Looking for some K98 Bolt Help

J

janssen

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Northern Ontario
Hi all,

So I picked up a k98 from an old 'fella that bought it through century arms years ago with 20 rounds of ammo of which he still had 15 left.

Gun is in pretty good shape but the bolt is REALLY tight on locking, friend of mine who is into milsurps suspects it is the wrong bolt - mine is hollowed out at the end, not supposed to be apparently.

Can anyone verify that for me and then direct me as to the correct bolt?

Some pics:










































Thanks
JJ
 
Your rifle is a mixmaster. Likely the headspace is tight.

The stock and metal fittings are late war and the receiver is very early war.

Have you checked the chamber to make sure all of the crud is out of it???

Does your bolt close easily when there isn't a cartridge in the chamber???

You may want to take that rifle to a gunsmith, if you're planning on keeping it.

It's a relatively simple job to cut back the bolt face a few thou or slightly increase the depth of the chamber with a reamer

I'm not sure what you mean by hollowed out at the end????
 
The bolt is from a G33/40 or a VZ23 or 33. That has value on its own. With that front sight, I’d suspect it’s a East German rework.
 
mark k said:
The bolt is from a G33/40 or a VZ23 or 33. That has value on its own. With that front sight, I’d suspect it’s a East German rework.
Click to expand...

My Buddy had mentioned that - couldn't remember what bolt he had said it is from - so the bolt is incorrect?

So sell the bolt for enough to retire on and pick up a correct one?

Really like this rifle, only shot it once - wanted to get things sorted out - but it is just a beautiful piece of craftmanship.
 
bearhunter said:
Your rifle is a mixmaster. Likely the headspace is tight.

The stock and metal fittings are late war and the receiver is very early war.

Have you checked the chamber to make sure all of the crud is out of it???

Does your bolt close easily when there isn't a cartridge in the chamber???

You may want to take that rifle to a gunsmith, if you're planning on keeping it.

It's a relatively simple job to cut back the bolt face a few thou or slightly increase the depth of the chamber with a reamer

I'm not sure what you mean by hollowed out at the end????
Click to expand...

Gun is still clean - I haven't owned it that long yet :)
 
janssen said:
Gun is still clean - I haven't owned it that long yet :)
Click to expand...

If that bolt is hard to close on an empty chamber, then there are other issues that should be addressed.

Look into the recoil lug faces, I use a dental mirror, for set back. Sometimes, there is a bit of a hump caused by the metal being moved with extreme loads or shooting with an obstructed bore.

If it all looks good, then I would try another bolt, from another rifle to see if it's any better.

Intersurplus, a banner advertiser has complete bolts for sale at a reasonable price.

If it does turn out to be the bolt, I would replace it, rather than lap the rear of the lugs to relieve the few though you will need to get the bolt to close/open freely.

You should be able to sell that bolt fairly easily for at least as much as the replacement bolt from Intersurplus. Likely more.

I see what you meant by "hole in the end of the bolt" That won't be an issue.
 
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bearhunter said:
If that bolt is hard to close on an empty chamber, then there are other issues that should be addressed.

Look into the recoil lug faces, I use a dental mirror, for set back. Sometimes, there is a bit of a hump caused by the metal being moved with extreme loads or shooting with an obstructed bore.

If it all looks good, then I would try another bolt, from another rifle to see if it's any better.

Intersurplus, a banner advertiser has complete bolts for sale at a reasonable price.

If it does turn out to be the bolt, I would replace it, rather than lap the rear of the lugs to relieve the few though you will need to get the bolt to close/open freely.

You should be able to sell that bolt fairly easily for at least as much as the replacement bolt from Intersurplus. Likely more.

I see what you meant by "hole in the end of the bolt" That won't be an issue.
Click to expand...

Have a bolt on order from intersurplus - never ordered from them before - their prices are quite reasonable.

Will swap it in and see what happens - if it works then have a bolt for sale...

thx To everyone for your input!
 
OP - as well as what is posted above, you might want to look into the sequence to remove the guts from the bolt - a WWI or WWII soldier would have done that with his fingers - no tools required. Then, just with extractor and collar on the bolt body, try to close that bolt body into the rifle - your "fight" might be within the bolt, etc. - may as well determine where the "tight" is.

Should be several clues - I presume that your extractor is fully seated into it's collar, and the "foot" is into the groove at the front end of the bolt? Is possible that crud or build-up in that groove might cause excessive drag when closing?? You should be able to easily rotate the claw extractor on the bolt body - try it - maybe that is where the "bind" is occurring??

I have about 20% success trying to remove the extractor collar off a Mauser bolt body without "kinking" it, so I usually do not try any more - but can get incredible amount of corruption under it - maybe you can work penetrating oil in, once you have the claw extractor removed? All is to narrow down what is causing that bolt to be so tight to close. Most definitely "not normal" - on a Mauser, perhaps first 1/3 of bolt handle going down has the rear of bolt lugs on cam surfaces within the receiver - so bolt is being pulled forward slightly, then gets to "flat surfaces" - so perhaps last half of bolt handle movement down, will not draw the bolt forward at all. Is different, that way, than Lee Enfields, or the P14 / P17 which have their bolts continue to move forward until the bolt handle is all the way down - is called "helical breeching", I think. Mausers did not have that.
 
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