early 70's Centurion Model 100 .243

C

Cooey64

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Port Alberni, BC
Hi folks,

My .243 was purchased from Sears in 1974. It's a Centurion Model 100 from GoldenState Arms in California. It has a Spanish Mauser 98 bolt action with internal 5 round magazine.

I'm experiencing some difficulty with sliding a round into the chamber and then locking the bolt down. I have to kinda wiggle the bolt as I slide it the last inch or so. If the bolt is really stiff to lock down, it usually "wipes" a bit of the brass from the shell tail and I have to file it down before I can reload it.

I've looked at the bolt itself and am squeamish about taking the end of it apart. As for sliding a round I think it's got something to do with an edge at the top of the magazine and the ramp into the chamber.
 
If your brass is getting scraped it is usually because it is to big. Maybe not resized right for your gun. A bolt might get stiff closing if you just installed bases and a screw is to long and poking down through the reciever and rubbing on the bolt.
 
When I deprime and neck the brass I always resize right after. I've set my case trimmer to trim at the specified case length for a .243 Winchester. The bases haven't been changed. I'll try and find a swiped shell and get a picture of the tail
 
Check the headspace. Mind you, if your brass is 'once fired' out of another rifle, it needs to be full length resized. Brand new brass requires FL resizing too.
Golden State Arms(aka Pasadena Firearms. Eventually became Federal Ordnance.) was a U.S. importer of milsurps that they 'sporterized'. Shut down in 1966.
Centurion was one of their brand names. Built on Spanish K98 receivers made by Santa Barbara. Some are good. Some not so good.
There's a pretty good company history here.
http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_santafe.html
 
Been a while but I've got some pictures of the shell tails. I've fixed the round sliding issue, but the bolt wiping issue still stands.

IMG_2693.jpg


IMG_2700.jpg


IMG_2699.jpg



It's not every shell, some are more pronounced than others. All my brass right now is multi-fired.
 
These marks on the rims of the cartridge cases are typical of having the extractor being forced to move over the rim. The 98 Mauser, as mentioned, is designed for having cartridges loaded through the magazine. When the bolt is moved forward, the bolt face pushes the cartridge into the chamber, and the rim is supposed to pop up behind the claw on the extractor.

If a cartridge is simply dropped into the chamber and the bolt closed, the extractor claw must then be forced outwards and over the rim of the cartridge. Since this extractor is made from very good steel, it resists this force, and this is what makes the marks on the rims. You can see that the brass on the rim has been forced FORWARD when the bolt has been closed.

NOTE FOR ANY MAUSER USERS: If you happen to get into a situation where a cartridge is in the chamber and you can not close the bolt on it, you can get the extractor to go behind the rim by pushing down on the thin portion of the extractor about 2 inches from the bolt head. This will spring the extractor claw outwards, and by doing this and pushing the bolt forward, the extractor will clear the rim of the cartridge and allow you to eject the round.

The other possibility is that there is something wrong with the extractor itself. If the front contact point is worn or broken a bit, the extractor will slide backwards on the bolt, and thus not have the proper space between the claw and the bolt head. Likewise, if the extractor is worn, it can go too far toward the center of the bolt, putting more pressure on the rim when chambered.

.
 
Yup, i agree with buffdog. Try feeding a round slowly while observing the bolt, if the rim of the round doesn`t come up from the mag behind the extractor it is the problem. Lots of extractors around and easy to change to see if that is the easy fix.
 
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