Spontaneous Ross bolt disassembly

aric84

aric84

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This ever happen to anyone:p? I was trying to fix the trigger on my M10 because the second stage is MIA with the stock on but there when the stock is off. While dry firing to test the stages the firing pin assembly flew out the back of my bolt, lugs still engaged so it would have been scary if it was firing but still safe(I think). Damn near got me in the eye:eek:.

From what I can tell though, it looks like the little nut with the locking notches that screws into the bolt to hold the firing pin in the bolt was put in backwards.... I guess after time it turned itself loose and finally popped out. I put it back in the other way so that the locking notches engage now and had fun trying to get the whole bolt back together properly. After about 20 minutes of fiddling it's all together again and locks up properly, but lost my 2 stage again, haha.

This happen to anyone else before?
 
Glad it happend when dry firing and not when you were shooting!

Can't say it ever has, but it certainly could if I wasn't paying attention. Thanks for the reminder to double and triple check our guns when we're working on them!
 
aric84 said:
This ever happen to anyone:p? I was trying to fix the trigger on my M10 because the second stage is MIA with the stock on but there when the stock is off. While dry firing to test the stages the firing pin assembly flew out the back of my bolt, lugs still engaged so it would have been scary if it was firing but still safe(I think). Damn near got me in the eye:eek:.

From what I can tell though, it looks like the little nut with the locking notches that screws into the bolt to hold the firing pin in the bolt was put in backwards.... I guess after time it turned itself loose and finally popped out. I put it back in the other way so that the locking notches engage now and had fun trying to get the whole bolt back together properly. After about 20 minutes of fiddling it's all together again and locks up properly, but lost my 2 stage again, haha.

This happen to anyone else before?
Click to expand...

Aric- Make sure the bolt was reassembled correctly!
I hate to sound like Nervous Nellie but...make sure it's locking when you push it forward.
 
If you check carefully, you will find that there is a funny washer UNDER your "little nut". It has a LIP on one side and it is GROOVED on one side.

The "funny washer" is installed so that the lugs on the "little nut" engage in the groove in the "funny washer". The lip prevents things from turning, once it is engaged properly. The lip itself rides up and down in a groove on the INSIDE of the rotating bolt-head shaft. You can see it when it comes apart. Don't lose this washer: they are a ##### to make with a file. I know!

I had this happen once upon a time. It is disconcerting, to be sure.

IF things are coming unglued in this department, you ALWAYS have lots of warning, given that you know what to look for. What will happen is that your striker (firing pin) will drop slower and slower as the thing comes undone. That's your warning.

Once it is done up properly, it is HIGHLY unlikely that it will come undone 'all by itself'. Rather like the bolt-lugs problem with the Ross, it requires HUMAN INTERVENTION to screw it up.

I rather think that some of the wild tales of Rosses 'blowing back' might be traced to exactly this situation.

I don't have to lecture. It has happened to you once, you know how to spot it, you know how to cure it. It will never happen again.

Now it's YOUR JOB to explain this to the NEXT guy who gets it wrong!!!

LOL!

Have fun!
 
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Don't worry Cantom, I made sure it was reassembled right using a few different methods, including watching the lugs turn as the bolts is pushed forward.

As for the washer setup, I understood it as soon as I saw it(I'm a machinisht) and put it right pretty quickly, but getting the bolt to screw into the sleeve took a bit of fiddling. Figured it out with eventually by inserting half way, turning a bit and then it eventually dropped into place. Don't worry, no forcing to banging was used... I know better. I doubt that this will spring apart on me again.

One thing that caught my interest after seing how the bolt is setup is how it might not be too hard to simplify and make a more modern version, hmmmmmmm. It's not an overly complicated action compared to what I though it was.
 
Terrific! Thank Gawd there still are some people around that you don't have to go "1....... 2....... 3" with!

As a machinist, you might appreciate a book which showed up in my mail yesterday from Lindsay Technical Publications in the Excited States. It is ISBN 1-55918-344-6, it is 64 pages, perfect-bound, digest-sized and it sells for about the best 9 loons I ever sent South.

It is called RIFLES & KNIVES and the final 5-1/4 pages are on how those famous New York switchblades were manufactured. But that's nothing, because the first almost-59 pages are a TOUR of the ROSS RIFLE COMPANY factory in 1911. The entire thing is reprinted from the ancient files of MACHINERY MAGAZINE and appeared in parts starting in October, 1911 issue.

Original article was by Douglas T. Hamilton and was headed:
THE ROSS RIFLE AND ITS MANUFACTURE - 1
A Rifle Having A Straight-pull Bolt Action Which Will
Resist 100,000 Pounds Breech Pressure

Lotsa photographs, quite well reproduced, explanations, machine diagrams, rifling profiles, photos of machines at work making critical components..... just can't sum it all up. It's just like taking a tour of the working factory.

It belongs in the home library of EVERY Ross Rifle nut, collector, home machinist, even professional machinist. Lindsay also has another book from the same series, called Barrel Making..... and it shows how rifle barrels were made..... at ENFIELD, right at the beginning of the SMLE Mark III!

Glad you no longer have the problem.

Really hope you get the book. You WILL enjoy it!
 
Ich hat keine Wort zu sagen gegen der Mauser-gewehr, mein Herr.

But the ROSS is cool.

AND it's Canadian!

Designed by a guid Scot, built in Quebec City mostly by a bunch of French-Canadians: how much more Canadian can you GET?

And a good one can be just WIZARD accurate!
 
Thanks for the heads up on that book smellie. "100 000 lbs breech pressure", jeebus... I might have to order it since I love seeing some of the older task specific machines. Interesting to see how much trouble "simple" shapes and features could be before CNC machines became commonplace. Then again, engineers can come up with some pretty wild stuff now, and we spends the next couple days scratching our heads figuring out fixturing and tool paths, haha.
 
smellie said:
Ich hat keine Wort zu sagen gegen der Mauser-gewehr, mein Herr.

But the ROSS is cool.

AND it's Canadian!

Designed by a guid Scot, built in Quebec City mostly by a bunch of French-Canadians: how much more Canadian can you GET?

And a good one can be just WIZARD accurate!
Click to expand...

You're the second person who's told me to buy that book...I guess I'll get on it.
I was told there is a pic in it showing a rare .22 Cadet Sporter variant I happen to own.

ROSS1912CADETSPORTER.jpg
 
Your Cadet Sporter is on Page 3, left-hand-side view only.

SWEET!!!

Whole chapter on gauges, too. LOTSA specialised machine-tools.

Those old-timers weren't dumb, by any means.

It's worth the money.... and I'm cheap!
 
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