M24/47 8mm Mauser bolt not closing.

[lrgrendel]

Bought this rifle absolutely covered in cosmoline with the importer’s label still attached. Has not been fired on US soil!
Cleaned the rifle thoroughly today AND dismantled the bolt. This rifle is in very good condition. There are 2 numbers on the bolt. One matches the number on the action. It passes a field gauge test.

The gun functions normally with an empty chamber as does the 3 postion safety.
The bolt will not close with milsurp ammo or resized cases. I’ve tried screwing the die down further....no change.

Only looking for answers to my problem.....

Thanks.

 

[Son of Dorn]

Two questions:
1. What surplus ammo did you try? There seem to be myriad reports of certain Romanian surplus 8mm being out of spec and not chambering correctly with the same issue you're having of the bolt not closing.

2. Did this problem happen when feeding ammo from the magazine, or were you using single rounds inserted directly into the chamber? Bunch of google results come back with Mauser bolts not closing when fed directly into the chamber instead of from the magazine.

I'd suggest first getting either a set of 8mm snap caps off the web and/or some non-surplus 8mm and see if the bolt closes on either/both. If it does, it was probably the surplus/reshaped ammo. If it doesn't, then you'll have ruled out that possibility and it's something wrong with your bolt and/or chamber.

 

[lrgrendel]

Took the bolt apart again and put it back together. Nothing changed.

I did feed the loaded ammo and resized cases by hand and they seemed to seat without a problem.
They also slid out of the chamber when I put the butt on the floor.

This tells me a possible bolt problem?

Thanks

 

[lrgrendel]

Two questions:
1. What surplus ammo did you try? There seem to be myriad reports of certain Romanian surplus 8mm being out of spec and not chambering correctly with the same issue you're having of the bolt not closing.

2. Did this problem happen when feeding ammo from the magazine, or were you using single rounds inserted directly into the chamber? Bunch of google results come back with Mauser bolts not closing when fed directly into the chamber instead of from the magazine.

I'd suggest first getting either a set of 8mm snap caps off the web and/or some non-surplus 8mm and see if the bolt closes on either/both. If it does, it was probably the surplus/reshaped ammo. If it doesn't, then you'll have ruled out that possibility and it's something wrong with your bolt and/or chamber.

Thanks for the reply.
Feeding from the magazine fixed the problem. Can’t hand feed!

Good to go....

 

[Son of Dorn]

Thanks for the reply.
Feeding from the magazine fixed the problem. Can’t hand feed!

Good to go....

Yep, that'll do it!