Zastava LKM 70 - barrel pressure point?

Irons78

Irons78

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Hi All - just wanted to hear comments on the Zastava M70. I have the chance to trade for one new in the box in 6.5x55, will be my primary deer rifle.

This one is finished nicely, stock is nice (needs some sanding of rough finish in the inletting area), bolt is a little gritty but will smooth with some lapping compound.

Question about the barrel channel - does this rifle need an up pressure point in the foreend, or should I just free float the barrel? There seems to be barrel contact at the front of the stock.

Thanks!
 
Should be 4lbs minimum of pressure there, gives more consistency shot to shot with skinny barrels. I usually add a piece of cork drawer liner there to give a little more pressure, works well.
 
Irons78 said:
Thanks for the tip! Any use in getting the action bedded on these rifles? The recoil lug seems sort of small.
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Your rifle is likely a Mauser 98, or very close to it - bedding that recoil lug in a mauser is always a good idea - if that wood area for the recoil lug gets pounded back - recoil or oil soaked punky - then the rear end of the tang gets driven into the top of the wrist of the stock and causes a split. "Fixing" that split without restoring the bedding for the recoil lug, and moving that action back forward where it belongs, is kind of pointless.
 
I made mine free floating. All my rifles I free float and bed the action. You can always add pressure later.
 
Irons78 said:
Thanks for the tip! Any use in getting the action bedded on these rifles? The recoil lug seems sort of small.
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If you're going to be sanding the bedding area, as indicated by your OP, bedding would be a very good thing. As mentioned already, it's usually a good thing.

Just make sure to do it properly, so that your pressure point is still effective.

I just bedded a Zastava, chambered for the 270Win, for my bro-inlaw. This rifle was new from the factory, last spring. We eliminated the front pressure point and in this particular case, the rifle shoots better without it.

As for the recoil lug being small??? Nothing wrong with it IMHO.

The Zastava rifles don't get the recognition they deserve. They can be a bit rough, but that's because so much of the work is individually hand fitted and not assembled from CNC parts.

That means the finish on non visible parts may be crude in appearance and may even need a bit of polishing on the contact points, especially the sear.
 
Thanks Bear. I'll take a closer look at the inletting, see how much slop there is at the lug (if at all). From what I remember there are some splinters and rough edges under the metal that just needs some very light cleanup.

There is something about the rifle, wood and steel and old world classic feel to it. Can't wait to develop loads for it!

bearhunter said:
If you're going to be sanding the bedding area, as indicated by your OP, bedding would be a very good thing. As mentioned already, it's usually a good thing.

Just make sure to do it properly, so that your pressure point is still effective.

I just bedded a Zastava, chambered for the 270Win, for my bro-inlaw. This rifle was new from the factory, last spring. We eliminated the front pressure point and in this particular case, the rifle shoots better without it.

As for the recoil lug being small??? Nothing wrong with it IMHO.

The Zastava rifles don't get the recognition they deserve. They can be a bit rough, but that's because so much of the work is individually hand fitted and not assembled from CNC parts.

That means the finish on non visible parts may be crude in appearance and may even need a bit of polishing on the contact points, especially the sear.
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I still have 2 of them, 7x57 and 7x64, the x64 is one of the SS models...it's a keeper, much smoother action as well for some reason.
The 7x57 is the older Monte Carlo stock ones...nice wood, but I got a M70 Win FW in 7x57 now too, so I gotta talk myself into getting rid of the Zastava 7x57 one of these days...
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I also have a 300 win mag m70 and the bolt is pretty gritty. Can you explain where your apply lapping compound and smooth it out? Is it on the horizontal rails?
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Get some valve lapping compound or JB bore brite. Remove the firing pin/cocking piece/housing piece from the bolt body. Remove the bolt release tab or wedge it open to make this process easier. Drop the mag follower out. Coat the bolt body in the compound and run it through the action many many times. DO NOT run the bolt handle down and engage the locking lugs, you're only trying to smooth the raceways and action channel, not lapping the lugs. You might have to re-apply the compound a few times. You'll clean out the action several times and see how the bolt smoothness is progressing. If still gritty or sticky apply more compound and continue working the bolt back and forth. It helps to sit on the couch while working the bolt and watch Band of Brothers or The Pacific to pass the time. =) Make sure to completely clean the bolt and action and chamber at the end of the process to remove the lapping compound. You can then coat the bolt in 3-in-1 oil and work it in and out of the action another 100 times or so to really slick things up. Clean excess and the action should be smooth as butter.

