[cslinger]

For some reason all of a sudden I cannot engage the saftey. I pull the bolt back return it to battery and cannot for the life of me flip up that little safety catch.

Now if I take the bolt out of the firearm and pull back further on the nub that comes out of the back of the bolt when cocked I can then activate the safety. What is wrong here?

Anybody else experience this? Sorry for screwing up the terminology.

It was always rather stout but never this difficult.

[Snowdog]

Well, I'm certainly no expert on the M48, though I own one myself.
I took a look at mine and tried to find some ways that would cause problems as you described.

Perhaps someone will happen by and offer an obvious solution, but I couldn't find one. The only thing I could come up with (forgive my sloppy nomenclature) is a worn trigger notch in the bolt slide... oh heck, here's a stupid picture to better describe what I'm talking about:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid51/pefac9783922819690852a76c2a5bddf5/fca5e4b3.jpg

If this is worn significantly, it will not force the bolt thingiemabobber to the rear far enough to allow the safety to engage... here's the picture of the thingiemabobber:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid51/p1136f6df531c0e4c9d030cbb7fb718d0/fca5e4b4.jpg


From a glance, that's what I've concluded.
I hope you work it out, it's a fine rifle to have working properly.

BTW, that red gunk is cosmoline, not rust.

[Jack19]

Not to state the over-obvious, but have you taken the bolt apart and cleaned it?

[cslinger]

Always open to obvious suggestions here. I have indeed broken the bolt down to clean it.

Thanks Though.

I am going to break it down again and reassemble it to see if that helps.

Chris

[cslinger]

Ok, I just re-broke the bolt down to make sure there were no obstructions etc. and there were not.

So here is what appears to be happening. The Visible cocking indicator or that nub that pops out of the back of the bolt upon cocking is not being held far enough back to allow for the engaging of the safety.

I can pull the bolt out and manually pull the cocking indicator the rest of the way to allow me to activate the safety for breakdown of the bolt.

I am sure the safety was functioning at the range this afternoon so something has occurred between then and now. As far as I know everything is shooting just fine. No light strikes, no problems with extraction etc.

The part snowdog mentioned that could be worn does not appear to be all that worn.

I will take it to the local smith and see what they have to say but if anybody else has any suggestions please feel free to contribute. Once again I have completely dissassembled the bolt to make sure it was clean and had not obstructions, almost shot the darn pin through my leg in the process.:what:

The gun is clean and well taken care of and has not been abused. Could the spring be too strong?

Chris

[BHP9]

WE can never rule out the possibility that at one time the safety was replaced on your gun or even that it may have been reassembled with the wrong safety. These safeties were all hand fitted to the gun and if everything is not fitted correctly they will not engage. Sometimes worn parts may also cause the same problem.

Although Yugo's are solid functional guns they were not manufacturered with the same high quality workmanship the German and Belguim guns were and if the gun was made during war time it may have been hastily assembled and the non working safety could have slipped by the inspection dept.

My suggestion would be to take the bolt down and look for wear and tear and if all looks normal take the gun to a gunsmith that specializes in working on Mauser 98's.

In some of the German guns every part was serial numbered to avoid getting parts mixed up from other guns and to prove that the gun was handfitted at the factory. Not all countries serial numbered all the parts and I think the Last Yugo that I looked at did not have everything serialized.

[Stinger]

Mechanical safety? :banghead:

Your trigger finger should be your safety. Just carry with the bolt handle up. When you are out in the field, quickly raise up the rifle, and close the bolt in one motion. It is faster than you might think, and with some practice, you'll probably get pretty good at it.

Simply put, though, if you don't want the rifle to fire, don't pull the trigger. A mechanical safety should not be relied upon.

Stinger

[cslinger]

1st the saftey was functioning on the rifle and is now not functioning so I don't think it was a mis-matched part.

2nd the saftey is required to break down the bolt. I do not carry this rifle and would rarely if ever have a need for the mechanical safety but part of the care and maintainence of every firearm is making sure everything functions as it should and if it does not to determine what the problem is.

I will try to have a smith look at it in the next few days. I will update everybody on what is happening.

Thanks for the help.

Chris

[Jack19]

Chris,

Okay, it was working, you had it apart, now it's not working. Maybe an assembly problem.

Check out this link. Just to be on the safe side and make sure everything is going back together as it should.

M48 (http://www.surplusrifle.com/yugom48/maintenance.asp)

[cslinger]

I am 99.9% sure I have the bolt reassembled as it should be. I have taken it down many times and never had a problem before, although a brain fart is not totally out of the question from time to time.

I will get some pictures and post them and you guys can see if you see anything blatently wrong.

Once again thanks for all the suggestions.

Chris

[cracked butt]

This problem is really quite common on m48's. Its not the safety that is the problem- they do not have to be handfitted as 98 safeties are interchageable. I've actually tried to reshape a safety to fis the problem, but this does not work as there isn't enough clearance on the front edge of the cocking piece for the safety to catch on.

AS SnowDog alluded to it could be a worn trigger/sear problem, though I'm a bit suspect of the cocking piece being out of spec. I would try replacing the sear first, as it should be a standard mauser 98 sear which you could get for a couple of bucks. The cocking piece is different though- its different in dimentions than that of a k98 or other 98's that I've seen. I've tried a cocking piece from a k98, but it wouldn't fit the firing pin for some reason, I've also tried a cocking piece from and m38 turk- which is a bit shorter, but takes care of the problem nicely. I'm not sure if using a turk cocking piece will change the firing pin protrusion though, as I've never investigated that and haven't fired the rifle using that cocking piece. I just shoot it with the original cocking piece and don't use the safety at all as I only shoot this gun at the range.

[cracked butt]

1st the saftey was functioning on the rifle and is now not functioning so I don't think it was a mis-matched part

This doesn't suprise me. Mine worked when I purchased the gun and then stopped working after I dry fire it once. I have a feeling that there is alot of soft metal on the Yugos, or at least some of them. I mentioned that regrinding the safety doesn't work, from my experience here's why: I regound the safety so that it would work, but after firing the rifle a couple of times, the dimensions of the cocked bolt would change slightly, but enough that the safety would no longer catch. I then reground the safety again, only to get the same results later.
A few other observations of my yugo that leaves believeing that they have poor metal work include: a small ding on the back of the receiver where the rifle looks like it got dropped or banged into something hard, the metal has a mashed look to it, also the shoulders on the firing pin are pinged back making the pin look like it is some sort of cheap soft metal- I haven't seen this happen on any other 98 type rifle.

[jar]

cslinger

You have mail!