How I bend Mauser bolts

[Clark]

I have:
1) Oxyacetylene set up
2) Mauser bolt bending jig as sold by Midway and Brownell's with a stake.
3) two sets of welding goggles
4) some big gloves
5) a home made brass heat sink with buttressing threads that match the inside of the bolt body [just a foot of brass rod with some threads that lean to one side]
6) a 75 pound vice that I can put in the middle of the shop floor
7) a can of welder's paste

1) The bolt is stripped. Taking the extractor off is easy, it will take some practice getting it back on. Do not remove the extractor retaining ring. The square bolt handle base has a radius ground per the jig instructions [I don't bother], no reciever modification is required.
2) The bolt body is filled with welder's paste and the heat sink screwed in.
3) The bolt body is put in the jig, which is put in the vice.
4) Goggles are adorned, and I put on big gloves.
5) My brother fires up the torch and gets the base of the bolt handle red hot.
6) I pound on the stake [A big drift with a radius in one dimension on the tip] with the sledge hammer and the stake pushes the bolt handle over at the base.
7) I like the shape the bolt handle with a curve so it wraps around the scope eyepiece but gives clearance, so the minimum of stock needs to be relieved.
8 For heavy recoiling 458 magnum rifles, no rearward sweep of the bolt handle is desirable. For 250 Savage, some rearward sweep is wanted.
9) When the bolt is bent, the bolt body is lifted out of the jig by the heat sink and lowered into a bucket of water with only the bolt handle sticking out of the water. The goal is to get the bolt handle bent without the nearby cocking cam [bevel at rear of bolt body] changing color beyond "straw" color.
10) My brother shapes his bent bolts with a die grinder so the bolt looks fancy. I just leave mine with the forged look.
11) I have bent 25 VZ24 and Turk Mauser bolts in a day. And I have seen others bend and re bend and re bend the same bolt handle all day.
12) I have had 91/30 bolts TIG welded and I have my bent Mauser bolts, both are strong enough to stand on the handle like a pogo stick to clear a stuck case.
Pic of VZ24 with bent bolt

 

[Mike Irwin]

After you bend it, do you blow it up?

 

[Clark]

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Mike,
I have never been able to blow up a Mauser in an incremental work up that quit when the brass failed.
Have you ever heard of one failing in that circumstance?

--
A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.

 

[P95Carry]

VERY interesting .. glad you posted .... i will before long be doing my Turk bolt, once i have new furniture and a scope mount ...... I will tho I think make my own jig for this one off job.

Thank you.

 

[Jim K]

Good post, Clark. I am not sure why you need the "stake", though; I just beat the bolt handle down with a 5 pound hammer. I agree with your brother on one thing. I like to trim things up and polish the handle.

P95carry, I recommend buying the right equipment even though you think it is a one-off job. You could use it for other jobs, and unless you are pretty knowledgeable trying to make your own tools might not work.

Also, for a good bolt job, you will need to cut a notch out of the receiver; trying to turn down a bolt without doing that results in a bolt that is either too high or too thin. The small cut affects nothing else.

Jim

 

[P95Carry]

Point taken Jim .... in fact could be that laziness would prevail anyways!

Being an engineer and still having enough equipment .... I always tend to think I'll make anything like that I need .... but probably you are right!

 

[Clark]

I think the bolt bending jig was $40 and worth it.

The Oxyacetylene set up was $500, and would pay for allot of bolt bending at the gunsmith's, but it has since found other uses too.

 

[P95Carry]

Fortunately I have always had weld gear for last 30 years .. keep arc and gas ... the latter often just for small brazing but would hate to be without it.

I'll get a jig ... definitely way to go. Thx.

 

[Mike Irwin]

No, you just seem to have this perverse desire to blow everything else up, so why not a bent-handle Mauser?

 

[P95Carry]

No, you just seem to have this perverse desire to blow everything else up, so why not a bent-handle Mauser?

Mike ..... ''mois''??? Surely you ain't yet seen what I really can do??

(BTW ... I PM'd back to ya earlier ... drop me a line back if you can)

 

[DeBee]

Do you bother to reharden the cocking notch helix area on the bolt?

 

[Clark]

Debee,
It never gets hot.
The books call it the "cocking cam", but I like your "cocking notch" better.
It looks more like a notch than a cam
That welding past keeps everything cool and the whole procees must wind up in the bucket of water before that welding paste dries out.

 

[Gewehr98]

Not a big fan of bending 'em...

I'd rather cut them off and weld on a new one at the proper angle. Larry Lyons had something recently to say about the practice of bending them, too. Brownell's sells a nice replacement bolt handle fairly cheap, welds nicely, polishes up and takes a blueing no problem.

 

[P95Carry]

I have just ''done'' my Turk ....... using the (rather ''fugly'') stock from ATI .. I also used their bolt handle ''kit'' to save hassle ... this is a cut - drill - tap - and bolt on method ... might not be quite so ''pretty'' but, even tho I have all the weld gear ... seemed the easiest for me ... and does not look too awful .... leastways .. noit when compared to the fugly plastic!!!

It will tho hopefully shoot OK and be way more comfortable too.

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OMG .. sorry about the loud color!!!