Savage 11 LWH, smoothing bolt out

[larueminati]

This gun is known for a rough bolt and the fluting doesn’t help. Does anyone know of a good way to smooth it out? Has anyone smoothed one of these out? I’m debating polishing the inside of the receiver and the raised portions of the bolt fluting with flitz polish on a Dremel. This bolt is just way to rough to reliably run it.

 

[troy fairweather]

This gun is known for a rough bolt and the fluting doesn’t help. Does anyone know of a good way to smooth it out? Has anyone smoothed one of these out? I’m debating polishing the inside of the receiver and the raised portions of the bolt fluting with flitz polish on a Dremel. This bolt is just way to rough to reliably run it.

u can use some 1000 grit on the bolt and brake any sharp edges on the fluting, u can use valve lapping compound to the flitz will work id leave the dremel out just coat the bolt and work it a million times, take it out the stock to keep things clean. i blacken the hole bolt with black marker and work the bot about 10 time before u lap it. show the high spots.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Concur. Work the bolt by hand as suggested above. No dremel.

 

[LoonWulf]

Work the bolt by hand as suggested above

3rd..ed....

Just remember your not really trying to remove, so much as polish/smooth out the roughness.
I think Troys right, stick with 600-1500 grit paper for the body (I would suggest complete disassembly of the bolt). You can lap the rails, and rear reciever ring as well (tho I generally use blocks and very fine sand paper for the action rails, and an aluminum dowel and paper for the reciever bridge), but unless your going to remove the trigger id just stick to the easier to clean bolt.

 

[larueminati]

3rd..ed....

Just remember your not really trying to remove, so much as polish/smooth out the roughness.
I think Troys right, stick with 600-1500 grit paper for the body (I would suggest complete disassembly of the bolt). You can lap the rails, and rear reciever ring as well (tho I generally use blocks and very fine sand paper for the action rails, and an aluminum dowel and paper for the reciever bridge), but unless your going to remove the trigger id just stick to the easier to clean bolt.

So sand the spiral fluting on the bolt with the 600-1500 grit just to knock the edges down?

Also sand the rails and receiver? Or can I use the flitz polish on the receiver and rails and just work the bolt. I plan on removing the bolt head so I don't end up lapping the bolt face. Really I don't even plan on closing the bolt anyways I would just work it back and forth. It seems that spiral fluting gets caught up on the sharp edge of the rear of the receiver.

 

[LoonWulf]

So sand the spiral fluting on the bolt with the 600-1500 grit just to knock the edges down?

Also sand the rails and receiver? Or can I use the flitz polish on the receiver and rails and just work the bolt. I plan on removing the bolt head so I don't end up lapping the bolt face. Really I don't even plan on closing the bolt anyways I would just work it back and forth. It seems that spiral fluting gets caught up on the sharp edge of the rear of the receiver.

My personal preference is to use good quality paper backed by a hard backer, or hard stones for doing stuff to the action itself, but again that my preference

If your bolts catching on the sharp edge of the receiver, I would suggest breaking the 90° angle slightly. That won't stop it from catching a little, but it should turn a hesitation or stop, into a bump. If the edge that's catching is a flat surface, you can use a stone, or 400grit paper backed with a hard flat object to make a few passes at a 45° angle (45 is probably steeper than needed) to just remove the sharp edge. If it's the upper round portion of the bridge a round dowel of the correct size can back the paper. Again a few passes them check.

The reason I'm not a huge fan of using the abbrasive on the bolt approach is that you work the WHOLE contact surface, rather than the exact spots that need attention. Also since you'll most likely hold the handle the pressure is uneven, and with as sloppy as savage bolts are you can cause an un intentional ware spot.
Flitz is a very fine polish so would probably be least likely to cause this issue, but its also best for final finish rather than initial work.

As Troy said check to see where work is needed. If you don't need to do the rails or the inside of the rear bridge is leave it alone. My savage had alot of tool marks on the rails which would make the bolt chatter on the way home so I did polish them, but it's not always necessary.

Again remove your trigger when doing work on the action, also make sure you clean all the recesses extremely well after doing any abrasive work. You don't want left overs in or on the contact surfaces, especially the bolt lugs/recesses, or in the chamber.

 

[larueminati]

As Troy said check to see where work is needed. If you don't need to do the rails or the inside of the rear bridge is leave it alone. My savage had alot of tool marks on the rails which would make the bolt chatter on the way home so I did polish them, but it's not always necessary.

Thanks again for the input, this is a good plan of attack. By now I should be able to see my wear points in the metal, I've worked the bolt quite a bit.

 

[larueminati]

I did some work as mentioned above and it is quite a bit smoother. I’m not a “bolt” guy but what I found was the bolt has a tab only on one side that rides in a channel, the other side of the bolt just rides on the top of the (what I believe is called the raceway). The channel the tab rides in is real rough and the factory coating inside of it is terrible. When you pull the bolt to the rear theirs so much deflection and left to right wiggle that that tab gets hung up in the channel as soon as the bolt comes off center. I sanded it out as best I could and buffed out the sharp corners on the receiver itself and it does feel a lot better but still not where I would want it.


How do you get in there and clean up the entire length of that channel? Is there a tool out there? I can’t get anything in there that would hold the 1500 grit paper and make it the full length of the receiver. I did put some flitz polish in there and ran the bolt back and forth (without closing the bolt) and that may or may not have helped. That channel might just need to be lubed up heavy with grease to smooth it out. Love the gun but Savage did next to nothing to clean up the tool marks and put a good finish on the surfaces this bolt rides on.

 

[LoonWulf]

You can buy some brass or aluminum stock the right size to back your paper with at Ace, tho other stores likely carry the stuff.
You could also use fine valve grinding compound the same way you used the flitz. Just be very careful to not over do it, and clean everything out really well.

 

[troy fairweather]

Go out and get a wooden dowl the same size as the bolt body. Glue the paper on to it with some stick glue.