Savage fcp bolt question

The bolt body or the bolt handle? The Model 10 has a nut on the rear of the bolt body that holds the bolt handle on, it is tightened with an Allen wrench (firing pin needs to be forward). I don't recall the size off the top of my head, but both Model 10's I've had needed to be tightened at some point. Blue Loctite was carefully applied last time I did

If the bolt body is loose when closed, it sounds like a major issue with the locking lugs

In general, a bolt should not display front-to-back movement when closed on an empty chamber. The Savage has a floating bolt head that may allow some minor (and I mean almost imperceptible) bolt body movement but it'd be pretty hard for the casual user to notice.

I'm gonna echo the notion that the bolt handle is loose.

Eliminate your concern, chamber a round (better yet a go and no go)and see if the bolt is sloppy. If so, it probably has excessive head space. If it does have excessive headspace it's easily fixed.

No, even with an empty chamber the bolt should have no appreciable play. Headspace is the relationship of the breech face and the chamber dimensions, and is irrelevant to how well the bolt itself fits into the receiver. Once the bolt lugs are in lockup with the receiver, there should be no appreciable play regardless of the presence or absence of a chamber or even a barrel.

I have decided to take a Savage receiver that I had laying around waiting for a barrel and take some pictures to illustrate how the bolt locks up into the receiver. The progression of pictures shows the bolt fully retracted to fully closed. If you look at the bolt handle as you look at the pictures, you can get a sense for the relationships in play.

The first picture of the front receiver ring shows the bolt retracted, and you can see the bolt raceways in the receiver and the receiver lugs. The next picture shows the bolt run all the way forward but not locked into the receiver. The final picture shows how the bolt lugs lock into the receiver. Once the bolt is locked into the receiver, the bolt has zero play - regardless of whether a barrel is present or not.

What is likely happening is that the nut that holds the bolt handle onto the bolt body has come loose, allowing the handle to flop around. I doubt that the bolt itself is moving at all.

Run out in the boltway, very common. Bolts will often slide up down and side to side, but shouldn't have perceptible fore and aft play. The only dimensional "space" for longitudinal play is the lug clearance, which should be "near-zero." Just far enough "not zero" to ensure no interference. With the Savage, boltway clearance is less critical than other designs, as the bolt body isn't as critical in regards to bolt face alignment (truth to bore) as it is in other designs. It's no so uncommon for older rifles to develop a little slop fore and aft as well, as the lugs and receiver wear and gall together over time, but it will really be felt as less pressure to close, rather than longitudinal movement.

The Savage design uses a loose fit of the bolt body into the receiver, and uses a floating bolt head (the bolt head is actually pinned into the bolt body, with a wave washer between them to allow them to move independently of each other). That allows the bolt lugs on the bolt face to align with the receiver locking lugs even if the bolt body itself isn't completely aligned with the centerline of the bore. In other words - they save money by avoiding a lot of fitting and close machine work, and compensate for that with a floating bolt head. Look at the stackup of the '12' parts in the upper left corner of the picture:



That means that the bolt body itself isn't as well controlled as might be found in other, higher-precision designs. I've never really checked, but I'd not be surprised to find some discernible lateral body movement.

rbernie said:

No, even with an empty chamber the bolt should have no appreciable play. Headspace is the relationship of the breech face and the chamber dimensions, and is irrelevant to how well the bolt itself fits into the receiver. Once the bolt lugs are in lockup with the receiver, there should be no appreciable play regardless of the presence or absence of a chamber or even a barrel.

Click to expand...

Yes, it also happens on an empty chamber. They have a tolerance they they must meet but some are looser than others.

The lugs often won't be perfectly engaged either. With factory fresh bluing will often prove this within a short time.