Gunsmithing Periodic Bolt Action Maintenance

[Supersum1]

What periodic (i.e. every XXX number of rounds) maintenance do you do/recommend for your bolt action rifle? By this, I mean more than normal cleaning and lubrication (such as replacing springs or other components, or disassembly and in-depth cleaning of a particular component like the trigger) to keep it running and minimize corrective maintenance.

My first bolt action rifle (defiance deviant) is approaching its 1000th shot, so I'm not too worried about needing to do much more than normal cleaning for a while, but it does have me thinking. I've also signed up for some of my first competitions and I'd hate to have to deal with failures/malfunctions because I didn't replace a $2 spring and now it's too worn to do it's job as designed.

 

[308pirate]

One of my rifles is nearing the 4500 round mark and I have done nothing except clean it and lubricate it now and then. I have had no failures or breakdowns of any kind.

Relax, you'll be fine.

 

[spife7980]

Some people replace the firing pin spring at the same time they replace a barrel. Get one and a firing pin and keep it in your bag if youre concerned. Personally I dont cross bridges until I get to them. Flushing the trigger with lighter fluid if you have an exposed jewell or something wont hurt it but it might not do anything for you either.

 

[Hiker12]

Outside of normal bolt cleaning. Every couple months I disassemble the bolt clean up the old lube inside the bolt and pin. Then use a lithium white grease on assembly. Outside of the bolt use a lite coating of grease with molley in it. Never had a problem. Hope this helps

 

[bax]

Mostly just do normal cleaning.

Some exceptions should change the procedure. If you find a round where the firing pin punches a hole in a primer, that little cup of primer metal may be (will probably be) inside the bolt and you need to get it out because it can jam the firing pin or prevent it from making a full stroke.

If you store your weapon standing on its butt and if chamber or barrel is not dry, some of the cleaning solution may run into the bolt or trigger or ejector. You can remove the firing pin in a few seconds, clean the inside of the bolt, wipe down a relube the spring and firing pin, and reassemble. Use naptha/lighter fluid on the trigger. I clean out a bolt gun ejector every 500 rounds or so.

I use an AR10 chamber brush to clean the gap between the receiver locking lugs and the barrel. I put a light coating of oil on the lugs and the cocking surface.

Once a year I pull the receiver, dismount the barrel, inspect and bedding and barrel channel, remove and re-torque the scope base and rings, clean the barrel stub, re-lube with anti-seize, and retorque it. Every two years (or sooner if I get bored) I disassemble and clean triggers.

I have never replaced a trigger spring. I have replaced one firing ping spring. I lost one of the tiny springs connected to the Remington bolt release. I am now the proud owner of several replacements.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

I use the Tipton bolt recess and chamber cleaning setup, and lube the bolt lugs with a grease intended for firearms. I've been using the same tube of Tetra for this for going on two decades, but many other good grease products are available, too. I use a very thin coating of Lubriplate on the moving/contact surfaces of my Garand, and the same for my BCG's, too.

I also use Hoppe's Gun Medic cleaner/lube on trigger assemblies and bolt internals. I don't disassemble bolts unless there is serious doubt that all is good to go mechanically. I do the same thing for semiautomatic handguns mechanicals.

Bores get foamed with Outer's Gunslick bore cleaning Foam. Don't leave that in the bore overnight.

I use Tipton Carbon Fiber cleaning rods and bore guides, for the simple reason that unlike metallic rods, they don't develop bends/kinks. Every metallic rod I have ever owned has gotten them eventually, no matter how hard I try to avoid them. When a cleaning rod harms a bore, it's almost always because there's a kink somewhere in the bore, abrading away at the rifling. Folks tell me that carbon fiber rods will acquire grit and wear the bore, but if a properly sized bore guide is in use, that's unlikely, IMHO.

Rods need to match bore diameters, and rod guide tips need to match the rod diameters. Slop in this system equates to unintended bore wear.

I don't use bronze brushes because I consider the brush to be a solvent application tool, and to be useless as a means to clean the bore by abrasion. Carbon rings will just laugh at bronze brushes, it's the solvent and time that actually gets the crud loose. This is where the bore foams shine. For my purposes the nylon brush applies the solvent best. Otherwise, no brush and the foam does the job.

One technique I use is to anoint the bore (a quote from the label) with Hoppe's #9 bore solvent and leave it in indefinitely (like over the Winter), periodically refreshing the bore coating with fresh solvent. This does a deep clean, and the Hoppe's actually preserves the bore during this long soak. Just patch it out before shooting again.

I also choose never to shoot a completely dry bore, and will leave a very light coating of gun oil in the bore before the first shot after cleaning.

I don't use jags, etc, but prefer a slotted tip, because it allows larger patches to be used, which apply and remove more solvent per pass.

These options/methods get the job done as simply and easily as anything I can find. Gun maintenance is a mundane subject; not worthy of obsession.

Get good stuff, use it right, and that's the whole ballgame.

Greg

 

[MarinePMI]

One of my rifles is nearing the 4500 round mark and I have done nothing except clean it and lubricate it now and then. I have had no failures or breakdowns of any kind.

Relax, you'll be fine.

Wait. We're supposed to clean them? LOL!

My AI is easily near 4000rds, and on it's second barrel. I don't think I've done much more than clean the barrel and wipe down the action with an oily rag. And she's been run hard quite a few times (rain, mud, dust, etc.).

I think the most cleaning I have done was on the muzzle brake, just get all the crud out of it.

 

[mcfred]

I've got one cheap local match rifle that I've only lubed/re-lubed and wiped the bolt off with a terry cloth once in a while for a few thousand rounds. The fine desert dust just makes it smoother and smoother with the grit floating around in some light oil. Otherwise the only other care it's had is the initial take-down and cleaning after I received it NIB. Unless there's a reason to dicker with it, I'd leave it alone.