RyeDaddy
Member
I've got a Model 70 Featherweight (FN built, lovely rifle) that the safety position that locks the bolt doesnt work well on. The safety is easy to move, not sticky or anything and in fire and the middle postion works as intended. The rifle is completely safe. BUT... The first position that is supposed to lock the bolt is difficult to keep engaged.
What I mean is that when moving the safety from middle position to aft it clicks into place, but if you try to pull up on the bolt it gives and opens up and you can see that the safety has moved to the middle position again. If you hold the safety back while pulling up on the bolt it will stay locked down.
Looking at the bolt from the outside I can see the detents on the safety lever as I rotate it and I can see the ball click into the other two positions, but not the one with the problem. The detent hole is there, but it seems like the safety lever can't quite get far enough back to fully engage the ball in it's slot if that makes any sense. The safety lever does go all the way back physically, it touches the bolt shroud, but it seems like the detent position on the lever is milled just slightly out of spec and not close enough to engage the ball. Seems like if the detent slot were just a micron closer it would work fine.
Not a huge deal, but I like the bolt locking feature and I want it to function correctly. I haven't disassembled it or anything to figure out what's going on as I'm afraid of losing parts. I bought this rifle used so I'm sure it's not under warranty, is there an easy fix for this? Google did me no good, found lots of stories of safeties on 70's that wore out and wouldn't engage anymore or were difficult to turn. I want to be clear that I'm not having that issue, and the safety itself works fine in locking the striker.
What I mean is that when moving the safety from middle position to aft it clicks into place, but if you try to pull up on the bolt it gives and opens up and you can see that the safety has moved to the middle position again. If you hold the safety back while pulling up on the bolt it will stay locked down.
Looking at the bolt from the outside I can see the detents on the safety lever as I rotate it and I can see the ball click into the other two positions, but not the one with the problem. The detent hole is there, but it seems like the safety lever can't quite get far enough back to fully engage the ball in it's slot if that makes any sense. The safety lever does go all the way back physically, it touches the bolt shroud, but it seems like the detent position on the lever is milled just slightly out of spec and not close enough to engage the ball. Seems like if the detent slot were just a micron closer it would work fine.
Not a huge deal, but I like the bolt locking feature and I want it to function correctly. I haven't disassembled it or anything to figure out what's going on as I'm afraid of losing parts. I bought this rifle used so I'm sure it's not under warranty, is there an easy fix for this? Google did me no good, found lots of stories of safeties on 70's that wore out and wouldn't engage anymore or were difficult to turn. I want to be clear that I'm not having that issue, and the safety itself works fine in locking the striker.
