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The safety on my Winchester M70 is stuck in the forward fire position. Spraying with brake cleaner, cycling the bolt, pulling and resetting the trigger, or firing a round did nothing. The manual cautions against disassembly except in the middle position, so I have not unscrewed the shroud/firing pin assembly as I do not know how much more difficult reassmbly would be.

Any ideas?

Doug~RR

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Is this something that just occured, or have you had this problem for some time?

To safely move the safety, without damaging it, this what you need to do.

Remove the bolt from the rifle and clamp the section of the cocking piece that makes contact with the sear in a vise with soft jaws, so it does not damage the surface.
Pull back on the bolt, against the firing pin spring, while moving the safety to middle position. If this doesn't work, it is likely either broke inside the shroud or extremely gummed up. Most likely you'll be able to move it to the middle position.

Once you do this, you can depress the sleeve lock and remove the shroud, firing pin, and cocking piece from the bolt body.

At this time, if you want to totally dissasemble the firing assembly, you'll need to do the following.
Inspect the safety lever to be sure that it doesn't appear to be broken.

Keep close watch on your fingers and move the safety to fire position. This will quickly move the firing pin forward.
Next, you can use the vise again to depress the firing pin spring and remove the two firing pin spring retainers from the firing pin.
I like to have a rag handy that is cradled in the vise jaws to capture the retainers and spring.

After you do this, it will allow you to remove all the internals and have a good look at the safety from the inside. If it's broke, it will need a replacement of course, but if not, see if you can move it freely. If you can't, then you should consult a gunsmith, since the problem is most likely the relief cut in the cocking piece, and or the relationship between the cocking piece and the sear that needs to be adjusted.

These are not things that a hobbiest should attempt, but rather someone who has some very good knowledge of the model 70 system.

Good luck with your project and keep us posted.



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Matt,
Thank you for the reply and directions.
The problem just surfaced on my recent hunt. I moved the safety forward to fire at the coues deer, but could not return it to either middle or rear positions. The rifle is less than 3 years old and was rebarreled, accurized into 6.5 WSM last spring. Maybe 300 rounds through it.

Doug

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Originally Posted by RedRabbit
Matt,
Thank you for the reply and directions.
The problem just surfaced on my recent hunt. I moved the safety forward to fire at the coues deer, but could not return it to either middle or rear positions. The rifle is less than 3 years old and was rebarreled, accurized into 6.5 WSM last spring. Maybe 300 rounds through it.

Doug
I would strongly suggest you do not attempt to do this yourself. Contact your local smith to do it or, if you do not have one handy you trust for this job, send it to me and I'll take care of it..


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Is it still sporting the factory trigger and if so, did he work that over for you too?

I see a potential problem on the gunsmith end if that's the case.



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Redneck is a good guy to do the work on this rifle, if it's more than a gummed up safety......very likely that it is too.



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I just called a local smith. He is familiar with the Winchester safety, so I will let him look at it. Good chance for him to recrown some Kimbers also.

Again, Thanks for your input, Matt and Redneck.

Doug

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Triggerguard 1 (matt)

Your directions lack one step. When the bolt is removed it is in the cocked position and the lever will not retract! It needs to have the cocking piece in the fired position and then retracted so the bolt locking pin can engage the detent in the bolt body.

I think this guy's bolt/safety engagement needs to be adjusted; no uncommon in M70's.


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JKob,
When I talked with the smith, his first thought was having to adjust the engagement. He said he has done several on M70s recently.

Doug~RR

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Originally Posted by Jkob
Triggerguard 1 (matt)

Your directions lack one step. When the bolt is removed it is in the cocked position and the lever will not retract! It needs to have the cocking piece in the fired position and then retracted so the bolt locking pin can engage the detent in the bolt body.

I think this guy's bolt/safety engagement needs to be adjusted; no uncommon in M70's.


I'll be damned......I did forget to mention that step....Thanks Jim.

So, as he Jim mentioned....While in the vice and pulling back on the bolt body; depress the sleeve lock and rotate the bolt body until the cocking piece is near the fire position and gently begin applying pressure to the safety lever to move into mid-safe position......After that, the safety has the cocking piece secured back and you can simply uncrew it from the bolt body.

All of this of course is dependent on the safety lever not being broke or gummed up......I would put more stake in it being too much engagement on the cocking piece in the area of the safety relief cut though in this case.



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Just got the M70 back from Ed Haven at Hunters Haven in Flag. Ed is a real gentleman. Safety works smoother than the day it was purchased. He said he took maybe 10 thou off the internal cam surface. On the M70, he replaced the trigger spring and is now down to 2.5#
I left my HS Precision whose safety is sticky in moving from the fire position.
Ed also recrowned 2 Kimbers in hopes of improving accuracy.

Doug


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