Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Another M70 Question. Tight Extractor

I have several Modei 70 Classice. I put Williams extractors on
all of them. I had one that was causing a tight bolt lift.
Last night I did exactly as Mr. Redneck suggested. Now the bolt lift is just fine. A small neddle file and a few minutes did the trick.
Redneck has done several jobs for me on my Model 70's. HE is a very good gunsmith. I am well pleased with his work.

Matt, the 'um, no' response was not on your post.. And it wasn't meant as a 'well, duh,' reaction.. It was meant as a 'well, I gotta think about that for a sec, then realize the answer is most likely 'no'.. Further, an extractor would have to be really bent up to allow serious contact with a bolt lug - something I've never seen in my entire working time with M70s.. IMVHO, that would be an extreme rarity and one to look at only after all other, more common maladies, are considered.. Not saying it cannot happen, but that it's entirely unlikely..

Since you're offering a bio, and I realize you have tons more engineering experience than I, I can only say that I've been a full-time smith for nearly 13 years, specialized in M70s for 10, but have worked with M70s on my own for over 35 years.. While I don't have the degrees and schooling as in your case, I do have a ton of practical knowledge - many times things you won't/can't learn in schools.. That said, you bet I learn things every week.. Now, if I can just remember half of 'em..

Ray, 'honing' the bright spots won't address the problem.. There's a reason for those to exist.. The proper thing to do , IMHO again, is to find out why those are occurring and correct the problem..

In any case, going back to square one, I hope the OP has solved his issue and things are good to go..

Best to ya all..

I got a little square-end diamond file and worked a little on the area you indicated. It did loosen it up quite a bit. I would like it a little looser but hesitate to tinker with it too much until I get back down to my workshop.

Not that I need one at this time, but is there an easy source for replacements for the bands that attach the extractor to the bolt. I tent to be somewhat more adventuresome if I know I can replace what I destroy.

Another quick question: I am not sure I can warm up to having the BOSS sitting out there on the end of my barrel and may consider a cut-recrown job sometime in the future. Cutting it back to the unthreaded portion would make that barrel about 22" from the front of the receiver to the muzzle. Would that be way too short for a 300 WM? I suppose I should scope it and shoot it before I make any decisions like that. I may even grow fond of that ugly thing out there on the end of the barrel. My brother has several that he really likes.

The collars are still available - just call Winchester.. They're rather cheap too, an added bonus.. And if Winnie runs out, maybe Matt will have found a new item to manufacture..

To get the most out of a .300WM the barrel needs to be longer than 22"., however, the loss of FPS won't be enough to where the animal will notice it much..

Yeah, shoot it first and see what you get for groups.. You might be surprised.. At the same time, you might have to fool with the settings for a bunch of shots until you find the sweet spot..

It is good to know I can still get the collars but doubt I will actually have to get a spare.

I do plan on shooting the rifle before I do any surgery. I can put up with a good bit of ugly if it shoots well. I look forward to having one more rifle to take to the range to try to get dialed in before hunting season. I have never before has a BOSS so this should be interesting.

I appreciate all the advice you folks have given me.

Winchester used to sell a cap so that you could unscrew the boss and screw the cap on. The factory crown remains unchanged. A young friend of mine has been hunting with a .30-06 so equipped for at least ten years. He says that it shoots just as well without the boss. I would assume that you can find one of the caps somewhere...

Lee, my engineering comes from hands-on. The schools I listed were my father's gunsmithing business, the name of our company when we started manufacturing parts and our current business.......That would be otherwise known as the school of hard knocks.

Again, when I got into this topic I didn't say that what you were suggesting was not a possible cure, but that there could be other items related to the fix as well, items that should be addressed regardless on a custom build if I myself were doing it.

With all that said, we have a mutual customer who will most likely be calling you today about a rifle you used my extractor on and he's having problems with the feeding. It's a 375H&H New Haven model and its dropping rounds back into the magazine at a slow bolt movement. It originally had a MIM extractor that he says works fine, but the one that you installed on the bolt does not. I sent him another extractor in Matte Blue for him to try that I verified myself as to the dimensions and quality. He says that one isn't holding the cartridge either. He indicated that he's going to send the rifle back to you to check out, since you had apparently done some other work to it.
This would be a good opportunity for us to work together and diagnose this situation over the phone. When you make contact with this guy and you've received the rifle and extractor, please contact me so that we can get this resolved for him as soon as possible.

While you sometimes hate to give advice to fellow Model 70 owners, I hate to type some thoughts that can't be relayed accurately in print, but must first be heard to understand the way in which there were intended to be delivered..........

Yeah, he called me last night.. I've got a good idea where to look for the problem... I don't think it's going to be huge.. But it's interesting that the factory extractor works well, yet yours won't..

The only thing I found when I installed your initial extractor is that it would not allow the bolt to close with a round inserted manually in the chamber.. You know the cure as well as I.. But that had nothing to do with the case falling off the boltface.. And the interesting thing is, that did not happen here.. I tested that rifle with several cycles of rounds from a full magazine and never had one release early..

It should be here by tomorrow or Thursday.. When I find the problem I'll post back with results..

Redneck,
Guess I would have to argue that point on honeing the bright spots..If you proper hone two surfices things tend to come to a hand fit...but to each his own and what works for one may not work for another...My hand honed actions witll fall either way simply by lifting the rifle up or down as long as you don't clost the bolt. When I am finished polishing they normally leave no marks, not to say they won't show some wear down the line, but it would be minimal and of no consequesces.

Matt... Got it.. PM coming - I wanna run this by you..

I'd be inclined to use Redneck's approach. I'd rather marf up an extractor than a bolt.

Tell us what you found, if you have corrected the problem.

Neither William's magnum extractors would work.. Only the factory one . That was a new one to me.. But I cured it by fitting a standard extractor to the bolt. Now it holds the case well, snaps over upon manual feeding and allows full contact with the ejector..

Methinks the original bolt face was machined a tad large at the factory - allowing the case head to move a bit too far to the left and not allowing any amount of tension to work with the other extractors.. I even tried removing .010 of the bolt guide on one extractor - moving the 'nose' further inwards.. It did bupkis.. In any case, I had it cured within an hour and back in the mail to the customer that afternoon.

Weird things happen on occasion - this was one of 'em..