Ross M 10 R Sporter - Bolt Jammed in Receiver

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kayceel

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Dauphin, MB
Somebody brought the above into the LGS. Bolt is jammed in with the locking lugs vertical and a very nasty curl of metal out of the left receiver rail is preventing bolt head rotation. Bolt is NOT pinned.
Can the bolt stop be removed with the bolt still in the receiver????

If it can, how does the little spring loaded bolt stop friction lug pin come out?

My thanks for any assistance any of you are able to provide! Kayceel
 
I recall LouThePou having this same issue with a Ross not that long ago. I believe he solved the matter. It might be worthwhile contacting him. Another fellow on the Ross Rifle forum also encountered the same problem. I am cutting and pasting the Ross rifle Forum post. Hope it helps.

""Yesterday I finally received my first Ross. A beautiful M-10. I unpacked it and found the bolt was out of the rifle. Not unusual. I have never had one of these in my hands before, so as a gunsmith of about 50 years experience I inserted the bolt which went in about two inches easily but would go no more! Nor would it come out!! It would move a bit but not come out. Hair pulling time. I could not find any place where there was instructions or drawings on how to do something as simple as re-install a bolt. There needs to be a BIG red note on this operation. It was quite late by this time so I decided to wait till today. Up early, out in the shop, I reasoned that by taking the bbl. action out of the stock I could see what was holding the bolt in. Great, took out the bbl. band screw, figured out how to get the floor plate off, main action screw, action won't come out!! I reasoned that there must be a screw in the top rear of the action. Only problem, there was a stuck bolt in the way! After much prayer my wife and I looked in the bolt area with a bright light to see if I could see anything holding the bolt. I knew it was caught on something in the bottom of the bolt head so I went in with a very small long handle flat blade screw driver and applied pressure to the steel under the bolt head. Praise the Lord, the bolt came out. No marks, scratches etc. on the gun or me! I had already figured out that if I could just get the bolt out I needed to pull the head out and rotate it to the correct horizontal position. This I did. However, it wouldn't stay in that position. I tried several times and finally it stayed in the correct position. I very gingerly slid it into the action and now it works just great. I will insert photos of this so you can see what happened. I hope this will help others who are new to this firearm.""

You can remove the bolt stop with the bolt still in the receiver.
To disassemble the bolt stop. Push in on the spring loaded pin that holds the bolt stop. Hold pressure on the spring, then use a very small screwdriver or small pick to remove the little retaining pin. There may be years of crud holding that little retaining pin in place, in addition to spring pressure. It should come straight up out of the slot that it lives in.
Good luck
 
Thank You Brno8x57!!! In the case of this particular Ross I can see that the "curl" of metal from the left receiver rail is what is preventing the bolt head from turning, but removing that "curl" of metal is going to be a whole lot easier though the bolt stop opening. As a side note - the bore is so far gone that it really isn't worth the effort but I won't let it beat me!
 
If you have another Ross handy to examine, it would be helpful. That "nasty curl of metal" may in fact be the ejector. Similar to a Mauser 98, there is a thin blade of metal, spring loaded, that rides into a narrow slot in the bolt as the bolt is pulled rearward. When it contacts the cartridge head, it kicks it out of the action. Just push on it and see if it depresses into the left side of the action and releases again. If this nasty curl is preventing rearward movement of the bolt, just depress it fully so that it does not catch anything as the bolt is moved rearward.

In your case, I believe that the bolt head cant turn because it was inserted into the receiver incorrectly. If you depress the ejector and free up any other snags underneath as described in my first reply, the bolt may come out with a good stiff push.
The bolt lugs need to be horizontal as the bolt is fed into the receiver. If they were inserted in a vertical position, there is no way to get them to turn in the receiver. The bolt heads often snap back into a vertical position when removed from the action. One has to pull the bolt head forward and twist to the right to fully extend the bolt before inserting it into the receiver. even then the head can snap out of position when you try to insert the bolt. It is a bit finicky, but not really difficult.

