Model 70 safety's.

Anybody ever have trouble with them? An issue with my model 70 safety has been bugging me and I finally tackled it yesterday. Maybe it will help somebody in the future.

When flipped front to fire, if you didn't fire the rifle and wanted to put it back on safe, it took some effort. Over time it's gotten worse to the point it basically would be locked in the fire position unless you raised the bolt handle re-cocking the rifle which moved the firing pin back slightly from its previous position, allowing you to flip it on safe. Simple enough fix for me if I needed to do it, but if something happened to me, I wouldn't want somebody else dealing with it.

Bolt disassembly on a model 70 is simple, getting the firing pin out of the bolt shroud was another matter. Mine has a cap at the rear that is pinned with a small roll pin, and that pin was TIGHT. Enough so that when nothing was moving I studied it under a magnifying glass making sure I wasn't missing something. It just wouldn't budge with a punch and normal hammer hits.

When I finally got it out and studied everything, there was kind of a very small rough area or notch worn on the face and beginning edge of the indent in the firing pin, that the safety rolls into. 80 grit sandpaper until the rough spot was gone, then 320 grit equivalent scotch brite, then polished with 600 grit sandpaper. Cleaned everything up and put it back together and now it's fixed. Flip it front to fire, back on safe no problem.

Yeah my one push feed had this same problem and i had to do the exact same thing to fix the problem.
I'm thinking maybe there where some that missed the heat treating process and might be better off replacing the firing pin or find someone who can heat treat it so it doesn't keep occurring.

Yep, but only once and it was a on a brand new one, it would also let the safety "drag" on the pin causing light strikes. I contacted winchester and they sent me a UPS label to ship the rifle back to them. They fixed it in short order and had it back to me quickly by simply replacing the entire bolt assembly. All is good with it now!

Last fall my push feed would not open several times after closing the bolt on an empty chamber. I also had the cap and little pin and was able to punch it out with a drill bit, and replaced it will similar sized wire. I also totally stripped down the entire bolt cleaned and reassembled. I attempted to create the problem 100 times and was unable to, so I am assuming it is fixed.

Elkman":2ioapsin said:

Last fall my push feed would not open several times after closing the bolt on an empty chamber. I also had the cap and little pin and was able to punch it out with a drill bit, and replaced it will similar sized wire. I also totally stripped down the entire bolt cleaned and reassembled. I attempted to create the problem 100 times and was unable to, so I am assuming it is fixed.

Click to expand...

So there must of been something in the channel of the bolt shroud that the rear of the bolt body fits into, mimicking what the safety does when flipped all the way to the rear?Or else the little pin in the shroud that protrudes to block the bolt when the safety is all the way to the rear, was hung up and sticking out.

I've stripped this bolt down to collar and spring off, just the firing pin and bolt shroud to clean it before, as I do all my bolts, but separating the shroud to remove the firing pin was a different story. I ended up putting the same roll pin back in, but it went in as tough as it came out. Took some pretty hefty hits with the hammer to get it settled into the hole on the opposite side of the bolt shroud cap. Used a 1/16 punch to get it out.

When looked at closely the pin has a big end and small end, although very little difference, but there's only one direction it can come out, but man it is TIGHT.