Rimfire ignition troubles

[Jonnyofalltrades]

In our family there is an older mossberg .22 with some sentimental value. It shoots well, except for when it gets cold, as in, anything below freezing.
The entire rear half of the bolt functions as the striker, and these bolts are really not easy to disassemble. We tried everything from running dry to all varieties of lightweight lubes, with no success. There is just too much surface area in contact.
This past winter I had a brainwave to try something new. I put the bolt in the milling machine and fluted the back half. It worked beautifully. We've now tested it down to almost -20°C, without any malfunctions
This could easily be done with a file, as flats would provide almost the same benefits as round bottomed flutes.
Hope this helps someone out there.

 

[emerson]

That looks great. The idea is even better. Nice work.

 

[headhunter2]

What model are we talking about?

 

[guntech]

G96 Gun Treatment is a lube that works well in extreme cold... as much as 60 below... a new spring may have worked as well. Interesting how the "less friction" worked so well.

 

[OkayShooter]

That bolt design looks like my Anschutz 64s and never had issues with it in the cold. Same with my 50s Mossberg 144.

Fix could just been a weak spring.

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

Yeah, we tried G96. It was second best after Hornady One Shot case lube. Still lots of failures.
The spring is almost certainly bad, but my first attempt at bolt disassembly didn't go well, and I decided to try this first.

 

[m1008]

Yeah, we tried G96. It was second best after Hornady One Shot case lube. Still lots of failures.

The spring is almost certainly bad, but my first attempt at bolt disassembly didn't go well, and I decided to try this first.

Hornady make two products called “one shot”. The case lube and the gun dry lube

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

Hornady make two products called “one shot”. The case lube and the gun dry lube

Forgot about that, I will double check, but I think this might be the dry lube, not case lube.

 

[Raton57]

Soak the bolt in carb or brake cleaner and then blow it out with an air compressor do it a couple of time to remove years worth of dry gunged up oils and dust .

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

Soak the bolt in carb or brake cleaner and then blow it out with an air compressor do it a couple of time to remove years worth of dry gunged up oils and dust .

Yep, we did that about a dozen times.

And it was One Shot Case Lube, which is also dry.