Cocking bolt "tunnel" ridged (not smooth). Normal?
i noticed cocking action was not as smooth as it should be.
i’ve disassembled it and noticed it is “raw” finished, not polished, and with visible ridges, as if it would have needed a bit of sand paper.
the actuall bolt shaft is fairly fine, with some ridges but not that much.
is this normal?
I don’t think this has been caused by use/wear, as the ridged area is present thoughout the whole tunnel, even at the front, where the bolt slims down and doesn’t actually reach/rub, hence can’t cause any wear.
pics below.
any ideas?
thanks
All Replies
Thank you for sharing !
got the grease and the sandpaper (400 and 600 grain).
smothen things out, now much better.
i’d say, the ideal is 100%, how i got it was 20% and now i’m at 70%.
the diameter has not changed so it is not more wobbly than usual,just smoother. 1 finger action is now possible without effort.
moly grease is INDEED messy.
pics below (picture of bolt for zocoloco)
+1 here!
– or even better:
This gun needs a new bolt assembly…..
Having watched the same videos as you have on YouTube and seen Ed testfiring his guns and cocking them by a “flick of a finger”, – I begin to realize that something may have gone terribly wrong here.
In my corners of the world we call it “quality control”……
If my std R3 could get passed inspection in a condition like this and yours too, – how many others are there out there suffering from the same problems ???
I don’t like this much……… 🙄
ED ????
looks like that alan head is stripped…. you’ll need to get a left handed drill bit or an easy out (i have had better luck with the drill bits, I seam to break easy outs every time) add a little heat to that screw and bolt to get it out and polish everything.
… also you may be able to cut a grove in the top of it for a straight slot screw driver…
Looks worse than mine in fact.
That screw was indeed pretty tough to remove but mine eventually did, with no stripping.
The tunnel needs sanding, no doubt.
I like to use white lithium grease on my cocking bolts. They are also a good lube that can be easily cleaned up.
I haven’t taken a bolt out so, I don’t know if my Matadors look like yours.
I didn’t use moly grease on my bolt for the same reason; moly is good stuff in the right application but VERY messy indeed. It’s like anti-seize compound– if you get it somewhere it shouldn’t be (and you always do) you can *almost* get it all off. I used medium viscosity Slide-Glide on the bolt– it’s a very sticky/clingy grease I use in my USPSA pistols, it makes actions very smooth and it stays put.
That is as much of it as I could………
BUT there is a screw on the bolt itself that needs to be removed before the bolt can slide freely out of the housing. That bolt is damaged and impossible to remove. Obviously tightened too much when originally assembled and there’s no tool in my toolbox that can move it. Most likely I shall have to drill it out….. 😥
I can however see what the housing looks like behind/under the bolt, – and it is NOT a pretty sight…….
That bolt is in with threadlocker. Apply some heat by putting the proper size hex bit in a soldering iron and heat the screw up– it should come out. If not you could use an EZ-out in what’s left of the hex head to get the screw out.
With smaller hex head hardware like on the Edguns having good tools is critical so you don’t round the screw heads. Standard L-keys are usually too soft and will round the heads of the screws. I use wrenches with tips made from ground drill blanks normally sold to the RC car guys who are constantly removing and installing small diameter hex screws and grew tired of cheap wrenches or L-keys rounding out the screw heads. The ground drill blank tips are made to close tolerance fits and are *very* hard so the drivers themself don’t develop rounded/damaged corners which then leads to rounding of the screw heads.
This is not a pretty sight…….
It’s the bolt inside the housing and the screw that is impossible to move. You clearly see the inside has been rounded from use of force/bad tools or whatever…
And look at the bolt surface !!!! 😯
You may clearly see horisontal and vertical stripes that has been “grinded” into the bolt itself from the movements inside the housing…..:
Now, as I cannot get the screw removed, I cannot slide the bolt out….
So taking a picture of the surface inside the housing was a bit of a challenge. I had to peep behind the thin part of the bolt and try to get some light in there. The image is good enough to tell the sad story:
Check out the surface of the walls where the bolt is sliding back and forth all the time………..
You can clearly see vertical ridges and the horisontal stripes where the bolt has been tortured…… 😥
This is bad, – very bad in fact………… 😥
And don’t try to tell me that this is the result of transittime to Norway……..
This is NOT a smooth bolt action, – and grease may not help much…..
What is going on here ED ????? 😯
That’s MY bolt Tedd!!