vpsalin said:
I also have a 300 win mag m70 and the bolt is pretty gritty. Can you explain where your apply lapping compound and smooth it out? Is it on the horizontal rails?
Subbed!
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Maybe need to look at the issue? If the drag is occurring on bottom of bolt body within the rear receiver bridge, then lapping in the bolt race ways is not helping. A rough surface will usually slide easily across a glass smooth surface. Two rough surfaces won't like to slide over each other. Two very smooth surfaces sometimes do not slide easily without oil. Just going at it with grinding stuff "all over" is reducing dimensions, sometimes "wantonly" - as easy to get the "fit" way too sloppy, if not actually addressing the "dragging" location. There is also a bit of "technique" in operating a bolt - pull and push bolt body straight back and forward, not pushing down or up on rear end, while bolt being moved.
 
vpsalin said:
This better procedure then just attacking the raceway directly with compound (no bolt involved)?
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There are, or at least were, tools made to do exactly that, from Wheeler Engineering. I am pretty sure they were made to accept strips of emory cloth that were tightly wrapped around "wings" that would ride up and down within the bolt raceways. No doubt no longer made because people just went at their rifle without really understanding what was the issue they were trying to fix - hard to imagine how removing more material makes it fit better???
 
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Potash - good points there. I’ve always found Mauser bolts to have some play in the action (on milsurps and commercial actions). Personally i probably won’t bother doing any work on the roughness of my future rifle, better to have finesse operating the bolt properly. I had a Ruger Scout rifle once and if I put any pressure whatsoever up down left or right while cycling, it was a bear. Straight back, straight forward and it worked like a dream.


Potashminer said:
There are, or at least were, tools made to do exactly that, from Wheeler Engineering. I am pretty sure they were made to accept strips of emory cloth that were tightly wrapped around "wings" that would ride up and down within the bolt raceways. No doubt no longer made because people just went at their rifle without really understanding what was the issue they were trying to fix - hard to imagine how removing more material makes it fit better???
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What about 'mothers polish' this is all I have on hand. I assume it's less abrasive then the compounds your refering to. I'm curious to put some on the bottom of the bolt like you described and a tad on the raceway. See what a few hundred bolt cycles yields. Bad idea?
 
I don't think there is a magic "fix" for all situations. For all I know you are experiencing drag from the follower on the bolt body - I have no way to know - no point at all working away where the problem is not at or fixing what is not "broken" - maybe the drag is on the edge of the extractor? On the extractor collar? You can google "mauser raceway lapping" - there are products to spray on, let set and then wipe off excess that actually is filling in rough machining marks in raceway to make that area smoother - no lapping involved or required. Your issue needs to be identified - where is problem and what is best solution. Sometimes just healthy coat of graphite powder makes the issue go away? As mentioned above - have you completely stripped your bolt and tried just the bare bolt body in the receiver - might not be on exterior of bolt at all - might be the shroud, or rough shroud threads within bolt body, and so on...
 
if you cycle the action lots it will leave marks on the bolt to indicate rough spots. I just cycled my zastava until it smoothed up. maybe 4 hrs total, not all in one sitting
 
Ya I'm coming to the same conclusion. 1000+ cycles and some.blueing is being removed inside the receiver spots where there's most friction. Action feels smoother already no compound needed.
 
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