Issues with Mauser bolt

So i have a Argentine Mauser with a safety issue I have taken the bolt apart a few times trying to get the safety to work cleaning it and checking it for cosmoline. I've made sure doing research that Im installing the safety correctly by pointing the safety up at 12 o'clock before completing bolt assembly . I've done this three different times with the same results when putting the safety to the left it locks their . You can put it to the right after assembling and return it to 12 o clock no problem but go far left and it locks. Input appreciated i would like to take it to the range but prefer to have the safety working first. Thank You

buellsfurn said:

So i have a Argentine Mauser with a safety issue I have taken the bolt apart a few times trying to get the safety to work cleaning it and checking it for cosmoline. I've made sure doing research that Im installing the safety correctly by pointing the safety up at 12 o'clock before completing bolt assembly . I've done this three different times with the same results when putting the safety to the left it locks their . You can put it to the right after assembling and return it to 12 o clock no problem but go far left and it locks. Input appreciated i would like to take it to the range but prefer to have the safety working first. Thank You

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Perhaps a bit of corrosion? I have a Gw98 that when I examined it in the store the safety was also locked in the fire position. Nothing I did would get it lose and the owner also tried. He finally grabbed ye olde 12oz rubber mallet and smacked it and it “broke loose”. Functions perfectly since then. Yours is likely not a similar issue. The guy was by no means an expert in mauser and not something I would have done (if broken I wasn’t about to buy it), by seems like in this one case it was probably some corrosion or gunk that had built up and frozen it in place.

I disassembled the bolt there to check for damage from him doing that and it seemed fine and has functioned flawlessly in the maybe 100rnds I’ve put through the rifle.

Got it cheap as the bore is worn and it was sporterized.

It has been a while since I worked on one, and I have only worked on the one, but I think that it needs to be cocked for the safety to function correctly. I do not own one and I am certainly no expert.

Some of the old milsurps have some unique quirks that we need to learn to deal with. Took me a while to figure out how to open the bolt on my Mosin without killing my hand after firing it. It opens much easier if you cock it by pulling straight back on the safety before trying to open the bolt. Now I do not have bruises after shooting it!

Sometime a Mauser safety will get stiff or stuck if the pick up surface at rear of the safety is rough, galled or otherwise mis- shapen. It's like a small cam that levers against the top leading edge of the cocking piece. Also the portion of the cocking piece that the ramps act upon can be buggered. Look at the leading top edge of the cocking piece and try to determine if it has been adjusted. It should only have a slight bevel on it and be close to 90 degrees with a slight bevel around the circumference.

Also, but doubt it, the shaft on the safety lever could be slightly bent or off tolerance. The ramps on the safety lever and cocking piece are pretty interesting in the way that there is a lot of tolerance when you observe the motion of how they work together but if they have been mis adjusted or have wear they can be difficult to get them to work together smoothly. The first thing that people will do is more often than not is to remove material from the leading edge of the cocking piece. (allows the cp to creep forward) The parts should only be polished to work together in unison, or at the very worst they have been ground through the case hardening and can result in safety off fire if sear engagement has been reduced incorrectly as well.(accumulative over time/use) Sear engagement becomes a problem when aftermarket triggers have been fitted incorrectly or the original sear has been ground too much result in a reduced amount of sear engagement allowing the cp to override the sear when the safety lever is moved, an impact or even slightly moving the bolt handle.

More than likely you just wound up with a safety lever that has a rough pick up cam/leading edge or could have been swapped from another rifle inadvertently. Gently smoothing it out with a stone or craytex rod may improve it.

Hope this helps

On my Argentine the safety engages a camming surface into a slot at the rear of the cocking piece. The cocking piece only extends far enough to the rear to allow the cam to work when the rifle is cocked. It cocks upon closing the bolt unless the trigger is pulled while cocking. Hope this clears things up a little.

See 4:40+

If the OP is working with a m91-2 it will have a threaded firing pin carried over from the BP rifles. 91-92 safety levers are two position only, have a plunger in the lever that engages a detent in a 91-92 cocking piece which is milled into the bolt sleeve plunger slot. m91's sometimes have m93 or later fire control parts worked into them for the spare parts but can still work. Basic function checks are the same for m93-98 bolt sleeve and levers.

Trigger checks are the same. If it's a 91 fp check to make sure the threads are not messed up on the end of it.

If someone worked on your M91 to make a better hunting trigger, they may have ground the cocking piece (not the proper way to do it) which will cause the safety to be hard to turn or not turn at all. The flange on the safety has to engage the slot on the cocking piece in order to turn. If the c.p. is worn or ground, the safety won't turn.

Try pushing down on the tail of the cocking piece while you are turning the safety and see if that works.

Thanks for all the suggestions Gentlemen I'll pull it back out Friday after work. Rifle in question is my 1909 Argentine Mauser

Lance, my advice will work on a 98 action also.

John from MD said:

Lance, my advice will work on a 98 action also.

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will do sir. Ill log on after work and dinner

Mr Buell, did you ever finish work and go to dinner?

K-43 said:

Mr Buell, did you ever finish work and go to dinner?

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Mr Buell I guess you have one up on me . Yes my main goal was to be able switch the safety from fire to safe with out coccking the rifle . After looking at it and some file work and oil and emory trying to create a ramp and saw i wasn't getting a whole lot of any where i started to get concerned with removing the notched area of safe before full safe. (Upright position 2). So I decided to go safe after its cocked . I figured all my other Mauser did so but not this one I'm beginning to question the firing pin spring this bolt takes a lot to compress it again comparing it to the other Mauser's . I was working on another Mauser today it's a FN Belgium Mauser in looking at it the only thing I came up with was the spring tension between the 2. I dont have anything to measure spring compression tension . So safe after cocking it is for now . Thanks Mr Buell

Clamp a piece of brass bar in a vise,draw back the sear ledge against it then slip a 1/8" piece of stock in there that has a U shape to it. It'l hold the cp away from the bolt so the sleeve can be un- threaded. Or make a spring compressor .450 dia x 1.45 long with a .250 bore. After install screw the mechanism back into the bolt until until the cp extension clears the bolt sleeve. Once clear the cp can be un-threaded from the pin.

Doco Overboard said:

Clamp a piece of brass bar in a vise,draw back the sear ledge against it then slip a 1/8" piece of stock in there that has a U shape to it. It'l hold the cp away from the bolt so the sleeve can be un- threaded. Or make a spring compressor .450 dia x 1.45 long with a .250 bore. After install screw the mechanism back into the bolt until until the cp extension clears the bolt sleeve. Once clear the cp can be un-threaded from the pin.

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Thank You, I had the bolt completely apart including the lock pin and spring just seems to me the fire pin spring has a lot of tension on it . It looks and measures to be the same as other Mauser fire pin springs.

Yes my main goal was to be able switch the safety from fire to safe with out coccking the rifle

You can't put a Mauser 98 safety on without the bolt being cocked. It has three positions, off, on and bolt will move, on and bolt is locked in the receiver. You can close the bolt without cocking the striker by holding the trigger back as you are closing the bolt.

John from MD said:

Yes my main goal was to be able switch the safety from fire to safe with out coccking the rifle

You can't put a Mauser 98 safety on without the bolt being cocked. It has three positions, off, on and bolt will move, on and bolt is locked in the receiver. You can close the bolt without cocking the striker by holding the trigger back as you are closing the bolt.

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Ya Thanks John I'd give it a shot no harm done I did polis the cocking ramps some and gave Hoppe's gun grease a try. Not perfect but I did improve the action some. Ya never know when the Zombies are coming