I’ll get the moly today ir tomorrow, let’s how slimey it is..
I have taken mine apart….
That is as much of it as I could………
BUT there is a screw on the bolt itself that needs to be removed before the bolt can slide freely out of the housing. That bolt is damaged and impossible to remove. Obviously tightened too much when originally assembled and there’s no tool in my toolbox that can move it. Most likely I shall have to drill it out….. 😥
I can however see what the housing looks like behind/under the bolt, – and it is NOT a pretty sight…….
I’ll post pictures later……..
This sucks………. 🙄
Kiba, Moly grease is good but, VERY messy! They are usually black and will stain clothes. They are also hard to get off of your hands.
I like to use white lithium grease on my cocking bolts. They are also a good lube that can be easily cleaned up.
I haven’t taken a bolt out so, I don’t know if my Matadors look like yours.
Kiba thanks for the input.
i’ll start wt very fine sandpaper and grease.
remember though, that is not just the “wobbly” result the issue…
the larger the gap, the more angle you create when you pull the bolt from the knob, as this will cause a torsion of the bolt inside.
this is why i usually pull the bolt from its back, “pinching it”, rather than pulling the lateral knob. i use the knob just to help the effort, the fine movement is pivoting on the back of the bolt.
however, i should be able to spit on it and make it go back with my saliva impact, i shouldn’t really “think” that much when cocking the rifle.
Disappointed, i am (as Yoda would put it:)
The bore in the bolt housing on my R3 isn’t as bad as your rifle but it does exhibit some radial grooving. It isn’t nearly as smooth as the bore in the bolt housing of my R2.5.
The surface finish of the inside of my R3 bolt housing looks like either the fixture on the machine wasn’t rigid enough and “chattered” some during machining, or maybe the cutting tool had a chipped edge, or the cutter was pushing a burr during the boring operation. It could also be as simple as the wrong feed/speed for the job. Regardless of the cause the surface finish is rougher than I’d like to see on a sliding interface and it isn’t up to the level of workmanship one would expect from one of these rifles.
After applying some light grease to the bolt and bolt housing the cocking effort is smooth and light.
I may end up taking the bolt housing to the honing machine and open it up .0001-.0002″ in diameter to smooth it out some. That won’t be enough to alter the functionality in any noticeable way but should smooth the action even further. You could probably also put some fine grit sandpaper on a dowel and lightly hand polish the inside of the bolt housing. Full length honing would be preferred as it’s much easier to maintain roundness but it’s hard to go “too far” just doing some light polishing with fine sandpaper. A small ball hone along with some cutting oil would do a fine job as well as long as you don’t get carried away. While you couldn’t eliminate all the grooves you could at least polish the high spots and make the bolt action operate smoother.
The biggest problem with difficult bolt action on my R3 was that the breech seal was too thick which put the bolt in a bind; the too-thick seal was elevating the breech block and back of the barrel off the air reservoir. This meant the barrel was running “downhill” towards the muzzle while the bolt was running “uphill” from the back of the air reservoir towards the breech block. This made the bolt very difficult to close the last 1″ or so as the bolt was binding in the breech block. Lapping the breech seal and fixing that problem took care of 90% of the excessive bolt effort on my rifle, light grease between the bolt body and bolt housing took care of the rest of it. The bolt is now very easy and smooth to operate. I also chamfered the top edge of the plate under the bolt housing that the detent ball slides up onto to hold the bolt in the closed position.
After fixing the breech seal issue & adding grease the bolt action on my .25 R3 is much smoother and lighter than the bolt action on a friend’s Daystate Air Ranger; the bolt action on that rifle is very stiff and “clunky.”
then i’m pretty sure the same beaver that carved mine, has been used on yours..AFTERWARDS! 😛
Now the question is (are)
1- Will a good mo-ly smear solve the issue?
2- if not, shall we sand the tunnel?
3- after sanding, is the bolt going to be even more wobbly than it is now?
I’m sure oldgoat has been there/done that and can tell the way fw to this issue…
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
I think maybe you guys are putting a lot of pressure on Ed to get your guns that he might have gotten in a little hurry to meet supply and demand.
The Ed Gun in my mind is not the Ed gun I’m seeing here. Rough Bolt scars, and Stripped out Allen bolts straight from the Work Bench? And a new gun at that? 😯 I’m glad Benjamin Didn’t make that Gun. 😀 or Airforce 😀 or Corseair 😀 Or Savage or Remington 😀 My gun collection would be worthless 😀