sticky bolt

[crashtested]

i recently noticed that the bolt on my ruger m77 all weather has a sticky point in it. if i open the bolt slowly it will snag everytime at about the half way point. is this normal or anything to worry about? any suggestions on how to fix this would be great or should i just take her to the smith?

thanks alot
crashtested

[35 Whelen]

. If you have never taken the bolt apart, it might be a good idea. When the rifle is shipped from the factory , the bolt will have packing grease in it...thick gooey stuff that will get stiff and hard with age. Strip the bolt and clean off all the grease inside and out, use a decent solvent to take it off with. Really pay attention to the inside of the bolt body and swab it out well. Just a light coat of oil on the spring, firing pin and extractor claw is all that is needed. One other thing I have always done is put a TINY blob of rifle grease on the back side of the locking lugs on the bolt itself....this helps to lubricate the lugs as they lock into the recesses when the bolt is closed.

My thoughts anyway..tough to give you information without having the rifle in hand.

If you have doubts about it, contact Ruger directly on their website.

Cheers

[the rifleman]

Do you mean you feel the sticky point when you are drawing the bolt back, or when you are lifting the bolt?

Some rifles cock on lifting the bolt, so if it happens then it may just be you are feeling the firing pin spring starting to draw back. If it is when you are drawing the bolt back, it may be the extractor bar has a slight bend in it. You could look for rub marks on the bolt, and bar to see if there are any high points.

Either way I wouldn't worry about it to much, but the advice 35Whelen gave you on cleaning the bolt internally is a good idea anyway.

[470 Mbogo]

Hi Crashtested,
This is sometimes caused by two metals of teh same hardness working against each other. I had the same condition where if the bolt wasn't pulled straight back true center it would tend to bind about half way when pressure was on one side of the bolt. The cure I found for this was having the bolt nitrided. The nitride caoting which is very thin is also very hard and you will find your bolt will slide very smooth. It will probably cost about the same to all your rifle bolts done at the same time because they charge by the lb. Check with a good quality machine shop in your area and they will probably have a contact person that can do th work for you. They will want the bolt stripped down and you will only need the bolt body done.
Take good care,
Dave

www.470mbogo.com