Commercial FN Mauser Bolt Mistake

[Von Hayek]

So, I made a mistake I can't seem to rectify. I don't know how to disassemble a commercial Mauser bolt. Since the safety has only two positions, I was attempting to cock the bolt on my bench and in the process, the cocking piece came off. The confounding part is that the firing pin is 90 degrees off so the cocking piece won't go back in.

Can someone please explain my mistake, and can someone please explain the correct way to disassemble this? I can find shockingly little at Google University.

 

[Aftermath]

Lots of stuff on YouTube

 

[Von Hayek]

Lots of stuff on YouTube

I can find many, many videos on Mauser 98s, but not commercial Mausers that have a two-position safety.

 

[hohlspitz]

I can find many, many videos on Mauser 98s, but not commercial Mausers that have a two-position safety.

No offense but you are confused by the fact that you think the 'Commercial' Mauser is different from the M98.

Read the short descriptions on bolt disassembly:

https://thisoldrifle.com/shooting/mauserboltdisassembly/index.asp

Enjoy!

 

[MK20]

Well, the disassembly/assembly is.

Pull the firing pin out.

Put safety back in bolt shroud.

Put firing pin through bolt shroud, carefully press tip of firing pin into a block of wood to get back of firing pin to come out of the rear of bolt shroud.

Put cocking piece on firing pin and rotate 90 deg to lock.

Put commercial safety in the OFF position. (This is the difference)

Screw assembly into bolt body as far as it will go.

Cocking piece will hit bolt body before assembly is fully screwed in. Use the sharp edge of the block of wood you have to push the sear surface of the cocking piece against to retract it while screwing the bolt shroud further down.

Repeat until fully screwed in.

There is an out of battery safety plunger that will interfere as you get to the last few turns. This needs to be depressed each rotation but this is standard mauser stuff.

The old commercial mausers do not have the disassembly setting on the safety in the middle position and this is what must be done. It kinda requires three hands but is not hard. Just have patience. And don't use a marring object (steel, granite countertop, etc) to retract your sear surface mentioned earlier. Block of wood is fine.)

 

[Von Hayek]

So, should I be able to unscrew the shroud in its current condition? Perhaps that is my problem, because it does want to move right now. Or in other words, does the firing pin have to be cocked?

Thank you for the help gentlemen.

 

[MK20]

There is that oob plunger on the front side of the shroud that needs to be pressed rearward to rotate.

 

[Von Hayek]

I press it and it won't rotate.

 

[MK20]

You might have to press it in a bit further. I am not there so it is hard to tell. But it does need to be quite deliberate and must be fully depressed to clear the small notch that plunger engages in side of the bolt body. Keep in mind your shroud is under spring tension still so it might be a bit stiff to rotate. If you have a vise, use that to hold the bolt body and free up your hands to work.

 

[Von Hayek]

Is it possible that the firing pin, because it is in the uncocked position, is locked in the bolt body and preventing it from rotating?

 

[MK20]

That plunger keeps your bolt shroud from rotating unless it is fully depressed by being pressed against the receiver. That is one option. The firing pin has 2 wings on the front that might have corresponding recesses in the bolt but I don't know. If there is then that would lock up your bolt and I have no fucking clue how you would fix that. But I don't think that is the case.

However, I have never seen someone get the cocking piece off before disassembling the bolt, which shows a tendency to get frustrated and just say, fuck it, I'll try harder. Extra effort won't help you, then or now. Thinking everything through first will.

 

[MK20]

Is this rifle a J.C. Higgins or a Husqvarna?

 

[Von Hayek]

That plunger keeps your bolt shroud from rotating unless it is fully depressed by being pressed against the receiver. That is one option. The firing pin has 2 wings on the front that might have corresponding recesses in the bolt but I don't know. If there is then that would lock up your bolt and I have no fucking clue how you would fix that. But I don't think that is the case.

