No4 Bolt Advice

[Brian Dick]

Here's the report.

The muzzle, throat, and two groove bore are well in spec. The bolt, (mismatch), locking lugs bear evenly in the body and headspace is fine. Bolt head overturn is in spec. I had to adjust the bolt correctly to get correct bolt and cocking piece lift, clean and adjust the safety assembly. I disassembled the sear, mag catch and bolthead catch assemblies, inspected, cleaned and greased everything. The sear spring was worn and funky, (gunsmith term?), so I replaced it. Reassembled and tested it and it feels much better. However, I think the rear of the body behind the right hand locking lug is distorted and binding ever so slightly. It might be my imagination and I don't trust my eyes and magnifying glass enough to make a positive ID but I think there may be hairline cracks present along the bottom in the crease of the machining. Now this is a ROF(F) rifle originally produced in 1943 so the machining isn't great and it might be me erring on the side of caution so I told Walt to get it checked at a machine shop that has proper equipment to detect cracks and he agreed. Anyhow, I hope I'm wrong. If so it's a serviceable rifle as is. If not, the body is scrap. The Turk imports from what I've seen were original finish and worn but not in bad shape internally where it counts. Brian