M95M bolt problems

[Aragorn243]

I had a snow day today and decided to work on finishing up my M95M project which I thought simply involved color matching the hand guard. After completing that, I was playing around with it a bit to see how the action worked etc and I noticed it drops out of battery very easily.

When I slam the bolt forward and pull the trigger, it "fires". Not the problem. If I slam the bolt forward and don't pull the trigger and pull back slightly and I mean no real pressure, it will not fire. Push forward, it fires. Obviously this isn't a good condition for a combat rifle to work with and I pulled down my only other easily accessible M95 which is my demilled one. It's bolt is tight, cannot be bumped back. Thought about swapping some parts as maybe the spring is bad. The bolts themselves and the bolt bodies are not interchangable with these so that is out. When I took it apart, I discovered about an inch long crack in the bolt head where the firing pin nut screws in. The crack follows the groove which rotates the bolt.

Now this obviously SEEMS like a problem. But the crack is at the opposite end of the bolt head and is not anywhere near the locking lugs. I would like to solve this problem and don't really have an issue getting another bolt head which is available, but if the problem is something else, I don't want to sink $50 into something that isn't exactly fixable. I've never fired this and now that I know there is a crack I'm not likely too but it is one I'd like to fire. Is it possible that this crack is what is allowing the bolt to pull slightly out of battery?

There is a crack which starts at the firing pin nut and goes to about a quarter inch beyond where the other green arrow is. Then there is a second crack starting at the first and going out at a right angle shown by the third green arrow.

I can get a bolt head, a bolt body, a firing pin nut if recommended or just the bolt head as it seems to be what is broken. Complete matching bolts are not available.

Information

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[Eaglelord17]

If it was me I would be looking at the trigger mech and the cocking piece to figure out your ability to fire after it is taken slightly out of battery, as those are the two surfaces that interact to hold back the firing pin (maybe bubba tried a trigger job in the past). I would test with both the cocking piece switched, and if that doesn't fix it, put the old cocking piece back on and try switching the trigger mech (very easy to do on the M95, just pull out a pin and switch the parts). If that doesn't work I would try switching both and seeing if that works, and finally if that doesn't work I don't know I would have to see it in person to get a better idea of what the problem could be.

Secondly I would not try shooting that with that cracked bolt head like that, could be caused by poor heat treating or large internal stresses that might not react well under pressure. I would 100% replace that part.

[Aragorn243]

It doesn't fire out of battery. Pretty sure the trigger mechanism is fine. Basically, the bolt currently has the ability to move back on it's own about 3/32's of an inch which may or may not move it out of battery but it does prevent it from firing in any case. I've been reading about sloppy bolts on Mausers but this isn't the same thing.

[mmppres]

I would replace the bolt head first. It is made solid for a reason. Little bit of movement is understandable in a firearm of this age an not knowing its history.

[Aragorn243]

I'm thinking the crack being at a sharp angle like it is, could have a hugely magnified effect on the battery. While small in itself, the distance needed to move it back into contact with the stop could be the part of the 3/32's that takes it out of battery because the in/out movement is probably 10 times the left right movement at the same location.

[Daan Kemp]

Replace the bolt. Then see if it still malfunctions. The fix the cause if it still does.

Keep the cracked one if you ever want to sell it.

[Aragorn243]

Ordered a new bolt head. Hopefully that will solve the problem.

Coincidentally, I had been reading about M95's sending the firing pin out the back on a facebook forum and I thought the guy was full of it but I can now see how this could happen. This crack could easily turn into a break which would allow the firing pin and the cocking knob to fly backwards if there were gas blowback from the primer area. Probably not catastrophic but could still ruin your day.

[Eaglelord17]

One of the issues with the M95 design was poor gas venting, this is part of the reason the Bulgarian contract had the vent hole on the bolt itself. I wonder if this is a problem mostly confined to the Yugoslavian conversions to 8mm as they manufactured new bolt heads (which may or may not be to the same quality as Austrian-Hungarian standards), coupled with the higher pressure ammo.

[Aragorn243]

The M95M has two holes drilled through the bolt head and bolt body for gas venting. Not sure where it goes but I believe it is directed down into the magazine well.

[Aragorn243]

New bolt head did not solve the problem. I may try to dig up an empty case to see if having something in the chamber tightens it up. Perhaps it is simply worn out. I haven't seen any reference to this on the net.