At long last... - 12/04/18
For some years I have posted threads (probably way too many threads) chronicling progress and setbacks on my longest running gunmaking project. It is a lefty Mauser in .280 Remington on which I was general contractor of the people doing metal work and also the stockmaker. I have gone dark on that project since last spring because of the latest twist and turn.
It turns out that when it was all said and done, the Gentry 3-position safety would not engage correctly unless I applied pressure down on the bolt shroud/safety assembly. It was just not safe and that was simply not acceptable. Taking it to my neighborhood rifle builder yielded the hypothesis that "tolerance stacking" between the sear, bolt, sloppy OEM firing pin, sloppy OEM cocking piece and the Gentry bolt shroud was the culprit. No single part was defective, but the combined tolerances between them was creating the problem. The proposed solution? Buy the much tighter fiting Granite Mountain firing pin and cocking piece and have Gentry refit them. So a month to get the Granite Mountain parts, six months to have Gentry fit the parts, a quick 10 days to send the parts to Glenrock Bluing for a hot dip. And now it works flawlessly.
It is kinda nice to have it back together again. Too bad my tags for this year are wrapped up.
It turns out that when it was all said and done, the Gentry 3-position safety would not engage correctly unless I applied pressure down on the bolt shroud/safety assembly. It was just not safe and that was simply not acceptable. Taking it to my neighborhood rifle builder yielded the hypothesis that "tolerance stacking" between the sear, bolt, sloppy OEM firing pin, sloppy OEM cocking piece and the Gentry bolt shroud was the culprit. No single part was defective, but the combined tolerances between them was creating the problem. The proposed solution? Buy the much tighter fiting Granite Mountain firing pin and cocking piece and have Gentry refit them. So a month to get the Granite Mountain parts, six months to have Gentry fit the parts, a quick 10 days to send the parts to Glenrock Bluing for a hot dip. And now it works flawlessly.
It is kinda nice to have it back together again. Too bad my tags for this year are wrapped up.