I had Jim Kobe alter the shroud for me and I ordered the kit from Brownells (98 Mauser). Question is when I put the spring and plunger in I can't get the wing to move. Any suggestions? Is it just a matter of shortening the spring to help it more more freely, or am I missing something?

If you look into the front part of the shroud, make sure the spring is not crooked in the shroud. When I machined it, I put it together with one of the Wisner kits I had and it worked perfectly. The spring needs to fit into the counterbored hole inside the plunger hole. If you look into the hole from the back you should be able to see the counterbore. If you still have a problem, call me.

This puzzles me. Why didn't you just pick up the phone and call Jim before posing the question on the internet? Don't understand why folks don't think of that. Makes me wonder what people did before the internet.

My exact thought..

Jim does mental telepathy.
Butch

The spring must be just so as said above.

I also had to shorten my pivot screw so the cocking piece will engage freely and not scratch the bluing of

I think what the others mean is why did the OP post this on a public forum if he has a question about a competent gunsmith's work.

Why not ask the question in private?

I didn't have a question about jim's work, just thought I was doing something wrong. Didn't want to bother the man if it was something real easy that I was missing. Will probably have to give him a shout as something is not right. I have fought it for a couple of hours and I still can't get it to work.

Just tried it again and it works fine, weird. Can't believe I missed the little slot for the spring the 50 someodd times I tried it. Thanks guys. I want to reitterate that I have no issues with jim's work, EVER, and will continue to use him. Was just 4 o'clock in the morning when I was fighting with it and I thought someone might be awake to help. Do you folks recommend altering the cocking piece at all to make the saftey work better? Everything seems fine.

You shouldn't have to alter the cocking piece unless the lever cams it back too far and is too hard to pull back.

I bought this pictured safety from Jim Kobe a few years back.
Dealing with Jim is a pleasure, and I like his posts too.
I then bought the slitting saws, Wisner safeties, Chapman fixture, and tried making my own M70 safety conversions.

I kept taking Jim's apart again and again to see how he did it.
I put his shroud in the fixture to and aligned with the mill.

Wagner was helpful too:
http://www.gswagner.com/swede/pmssafety/compare.htm
http://www.gswagner.com/swede/pmssafety/pmssafety.html
http://www.gswagner.com/swede/pmssafety/pmssafety2.html
http://www.gswagner.com/swede/pmssafety/pmssafety3.html
If you buy the saws from Wholesale Tools, like Wagner, good luck with that, and expect trouble. But they are cheaper than the big guys.

Brownells links to Wagner, and Wagner did not know that until I told him:o
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=10493/learn/Installing_A_Side_Swing_Safety

By posting it, many are now aware how to correct the problem as Jim suggested..I sure don't see anything wrong with that...Why try and read something detrimental into a simple question. Also inasmuch as all cocking pieces are not the same you got some further explanation from Jim...All good stuff.

In the picture above, there is a small notch cut into the cocking piece. All Mausers have this. Does anyone know why it is there?

I could be wrong, but I believe if I recall right its cut for a specific tool and purpose. If you don't have the safety in the up postion when stripping down a mauser bolt, the bolt "un-cocks"{technical term} when unscrewing the firing assembly from the bolt body, and the cocking piece locks down into the recess in the bolt body rendering in pretty damned useless. The cut on the cocking piece give a spot for an armorers tool to be used to pull the cocking piece back out, and turned back into the cocked position.

It could be used for that, but I think it was put there in the event of a mis fire.

Using a cartridge, the rim fit into the groove and the rifle could be cocked and fired again without opening the bolt.

Apparently there was some problems with hang fires and misfires with early ammunition. The 03 Springfield had a cocking knob that served the same purpose.

Sure sounds a whole lot slower than lifting the bolt handle to me......


Yes the Springfield had a knob but also used quite a different firing pin set up than the 98 mauser.


FYI here is a picture of the tool....

"Sure sounds a whole lot slower than lifting the bolt handle to me......"

The reasoning was that the rifle could be cocked again and tried a second time to fire the cartridge without lifting the bolt.

The concern was if the cartridge was a hangfire and fired when the locking lugs were disengaged or the cartridge being extracted.

Guess I'm dense but I always used the slot by sticking in a nickle, release the firing pin so the nickle would hold the firing pin from falling completely allowing the bolt to be unscrewed for disassembley. I think that other tool pictured is for pulling back the cocking piece with one hand then you could unscrew the bolt with the other.

It could be used for that purpose, but I think the original idea was so that a soldier in the field could use the rim of a cartridge to re-cock the rifle, without opening the bolt, as mentioned above.

During the time period the Mauser first came into use, case head failure, hang fires, and misfires were common, at least with the .30-06 military ammunition.

The same situation probably existed with forign ammunition as well, so a method was devised to re-cock the firing to try again before the action was opened.

By designing the slot so that a cartridge case could be used, a tool to recock the rifle was always readily available to a soldier in the field.

I have never had a problem disassembling a 98 bolt by placing the wing safety in the upright position. Of course, if it has been modified for a side safety, then the slot would be handy as you describe.

My rifle built on an FN commercial action has a small hole in the sear, and a small finishing nail fits to hold the cocking piece back to take the firing pin out. But, it also has the slot, if needed.