I have seen the damage done from removing a stuck bolt. Usual sign is the rear lip of the box magazine is mangled and bent forward. Sometimes some marring of the bolt lugs. In one case it was a broken rear receiver bridge and in another it was some gouging of wood out of the stock to access the 2 little screws that mount the receiver bridge to the receiver. They are hidden below the wood on the right hand side of the receiver . Bubba figured that it would be necessary to remove the rear receiver bridge to help free the bolt.
 
Be very careful about how you replace these bolts. If done wrong the myth about facial damage is very true when fired. The bolt head will not rotate to lock properly when moved forward. Some one was not knowledgable when they put that bolt in the rifle. The problem starts there. when you get the bolt removed from the rifle go to utube and watch some tutorial videos before reinserting. There is lots ofgreat videos on this and you will feel and be a lot safer when this is fired. They are a great old rifle when treated with proper respect
 
Brno8x57 said:
If you have another Ross handy to examine, it would be helpful. That "nasty curl of metal" may in fact be the ejector. Similar to a Mauser 98, there is a thin blade of metal, spring loaded, that rides into a narrow slot in the bolt as the bolt is pulled rearward. When it contacts the cartridge head, it kicks it out of the action. Just push on it and see if it depresses into the left side of the action and releases again. If this nasty curl is preventing rearward movement of the bolt, just depress it fully so that it does not catch anything as the bolt is moved rearward.

In your case, I believe that the bolt head cant turn because it was inserted into the receiver incorrectly. If you depress the ejector and free up any other snags underneath as described in my first reply, the bolt may come out with a good stiff push.
The bolt lugs need to be horizontal as the bolt is fed into the receiver. If they were inserted in a vertical position, there is no way to get them to turn in the receiver. The bolt heads often snap back into a vertical position when removed from the action. One has to pull the bolt head forward and twist to the right to fully extend the bolt before inserting it into the receiver. even then the head can snap out of position when you try to insert the bolt. It is a bit finicky, but not really difficult.

I have seen the damage done from removing a stuck bolt. Usual sign is the rear lip of the box magazine is mangled and bent forward. Sometimes some marring of the bolt lugs. In one case it was a broken rear receiver bridge and in another it was some gouging of wood out of the stock to access the 2 little screws that mount the receiver bridge to the receiver. They are hidden below the wood on the right hand side of the receiver . Bubba figured that it would be necessary to remove the rear receiver bridge to help free the bolt.
Click to expand...

I had my sportered M 10 handy for reference. The ejector is undamaged, thankfully. The "curl" of metal is part of the left receiver rail immediately back of the ejector pivot point. So far I have been able to get about 90% of it removed with a variety of needle files but that last 10 % is eluding me because of the very confined work space. IF I can get the bolt stop out access will be greatly improved ! I strongly suspect that the bolt was improperly assembled so that will be the next challenge when I get it out, ( with frequent reference to the Ross bolt assembly sticky).
My thanks for your assistance! Kayceel
 
It's a relatively simple mechanism...I am not a Smith, but the Ross's idiosyncrasies are not that formidable. After someone has gotten 'Heavy Handed' is when it becomes formidable IMO.
My personal Ross arrived in the 'No-go' position. My son; who was in high school at the time remedied it with a screwdriver, ( I was away working 'Patch when the gun arrived ) as the Bolt seemed to be not installed correctly ( a PM to Smellie and his ' Rule of Thumb' was helpful to diagnose it over the phone...credit where credit is due )...but, a high school kid fixed it...with a screwdriver...
As to the details of his removal of the bolt, I'm not sure. And I am most definitely not going to try to replicate it by hammering on the bolt like a Roughneck on a set of tongs.
So...put on a pot of coffee...and carefully ponder it...then fix it.
If this offends anyone, beg pardon...really. But it's not that difficult of a task I'm thinking.
Let us know how it worked out in the end please.
 
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Thanks to Brno8x57 providing a copy of the Mk111 manual, the bolt stop is now out the way without boogering up any little bits. Some more work with the needle files ( and maybe a Dremel) tomorrow and the bolt will finally be out - then comes bolt disassembly and cleaning - looks like close to a century of crud in there!
 
Finally got the bolt out this a.m. Going to put the whole bolt in the ultra sonic cleaner for a few hours before I try to disassemble and check the interior threads.
 
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