Win Mod 70 Safety in Springfield 03A3

Status
Not open for further replies.
Q

Quick Karl

member
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
104
Location
Scottsdale, AZ - thank God.
For anyone wondering if it can be done!

f25fd93c.jpg

Before anyone screams - it was a free rifle, a 1943 Smith-Corona given to me by a friend that had previously drilled & tapped and welded that bolt knob on the N.S. bolt and hacked the knob off the firing pin, and, horror of all horrors, cut the barrel down to 18.5" (no fricken clue what they could have been thinking).

I installed a Timney trigger and fitted the Winchester shroud and safety and I have a brand new 26" Douglas barrel in 30-06 Ackley Improved Remington Varmint contour waiting to be installed - I am still up in the air on what stock to buy but that plastic one will happily be flung into the trash heap.

Once all the work is finished it will get a DuraCoat job and it will look beautiful.

The resurection of the Classic American hunting rifle!
 
Is that a real Winchester M-70 safety or is it one of the M-70 style safeties made by either Ed Lapour or Gentry Custom?

Oddly enough I have a Remington 1903A3 that some idiot did basically the same thing. But he used a old two position Buehler safety. Those Ram Line plastic stocks are really junk aren't they?
 
Yep, it's a real Winchester breech bolt sleeve and safety taken off a real Winchester bolt. Had to do a little bit of fitting - The breech bolt sleeve lock on the Winchester part was pointer and therefore extended out farther than the Springfield part so I ground it back a bit and I had to dust a few thousandths off the rear of the Springfield bolt body to get the shroud to rotate into position, after that it "screwed right in".

I still have to grind a relief into the firing pin for the firing pin stop screw and then do the final fitting of the safety engagement surface on the cocking piece. I am waiting for a spare firing pin from Gun Parts before I do that – just in case.
 
I wonder if it makes a difference if it is a pre-64 or post 64 M-70 safety?
I tried the safety from a M70 push feed and nothing but the threading was close.
LaPour's safety's run around $280... I can't find a M-70 safety for sale anywhere.
 
I'm no expert, and I can't even say for sure if the Winchester bolt that I have is a pre or post 64 (but it IS a Controlled Round Feed bolt), but the way I got the idea in the first place was because I read somewhere that a "pre 64 Win shroud" would "screw right in" to a Springfield bolt body.

I mentioned this to a good friend that is also a very well respected barrel maker, and he offered me the bolt in trade for some computer work I had to do for him, and that is how I was lucky enough to get the Winchester bolt.

I can't say if my bolt is, in fact, a pre 64 bolt, but if it is, it was in like new condition for a bolt that old. If anyone knows how to tell what era the bolt was made, please let me know.

Other than that, all I know is, it works!

PS. While I respect good quality work regardless of the field, I'm not paying Hollywood prices to anyone, for anything.
 
Last edited:
I can't say if my bolt is, in fact, a pre 64 bolt, but if it is, it was in like new condition for a bolt that old. If anyone knows how to tell what era the bolt was made, please let me know.
Click to expand...
The SN will be engraved on the bolt. Any thing over[approximately] 550,000 would be post 64.
The pre 64 bolts had a full length Mauser extractor.
Also a pre 64 bolt will have a bolt stop.
 
The SN will be engraved on the bolt. Any thing over[approximately] 550,000 would be post 64.
The pre 64 bolts had a full length Mauser extractor.
Also a pre 64 bolt will have a bolt stop.
Click to expand...

This bolt has a full length Mauser extractor but if there is a serial number on it, I can't find it - the only thing engraved on the bottom of the bolt body is SJ

All I have is the bolt - not the action. The bolt body is jeweled and the opposite side of the extractor retaining ring has what I think is something called a bolt stop extention which fits under the ring. Also, it has a magnum bolt face.
 
This bolt has a full length Mauser extractor but if there is a serial number on it, I can't find it - the only thing engraved on the bottom of the bolt body is SJ

All I have is the bolt - not the action. The bolt body is jeweled and the opposite side of the extractor retaining ring has what I think is something called a bolt stop extension which fits under the ring. Also, it has a magnum bolt face.
Click to expand...

