Stiff bolt question?

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pwrstrkd

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I have a ruger hawkeye in 300 win mag and right after I shoot it is very hard to work the bolt back. It is NOT hard to lift the bolt up which indicate pressure problems, so I am confused on what can cause this, because otherwise the bolt is butter smooth when operating any time other than right after a shot. It is new and I have only shot it a few times so I dont know if that can be a contributing factor. Any help would be great.
 
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You are re-cocking the striker after firing, and that takes some muscle to compress the stiff firing pin spring.

Put some good grease on the cocking cam at the bottom rear of the bolt, and a dab on the action rails where the bolt lugs rub back & forth, and see if that helps.

rc
 
Thxs for the advice but how come its not like this when i dry fire it? It only stiffens when firing live factory rounds.
 
If I'm hearing you right, you lift the bolt and "Extraction" is difficult...I'm thinking it's a rough chamber, may need polished up so the brass doesn't stick in the chamber.
 
How do I go about polishing the chamber? My concern is why does a brand new rifle need its chambered polished. Is this a common problem with new bolt guns? Thank you for the help
 
In my experience the factory 'out of box' rifles that I've worked on have had chambers that ranged from very well finished to extremely rough. There are a lot of factors that determine finish when a chamber is reamed. The solution I have come up with is to use very fine emery cloth in a slotted tip on a cleaning rod turned in a drill. Let the centrifugal force cause the cloth to contact the chamber walls while keeping the tool itself from making contact. This has produced fine results for me. In extreme cases I have turned brass lapping tools to fit the chamber, using prints, and hand lapped the chamber with polishing compound. Great care must be exercised when polishing a chamber as removal of material can result in an over sized chamber.
 
rcmodel said:
You are re-cocking the striker after firing, and that takes some muscle to compress the stiff firing pin spring.

Put some good grease on the cocking cam at the bottom rear of the bolt, and a dab on the action rails where the bolt lugs rub back & forth, and see if that helps.

rc
Click to expand...

don't know about the Ruger...but my Remington 700, my CZ 550 and my dad's 98 Mauser all cock on lifting the bolt, not pulling back.
 
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