Remington 341 Feeding problem

[Kipling79]

Hello,

I have never completely solved my feeding problem with my 341P, but may have stumbled upon the problem tonight, and am open to suggestions.

It appears that the carrier is not lifting high enough (by about 1/32"), and manually pulling it up solves the feeding problem. When the bolt is pulled back, a knob on the bottom of the bolt is supposed to hit the rear of the carrier, and lever the front up. At this point, i can see 1/32" of clearance, and my bolt has a LOT of play when pulled back this far.

Question: Is the bolt supposed to be loose when fully rearward? (It locks tight when forward).

If loose is ok, I am pondering adding some metal to the carrier to take up the 1/32" gap.

 

[savage23]

I own two 341-p's so i'll take a crack at your problem.
First,did you or anyone else take the carrier out of the rifle? The reason i ask is the first time you do this is most people don't notice the carrier spring plunger and small spring that fall out of the left side of the carrier wall. These are small parts and if you don't know they are there they fall out and don't get replaced.
They are critical parts though,as they provide tension on the carrier to hold it in place when you cycle the bolt to chamber a round.

If the plunger and spring are missing,the carrier WILL drop down a frogs hair and make it difficult if not impossible to chamber a round.

Pull the action out of the stock and with the bolt closed the carrier will extend below the bottom of the receiver a little. Looking at the carrier from the left side,1 3/4 inches from the front of the receiver you should see a small circle.That's the carrier friction plunger.If you see a empty hole there you've found your problem.

These parts can found from Numrichs gun parts,the part number for the friction plunger is #89. They don't have the spring but a spring from a pen or lighter can be used.

Hope this solves your problem.

 

[Kipling79]

Thank you for the suggestion. I have actually removed the carrier several times during my investigation into the problem, but always found (after losing) the spring and plunger.

Tonight, I went to see if the spring might be worn out, and finally did loose it during removal. I replaced it with a MUCH stiffer spring, which positively holds the carrier in place, but the carrier still does not lift completely.

Looking at the assembly out of the stock, I have convinced myself that my clearance problem is due to the slop between the bolt and the rear of the receiver. The receiver appears to have been rolled and then riveted together, plus the rear of the receiver is a weak point with less metal (due to the long slot for the bolt handle).... it looks like the rear of the receiver may have spread slightly, increasing the gap around the bolt at this critical point of the cycle.

Not sure how to approach this. Am thinking of clamping the receiver flats in a vise and re-peening the rivets as a first step, but i do not see a gap that needs to be closed yet, unless it is full of grime.