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I am fairly new to long guns. I have a Stevens 416 that belonged to one of my family members. I was able to disassemble everything, inspect, clean, and oil all parts; except the bolt. I was able to get find a PDF of an old military manual for .22 trainers. The Manual shows all of the parts and how they go together, but they do not explain how to disable the bolt.
I wanted to know if anyone can give some advice and/or experience with the 416 bolt.
Yes, I know this thread is over 4 years old, but it shows up on a Google search, and none of the results actually lead to a bolt disassembly procedure.
I have a Sears Ranger, which is a Stevens M416, and for over three decades I have been wondering just how to change the mainspring. That rifle worked fine but later I bought a CMP Stevens M416. That rifle had lost so much mainspring strength that I needed to change mainsprings. After puzzling over this problem for so long, :confused: I am glad to say, I finally figured it out.
If you want to take the front of the bolt off, go see the pictures here:
STEVENS M-416 Photos by UncleJaque | Photobucket
The primary problem was I had never seen clear pictures of the parts; images in TM 9-280 “Caliber .22 Rifles , All Types” were helpful but there was no disassembly procedure.
This is the disassembled bolt back half from my US Property marked Stevens M416-2. I assume it is the -2 version. I removed the front section following Uncle Jaque’s pictures, and found that was absolutely unnecessary to do this to remove the mainspring.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...8d49761a-1.jpg
The eureka moment was figuring out the relationship between the retainer clip and the striker collar. You can't see how these fit together on an assembled bolt and I had the sense to be cautious all this time, and not do what I normally do, which is break the thing getting it apart. :yikes:
This is how the clip and the collar fit together inside the bolt.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...6abfd41b-1.jpg
A 3/32” and 1/16” punch held on opposite sides of the collar allowed me to depress the collar and free the retainer clip.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...3936b1f8-1.jpg
Once the collar is free the striker and mainspring fall out.
This is to show side views of the retainer, collar, striker bolt. Hopefully you can clearly see the slots in the collar and the retainer slot in the bolt.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo..._zps8deb-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...tednut_z-1.jpg
It is all very obvious once you clearly see the parts out of the bolt.
To assemble I used a 30-06 cartridge case to push the spring loaded collar the level of the retainer slot. I tried a 308 case, the neck was too short, I think a 30-40 Krag case would be even better. Once I dropped in the retainer clip I spent about 15 minutes rotating, pushing the parts so the tabs of the retainer fell into the slots of the collar.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo..._zps03a1-1.jpg
Then it was a matter of pinning the cocking piece onto the striker shaft.
I think if I were to try this again I might take a 30-40 case and file a slot across the neck and see if I could push the collar down, with the cut clearing the tabs on the retainer. There has to be a better tool than the wobbly, unsteady punches I used, but those did work.
I wanted to show a picture of the four M416 mainsprings I purchased from Numrich. The original mainspring is to the right. The Numrich mainsprings all had burrs where the springs were cut, the lengths were all different. The new mainspring did give an extra bit of snap to the firing pin, so I guess it worked out OK.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...s0cfc944-1.jpg
Here are some old ads for the Stevens M416.
This is a 1939 ad .
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo..._zps625e-1.jpg
This is for the M416-2 version
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...2403bba4-1.jpg
Something I found interesting with the 416-2 version is the bedding. Notice the barrel band up front, this band is tensioned by the upper band screw.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...vensM416-1.jpg
It is important not to over tighten this screw as you will break the sides of the barrel band. You can see the slot for the barrel band and if you notice, the front action screw, which is well forward of the action.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...vensM416-1.jpg
In this rifle, the action is free floating. Stevens bedded this rifle so the action is free floated and the tension screw can be adjusted, slightly, remember slightly, to experiment with barrel vibrations.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...vensM416-1.jpg
I have taken my Sears Ranger and the CMP M416-2 to the range and shot them. They will hold the ten ring at 50 yards and the ten ring at 100 yards with quality ammunition. They are harder to shoot than modern competition rifles as the period ergonomics work against you. When these were built the Army was sponsoring the NRA and basically wrote the rules for US Smallbore prone. First and foremost, the Army was interested in training civilians to shoot the M1903/Garand, so the stock geometry of small bore rifles could not be too far from that of a pistol grip 03. The forward sling swivel is fixed on the M416-1 to the barrel band, consistent with the military rifle of the period. This is not the best for accurate shooting as the barrel band is too far up the stock to be an effective hand stop. Slippage of the supporting left hand, in recoil, due to grip tension, will result in shots away from the desired impact point. The M416-2 has an adjustable sling attachment position, but it is still to far away for my hand to touch in a prone position. Since the M1903 had a trigger pull around 3.0 pounds, if you wanted to shoot in NRA smallbore, the trigger could not be much different. Remember, this was all about training future cannon fodder. So these early rifles have trigger mechanisms that can be adjusted down to 3.0 maybe 2 1/2 pounds, but the triggers will follow if adjusted much lighter. Trigger pull weight in current smallbore competition is typically less than 8 ounces, and believe me, a heavy trigger works against you. The force to break a heavy trigger will move the rifle just a bit, and you will see that on paper. You can shoot excellent scores with these rifles it is just you really have to work much harder on your stock position and trigger pull than with modern competition 22's.
this is still the case. this was the only resource i could find to show me how to accomplish this. similar to OP, new to long guns & inherited Stevens M416 from a family member. took it out yesterday for the first time and had lots of issues with the firing pin and extractor(s).Quote:
Originally Posted by slamfire1
I will also be ordering from Numrich (found them before finding this site, they seem to be one of few if only to supply.)
Thank you so much for posting your detailed description. I now have the confidence to tackle this (and already order punches to match your instructions)
This is a great thread on the BOLT, now i want to know about the TRIGGER. My rifle will shoot about three times in a row but the next shot will be a non-strike where the trigger either will not release the sear or the sear is not engaged when it is cocked.
And another irritation is the tremendous side to side slop in the trigger.:yikes: