Pre-64 Winchester 70 safety issue

[savage sam]

Hope someone on THR can shed some light on this. Thanks in advance.

I believe have posted about this rifle before at some point. It is a 1955 Winchester 70 in 243 Win. It was customized at some point with a Flaig Ace barrel and a custom Mannlicher stock. The stock had a plastic "barrel cap" that enclosed the end of the forend and the barrel. Everything was flush at the end. There was a top handguard piece similar to an M1 Garand or Mosin-Nagant. The custom stock was very beefy and heavy all around.

When I found the rifle, it had a 2-7x steel Weaver on it and that combined with the weight of the stock made me decide to redo the stock on it so I could use it for a deer rifle I would actually want to carry. The 243 is a light kicking rifle and doesn't need to be at the weight of a 30-06 rifle.

I took the stock off and sanded it but wasn't able to start cutting yet so I put it back on and when I did the rifle would not cock correctly. Now it will not cock on closing the bolt unless done slowly and perfectly, and any slight jar will drop the firing pin. I have no idea what would cause this. The rifle had a nice trigger when I bought it, so I'm thinking the custom stock was holding everything together in a particular way and taking it off messed that up.

It has been to two gunsmiths, the first (at the shop where I bought the gun) recommended a new Timney trigger with no guarantee that would fix the problem. The second says the Timney won't fix it because it's some other part, but he didn't know how to fix it.

Has anyone here ever heard of this issue in any of the older Mannlicher stocked rifles and know of anything that might be done to fix it?

Thanks to all.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

Id bet theres some gunk in the trigger or sear. by the way it should be cocking on opening the bolt not closing.

 

[savage sam]

Bolt opening, you're right. My mistake.

So a good cleaning may be in order. I'll eliminate that variable and see how things go. Thanks.

 

[kaferhaus]

Best bet is the stock is now rubbing something at the rear of the action. Take it out of the stock and see if it still does it.

 

[rori]

If it functions properly with the action out of the stock you have a stock problem, if it doesn't function properly out of the stock you have an action problem. Start there and keep us informed. FRJ

 

[sage5907]

savage sam, if the rifle has the original Winchester trigger it can be easily adjusted. First, as the others have said, remove the barreled action from the stock and see if the sear still holds the firing pin back. All the parts of the winchester trigger are exposed and you will need two small 1/4 inch wrenches to adjust the tension on the trigger spring. Hole the bottom nut with one wrench and back off the top nut with the other wrench. When the top nut is moved toward the receiver it will increase the tension on the trigger. Move it up about two full turns and then move the the other nut against it to lock the top nut in place. Keep experimenting with the tension until you have the sear tension that you want. Let us know what is happening. BW