However, I have never seen someone get the cocking piece off before disassembling the bolt, which shows a tendency to get frustrated and just say, fuck it, I'll try harder. Extra effort won't help you, then or now. Thinking everything through first will.

I agree--this is my thinking process splayed out. I'm just not a firearms expert. But I know that the pin is shaped with flats for a reason. I think I may need to use a pair of vice grips on the pin to pull it out and then rotate the bolt so it is in the cocked position.

 

[Von Hayek]

Is this rifle a J.C. Higgins or a Husqvarna?

It is FN.

 

[MK20]

Who imported it?

Both JC and Husqvarna were made by FN.





And for the love of God, don't fucking use vice grips.

I'm PMing you as you are showing an inclination to hurt your rifle.

 

[MK20]

@sirhrmechanic for ideas.

 

[MK20]

Some factory marked FN rifles with FN crests were imported back in the day. They are nice rifles and if this is such it should be treated especially well.

 

[Von Hayek]

My father was at the Pentagon and had a friend of his pick it up in Europe in 1952. It is only marked by FN.

 

[Satterlee]

Hold the firing pin in a vise in the vertical position so the vise jaws hold the pin just below the spring boss.
Place the firing pin spring on the firing pin.
Use the safety shroud to compress the firing pin spring. This will take a little bit of effort to do.
Hold the safety shroud down with the spring compressed.
With your free hand grab the cocking piece and assemble it onto the 6 lug interlock on the end of the firing pin and rotate the
cocking piece 90 degrees and line up the re-cock tung with its slot in the bottom of the safety shroud.
hold it in that position while you de-compress the spring at which point the firing system is assembled.

Next,
leave it standing there in the vise, grab the safety shroud pulling down and compressing the spring.
Have a washer handy and place it between the cocking piece and the back end of the safety shroud.
decompress the spring allowing the washer to hold the cocking piece back.
Next,
This assembly is now ready to be screwed into the back of the bolt.
Do not engage the safety lever, leave the safety lever in the fire position, that position is clockwise all the way down as view from the back.
Screw the assembly into the bolt. At about 3-1/2 turns in it will become necessary you depress the safety shroud lock for the next additional
two turns in as the shroud lock will contact the back of the bolt handle and will need to be pushed back in order to clear the back of the bolt
handle.
Screw the assembly in until it cannot be turned in further as it bottoms out at the front of the shroud flange.
Ensure the shroud lock is engaged.
Remove the washer that is holding the cocking piece back.
For removal of that washer, I grab the bottom square area of the cocking piece in the vise and pull forward just grabbing the bolt itself.
The washer will be easy to remove at this point and may even just fall out on its own.
Let the spring tension down and the nose of the cocking piece will reside in it's out of battery parking spot on the back of the bolt.
The bolt is now ready to go back into the rifle action.
Ensure the claw extractor is in alignment with the right hand or lower locking lug and insert bolt to receiver.
Ensure unloaded condition, dry fire and cycle a couple of times.
engage the safety, pull the trigger, ensure full dis-engagement of the cocking piece from the sear by pulling the trigger.
The trigger and sear assembly should move freely with no contact between the sear and the cocking piece.
Disengage the safety. If all is correct the cocking piece will pick up the sear and hold the FP assembly in battery.

In addition, the Mauser/FN firing pin and bolt are designed in such a manner that the firing pin cannot make accidental contact with a primer for whatever reason while out of battery as the front of the spring boss will bottom out inside the bolt prior to the firing pin reaching full protrusion of the bolt face. The pin is made with sort of clearance cams that clear the internal shoulder in the bolt. This design is done to prevent out of battery or 1/2 battery pin drop to the firing pin and is only indicative to the M98 design.
The only M98 design that does not use this out of battery FP interrupt design is the 1910 Mexican M98 and the 1936 Mexican M98 design.

In your video you showed the inability to rotate the shroud and FP. No rotation is two fold. 1. shroud lock engaged to the back of the bolt.
2 without a cocking piece on the pin there's nothing pulling the FP back on rotation of the partial assembly and it's just hung up in the front of
of the FP boss and the block/pass shoulder design in the bolt.

