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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Back Into The Swing Of Things


Brenden

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Good evening everyone. I haven't been doing much gun work recently, well for the past two years anyway. I've have a project for a customer that I hadn't done much with.

He handed me a 1944 German 98 action with a 2 inch stub of barrel and said for me to build him a 7mm-08. Well, that was two years ago....

 

I did manage to drill and tap it about a year ago, and then it sat in a deep dark place on my bench...until now!

 

He ordered a Dakota 3 position safety for this build. To say that I was nervous to install this was an understatement. I considered farming this out, but over the past few weeks I kept telling myself that I could do it. I sat down yesterday and made the few cuts and milled the safety catch into the bolt body, and by gosh, it works!

 

I did learn one thing; just because the directions say to grind on something, check it before you do. It went against my logic that there was no need to grind the cocking piece to the 25 degree angle Dakota suggested. I figured that one would need to grind this in order to get back from fire to the safe position. I ground it down checking for function with each pass of the bit, and it worked, but was very stiff. Finally, I took too much off of it and the cocking piece is now a paper weight. Luckily I had a spare, un-altered cocking piece and decided to try it out. It flips to all three positions slicker that goose poo.

Haven't taken any pictures yet; if you've seen one 3 position safety you've seen them all. I will hopefully weld the bolt handle up this weekend. May have some pictures to post then.

 

I've got more time on my hands now that I no longer work in the great state of PA. Glad to have a job closer to home. The free time will end soon; we have a baby boy due the 14th of May!

Hope all are doing well.

Brenden

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Brenden. What I do is generally cut the 30 deg angle and then recut the sear ledge to get the proper engagment. If you go too far on one or the other just cut the opposite one. Once the angle cut is done. Put the bolt together in the action, measure with a depth mic how far the cocking piece is cammed back. If not between .015-.025, cut the sear ledge the difference. Break the edge with a stone when you are done.

Don

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