Springfield 1903 safety question

[BigSky]

This is my first post on this forum, and I'm hoping that this will be the place to find someone who can help me out with a problem I'm having with the safety lever on my 1903. My grandfather passed away a couple of years ago and left me his 1903 Springfield. He purchased a sporterized model for deer hunting, and many years ago, he told me he had never actually used it.

I recently decided I'd better clean it and put a layer of oil on it to prevent rusting. I removed the bolt assembly and disassembled it, cleaning out the years of dust with a moist rag. It was dry as I put it back together and I put a little bit of gun oil on each part. Before I dissembled it, the safety worked very easily from safe to ready. Now, it's very difficult to move the lever without forcing it. There isn't any rust in the rifle and it actually looks like it has weathered the years pretty well.

I'm sure I reassembled the bolt assembly correctly, (I didn't have any left over parts), but the safety lever doesn't want to move easily.

If anyone has any helpful ideas or suggestions, I'd really appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks,

BigSky

Information

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[John Beard]

To isolate your problem, let's try something.

(1) Lift the bolt handle and cock the rifle.

(2) If necessary, pull the cocking piece back and engage the safety lock. Place the safety lock in the exact vertical straight-up-and-down position.

(3) Remove the bolt from your rifle.

(4) Press the sleeve lock and unscrew the bolt sleeve/firing pin assembly from the rear of your bolt.

(5) Carefully release the safety lock and lower the cocking piece.

(6) Pull the striker sleeve back, remove the striker, then remove the striker sleeve, mainspring, and cocking piece from the bolt sleeve.

(7) Now try your safety lock and see if it moves freely from side-to-side. If it does, then you have an "issue" with the parts of your bolt or the way it was assembled. If it does not, then you have an issue with your safety lock.

Let us know what you find and we'll go from there.

J.B.

[BigSky]

J.B.,

I appreciate your ideas to fix the safety on my 1903. I went through the steps you outlined, one step at a time. On the 7th step, the safety moved freely and very easily after I removed it from the sleeve, cocking piece and mainspring. That's the way it worked before I decided to take it apart and clean it. I put it all back together and reinstalled the sleeve/firing pin in the bolt, hoping things would improve once it was all together again. Unfortunately, things didn't change. If I pull on the cocking piece, I can move the safety to the mid-point position, but that's as far as it goes. When I move the safety back to the "ready" position, the spring relaxes. It won't let me push it to the "safe" position. (I hope I'm using all the correct terminology of the parts.)

If I'm making a mistake in the assembly of the bolt sleeve/firing pin assembly, I'm not sure where I'm making the mistake; all of the parts seem to go back together as they should. If I were to take it to the range, would normal operation of the gun fix this problem? Or, do I need to purchase a new bolt assembly? Or, do you have any other ideas or suggestions?

Thanks again for your invaluable help.

BigSky

[John Beard]

J.B.,

I appreciate your ideas to fix the safety on my 1903. I went through the steps you outlined, one step at a time. On the 7th step, the safety moved freely and very easily after I removed it from the sleeve, cocking piece and mainspring. That's the way it worked before I decided to take it apart and clean it. I put it all back together and reinstalled the sleeve/firing pin in the bolt, hoping things would improve once it was all together again. Unfortunately, things didn't change. If I pull on the cocking piece, I can move the safety to the mid-point position, but that's as far as it goes. When I move the safety back to the "ready" position, the spring relaxes. It won't let me push it to the "safe" position. (I hope I'm using all the correct terminology of the parts.)

If I'm making a mistake in the assembly of the bolt sleeve/firing pin assembly, I'm not sure where I'm making the mistake; all of the parts seem to go back together as they should. If I were to take it to the range, would normal operation of the gun fix this problem? Or, do I need to purchase a new bolt assembly? Or, do you have any other ideas or suggestions?

Thanks again for your invaluable help.

BigSky

Thanks for your reply!

Now we know what your problem is.

Follow the preceding steps again, but stop after step (4).

Look at the rear of your bolt and you will see a small shallow half-round notch in the top rear of your bolt body.

Look at the front of your bolt sleeve and you will see the small round shank of the safety lock. You will note that the shank of the safety lock is partially milled away.

When the bolt sleeve/firing pin assembly is installed in the rear of the bolt, the safety shank rotates down into that half-round notch in the bolt body and locks the bolt closed. The locking action occurs when the safety lock is rotated past the vertical position.

Your problem is caused by your bolt not being fully closed. Perhaps your rifle's stock is interfering with your bolt handle and keeping the bolt handle from going down all the way. Because your bolt handle is not going down all the way, the notch doesn't line up with the safety shank, and that blocks the safety from rotating fully to the right.

If you can notch the stock and get your bolt handle down all the way, your problem should go away.

Let us know what you find.

Hope this helps.

J.B.

[emmagee1917]

...But it worked before. Before cutting on wood , check to see if anything else is blocking the lockup , if indeed it's not locking up. Maybe a chunkie smashed down in a bolt lug cut preventing full rotation ?
Chris

[pcaru1]

Could the striker sleeve possibly be upside down causing to much rear ward tension on the bolt

[John Beard]

Could the striker sleeve possibly be upside down causing to much rear ward tension on the bolt

I thought about that possibility. BigSky, however, said that he was able to lift the safety lock to the center position with no difficulty. The problem apparently lies elsewhere.

J.B.

[pcaru1]

No offense but you are trying to manipulate the safety with the bolt in the receiver right?