Quote Originally Posted by Peter Laidlericon View Post
Anyway..... to test Sons theory you could just unscrew/remove the bolthead, press the striker IN against a block of hard wood, hold the cocking piece and rotate the bolt 90 degrees right as if to close. If it winds back on itself, you've got the answer. But if it don't..................

And another thing to remember is this. While your bolt is mysteriously unlocking itself, it has got to do it with some degree of difficulty because the safety stud on the cocking piece has now still got to lever itself from the long can groove in the bolt to the short cam groove. And that takes quite a bit of effort as you can see/feel when you do it by hand.

Just my 2c's worth. But I'll
Peter, I did your described test and it did not unwind, it stayed stationary. However, the cocking piece moves much easier than a Mauser cocking piece when moving from un-cocked to cocked. Could a weak firing pin spring/mainspring cause this to rotate when fired? I am guessing it could if the little ramp is all that is keeping the bolt handle locked down.