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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Small Ring Cocking Piece Question


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I have a 91 argentine I am working on for a friend. it was worked on by a gunsmith friend but not stocked. I am putting a stock on it and working up loads.

 

at the range saturday, the firing pin broke. the first time I tried to fire it, it didn't. the FP was not protruding. so I unscrewed the cocking piece enough for the gun to fire, but it looks like it was too far. after some shots (60 or 70 or so) the flange at the front of the FP holding the striker spring broke. apparently it had been beaten by stopping the FP forward motion.

 

the cocking piece became deformed a bit, where the sear surface abuts the CP body, from slamming into the shroud. I can see where the CP was welded at the top. the sear surface looks unworn, so maybe it was not annealed.

 

when a small-ring mauser is fired, what is supposed to stop the forward motion of the firing assembly?

 

is the CP supposed to mate nicely with the cocking notch on the bolt body? that's how I visualize it here at work without any bolts in front of me.

 

BTW I got hit in the cheek with a few particles when the FP flange broke and the primer pierced. I was wearing safety glasses, so I don't know if my eyes would have been affected or not. but the gas did come straight back from a small primer issue. the action seems fine, but the gas handling leaves something to be desired as many of us have heard.

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As designed, I believe the M91 Mauser is like the M93-98 in that the flat front end of the cocking piece impacts the rear of the bolt sleeve to halt forward movement. When you unscrewed the firing pin to lengthen it, you caused the flared portion to impact the inards of the bolt before the cocking piece. This may have resulted in the damage. Normally, when the rifle is fired, the firing pin tip stops most of the forward movement when it contacts the primer.

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thanks Bob, when I got home I took a close look at a 96 striker assembly. the front of the CP does indeed smack the inside face of the shroud.

 

the CP I have was welded a lot apparently, almost certainly refaced too. I imagine the dimensions and/or geometry is less-than-ideal.

 

I ended up ordering a FP and CP from numrich. not the very cheapest way to go, but I need to have this thing up and running fairly quickly, as I need to wring it out by early november. with a 4-mo.-old baby around, weekends have become quite short.

 

z1r, thanks for the pm. I thought about it, and if I had more time I would have done it, especially b/c the safety needs some modding. but I don't have the time.

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