The jeweling would have removed the S/N ; it was just very lightly engraved, not stamped. The bolt stop is a ramp shaped projection, forged integral with the bolt opposite the handle about in the middle of the bolt.
The Mauser extractor tells me pre-64, But I can't swear to it because I don't know all the post-64 variations.
 
Whew... after many hours in front of a surface plate measuring the existing Springfield firing pin/cocking piece, and accurately locating the firing pin in the fired, bolt open, and bolt cocked positions, and then drawing everything in AutoCAD and comparing everything with the safety location and internal geometry of the Winchester shroud (and checking the parts and drawings about 50-times each, but that's no guarantee :p) it became obvious that a new firing pin would be needed if I wanted to avoid welding up and reshaping the stock pin, so here is what I drew up in SolidWorks.

f9fcd1dd.gif

I ordered a piece of Titanium for the rod ($40 fricken bucks) - now all I have to do is turn the rod and make the cocking piece and cross my fingers :p

The factory pin has about .600" lock travel and the geometry for my pin/cocking piece is designed to provide .300". The Winchester has .288 so I should have enough of a cushion for hand fitting the parts once I get everything finished and installed. The lock time should be a vast improvement especially with the Titanium rod.
 
Well, yes and no...

Gentry doesn't make 3-position safeties for Springfield. I think they do for M98 Mausers, M700 Rem's, a CZ, and maybe a mini Mauser?

Ed LaPour makes a safety and firing pin for a Springfield that costs $280 for the parts, you still have to install and fit, or pay someone to do it for you...

My rifle was free, and my Pre 64 Winchester safety was a trade for a few hours of computer work. The Titanium firing pin might be spendy for the material, but will be nice, and making a new cocking piece isn't as hard as it might look if you make it in 2 pieces and Tig weld them together then finish it off in a milling machine. Once it all works as planned I can have the cocking piece hardened.

Lastly, its just plain fun to do this.
 
Go to the bottom of the page:

SPRINGFIELD® 1903 THREE-POSITION SAFETY

Winchester® Style Safety for Custom Springfield® Rifles

Upgrade your Springfield 1903 action to a full, three position safety. All machined steel shroud and lever are polished, beautifully blued. Retains the gas defecting design of the original shroud but provides bolt locked, bolt open and fire positions with positive detents.
Requires gunsmith installation.
Please call for pricing.
Click to expand...
 
There is no safety for a Springfield listed here:

http://www.gentrycustom.com/pages/product_pages/safety.html

However I called them - just to satisfy my curiosity... They make a safety but if you want to use it you ALSO need to buy a 'cocking piece', and install it on your existing firing pin (remove existing cocking piece from firing pin)... They want $237.00 for the safety & cocking piece and you install it.

Ed LaPour gets $285 for his Springfield safety and firing pin with cocking piece already installed, but you would still need to fit the parts (adjust the length of the pin and turn the end to accept the striker - and I have heard that it could take a while to get.

If I just wanted to spend money and hope I didn't have too much work to do I would probably go for the LaPour parts...

I'm still going to make my own, because it just isn't that hard to do, and its loads more fun.

I've worked in an aerospace CNC machine shop and, frankly, once you program a shroud and mill a holding fixture, the part probably takes all of 10-minutes to machine and deburr. I could inspect a shroud and draw it in SolidWorks in 4-hours max, import the file into CAM and program the operations in another hour or 2 (and I am being generous). Even at a $45 an hour rate, if I had a CNC machining center sitting in my living room (much less one in a shop running parts for the real business) I could run the parts on the weekend and sell them for $100 and be making a profit…

One of the biggest problems America is having today, and why so many things are being made in China instead of right here, is “inflated worth syndrome”… in my humble opinion. I respect quality work in any field but I will never pay an inflated price to anyone for anything because they think they have my back against a wall. That is just the motivation I need to do it another way.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top