TMI? probably......

 

[MK20]

Nope. Just talked to OP on phone and resolved it. I didn't know if there was an internal OOB safety at the FP spring boss but there is. Thanks for confirming. The washer is a very good idea for reassembly.

 

[Von Hayek]

Hold the firing pin in a vise in the vertical position so the vise jaws hold the pin just below the spring boss.
Place the firing pin spring on the firing pin.
Use the safety shroud to compress the firing pin spring. This will take a little bit of effort to do.
Hold the safety shroud down with the spring compressed.
With your free hand grab the cocking piece and assemble it onto the 6 lug interlock on the end of the firing pin and rotate the
cocking piece 90 degrees and line up the re-cock tung with its slot in the bottom of the safety shroud.
hold it in that position while you de-compress the spring at which point the firing system is assembled.

Next,
leave it standing there in the vise, grab the safety shroud pulling down and compressing the spring.
Have a washer handy and place it between the cocking piece and the back end of the safety shroud.
decompress the spring allowing the washer to hold the cocking piece back.
Next,
This assembly is now ready to be screwed into the back of the bolt.
Do not engage the safety lever, leave the safety lever in the fire position, that position is clockwise all the way down as view from the back.
Screw the assembly into the bolt. At about 3-1/2 turns in it will become necessary you depress the safety shroud lock for the next additional
two turns in as the shroud lock will contact the back of the bolt handle and will need to be pushed back in order to clear the back of the bolt
handle.
Screw the assembly in until it cannot be turned in further as it bottoms out at the front of the shroud flange.
Ensure the shroud lock is engaged.
Remove the washer that is holding the cocking piece back.
For removal of that washer, I grab the bottom square area of the cocking piece in the vise and pull forward just grabbing the bolt itself.
The washer will be easy to remove at this point and may even just fall out on its own.
Let the spring tension down and the nose of the cocking piece will reside in it's out of battery parking spot on the back of the bolt.
The bolt is now ready to go back into the rifle action.
Ensure the claw extractor is in alignment with the right hand or lower locking lug and insert bolt to receiver.
Ensure unloaded condition, dry fire and cycle a couple of times.
engage the safety, pull the trigger, ensure full dis-engagement of the cocking piece from the sear by pulling the trigger.
The trigger and sear assembly should move freely with no contact between the sear and the cocking piece.
Disengage the safety. If all is correct the cocking piece will pick up the sear and hold the FP assembly in battery.

In addition, the Mauser/FN firing pin and bolt are designed in such a manner that the firing pin cannot make accidental contact with a primer for whatever reason while out of battery as the front of the spring boss will bottom out inside the bolt prior to the firing pin reaching full protrusion of the bolt face. The pin is made with sort of clearance cams that clear the internal shoulder in the bolt. This design is done to prevent out of battery or 1/2 battery pin drop to the firing pin and is only indicative to the M98 design.
The only M98 design that does not use this out of battery FP interrupt design is the 1910 Mexican M98 and the 1936 Mexican M98 design.

In your video you showed the inability to rotate the shroud and FP. No rotation is two fold. 1. shroud lock engaged to the back of the bolt.
2 without a cocking piece on the pin there's nothing pulling the FP back on rotation of the partial assembly and it's just hung up in the front of
of the FP boss and the block/pass shoulder design in the bolt.

TMI? probably......

This is very good advice. Once it was apart, I could see what the problem was. Many thanks to @MK20 for helping me resolve this. The washer would certainly have solved this.

It is curious that FN did not make an accommodation for this. Like @MK20 mentioned on the phone, a sacrifice for a two-position safety. But still...

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Glad you guys got it!!

There is detail on my Israeli Mauser rifle thread… or maybe Buffalowinter started it.

And when using a Vice (which generally should not be needed)… use soft jaws!!!

Sirhr