cocking piece, but perhaps links might work.

Military cocking piece.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295499072503

Commercial cocking piece.

http://www.hoosiergunworks.com/images/mauser_com_cocking_piece.jpg

Going off of a foggy memory tonight, it's possible to install a trigger meant for a commercial Mauser onto a military action, but usually without the correct cocking piece it won't open up and function - I think.

But it might just drag badly like yours is too? Maybe?

Sorry I know I've run into something similar in working on Mausers and aftermarket triggers, but it might have been a Bold or something else other than a Timney too, again sorry that data isn't available tonight.

If I was to guess, it's the relationship with the sear on the trigger and the cocking piece for sure.

Hopefully that's not been entirely confusing and was helpful to you or someone out there.

All the best and good luck with the project.

Dwayne

Mines looks like the military version.

When you say "grind a bit", how much is a bit? I don't want to mess it up.

Too much is if you try to do it with a bench grinder! It should be done on a surface grinder. This is not for a garage mechanic. .005" to 010"

Good advice, but I would make sure you didn’t over tighten the action screws. You can bind the bolt as it slides in if the screws are too tight, especially the rear. They need to be snug, especially the front.

I use be a maintenance supervisor and had access to machine tools. We had a surface grinder. Now that I'm retired and the company relocated to Kentucky I have no machines or access to them. I do have a few friends that could possibly help me out.

pyscodog;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day down in Oklahoma behaved for you all and you're getting decent weather for the season.

Reading UncleGrinch's post made me think of another thing to try, which is to remove the barreled action from the stock, clamp the barrel in a padded vice if possible but if not that's fine, but run the thing out of the stock to see what might be learned.

At least that way you can eliminate the stock bolts bending the tang and causing it or some part of the trigger contacting the stock.

It's worth trying I'd think.

Hope that helped, again good luck with the project and all the best this Christmas Season.

Dwayne

Or you could loosen the screw that holds the trigger tight to the action, loosen it and put a shim under the rear of the trigger to increase the distance between it an cocking piece!

Jkob;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope you're all getting decent weather out in Minnesota, though I heard it snowed a bit out east so hopefully not too, too much.

Thanks so much for the post, it's yet another time when I have a "Huh, now why didn't that occur to me?" moment.

That makes total sense and again, I appreciate you taking the time to share it.

All the best to you this Christmas Season.

Dwayne

PS;
The very worst/best of those moments was a video from a young fellow out in the eastern states somewhere showing the fast way to clean my favorite ice fishing target - Yellow Perch.

I watched it once and then had to watch it a second time - not to make sense of how he did it, but to try to figure out why it hadn't ever crossed my mind to try it that way.

Under the "hopefully never too old to learn" category in both instances for sure.

Best to you once more sir.

Great ideas, I'll try both of them.

I'd look at the bedding.

Tried the shim trick. It made it worse. I looked the stock over really good while I had it apart and saw no signs of rubbing. Its not that heavy of a lift, just more than I remember it being. But I don't have the greatest memory either. It has a great trigger now so maybe I'll just deal with a little heavier bolt lift.

First you said hard to.open, now hard to lift. Care to be a little more specidic? Hard bolt lift has nothing to do with the trigger. Hard to retract after lifting may. More info is needed. Where it the bolt cycling process is this perceived increase in effort?

Here is what I am noticing. Rifle is empty and the bolt is closed. When I open/lift the bolt, it is heavier than I remember it being. Meaning it takes more effort to open the bolt than I remember. After it has been opened and cocked, not pulling the trigger, just re-opening the bolt, it feels pretty normal. What ever the issue is, I feel its in relation to the trigger and the cocking piece. But it is a cock on open action and maybe its normal to this rifle. I really like the new trigger and if a little heavier bolt lift is all I have to deal with as opposed to screwing up my rifle I can deal with it.

A heavy firing pin spring will increase bolt lift effort.

I got the rifle out last night and started looking. For some reason when I tried the shim idea the first time my trigger looked to have a small gap between the trigger housing and the action??? I don't know why, maybe I missed something but when I reassembled it the gap was gone but the bolt lift was still heavy. Forward to last night. I started with a .005 shim and bolt lift was better. then tried a .006 shim and it was much better. I then cut a small piece off my feeler gauge and put it under the trigger and it is so much better now. I guess the first time i just missed something. Thanks for the help!