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Herter's U9 BSA Rifle Bolt Removal Problem

Gazz

Stainless
Joined
Sep 7, 2004
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NH
A friend owns a Herter's U9 rifle by BSA that will not allow the bolt to be withdrawn in the usual method. According to DeHaas's book on bolt action rifles, bolt removal for this rifle is to lift the bolt lever and withdraw the bolt about half way, then depress the trigger. This will drop the bolt stop which is part of the trigger assembly and the bolt may be removed. His gun will not do that and the action must be reomved from the stock and the bolt stop manually pulled out of the way with dental pick or something like that. Then bolt falls right out. So, does anybody have any experience with this trigger assembly? The internals of the trigger are encased in a tall U shaped piece of sheet metal so that none of the workings are exposed or visible. I am guessing that there must be some component of the assembly that drops the bolt stop when the trigger is pressed and it must be either a linkage piece of maybe a spring. Before I attempt to fix by tearing into it blindly, I was hoping that I could get some pointers from someone who has been there done that. Thanks for any help.
 
I found this answer to the same question in another post. Give it a try.

"To remove the bolt, apply constant forward pressure to the trigger WHILE LIFTING the bolt handle and slide the bolt out."
 
Thanks very much for that bit of info! It worked perfectly! So the info in the de Haas book is wrong it seems.
 
U9/BSA bolt release.

You guys are both right. Some BSAs work on the pull, some on the push. Neither trigger technique actually pulls the sear down. After you use the position of the bolt to push down the sear, the pressure from your push/pull on the trigger holds the depressed sear down via friction until you pull the bolt free. BSA's use of the sear as a bolt stop is the weak link in that action; seems to work OK, though. It would be a good idea to take it easy on that bolt stop when cycling the bolt. Very good action otherwise, IMO.
F
 
FYI, it is possible on the early BSAs at least, to adjust the trigger overtravel to the point where the bolt will not release until the trigger is readjusted
- regards - Langfur
 
A new twist for an old thread

You guys are both right. Some BSAs work on the pull, some on the push. Neither trigger technique actually pulls the sear down. After you use the position of the bolt to push down the sear, the pressure from your push/pull on the trigger holds the depressed sear down via friction until you pull the bolt free. BSA's use of the sear as a bolt stop is the weak link in that action; seems to work OK, though. It would be a good idea to take it easy on that bolt stop when cycling the bolt. Very good action otherwise, IMO.
F

I realize this post is ancient but it did help me figure out how to remove the bolt on my newly acquired Herters U9 in 300 Win Mag. I wanted to pass this information along so that any other U9 owners out there might benefit from my findings.

The rifle is actually a custom job built on the U9 action but the action itself does not seem to be modified. What I discovered, mostly by accident, is that my particular action ( it seems BSA utilized several styles of actions over a short period of time )has a side sliding safety that is actually a 3 position safety. All the way forward - fire; all the way back - safe & bolt handle lock; mid-position - safe with bolt lift. The middle position is hardly recognizable. One has to move the safety very slowly from front to back and one will feel a slight click. I discovered it while I was idly pondering how to get the bolt out as none of the other suggestions seemed to work.

My bolt comes out in the following fashion: 1. With the safety all the way forward, open the bolt and move it back about half way. 2. Move the safety lever to the middle position and apply pressure to the back of the trigger moving it forward (FWIW, my trigger barely moves at all) 3. Continue to slide the bolt to the rear while maintaining forward pressure on the trigger. The bolt should slide right out. Mine took a little wiggle the first time but came out with ease on subsequent removals.

Also, on my rifle, there is a scalloped notch on the bottom of the bolt that the bolt stop hits. It is actually separate from the sear. Well, sort of....it IS the same piece of metal. The forward part is the bolt stop and the rear is the sear. So rocked one way, you can remove the bolt. Rocked the other way and it allows the rifle to fire. Interesting design.

I hope reviving this post from the ashes in some small way helps someone out there.
 
You guys are both right. Some BSAs work on the pull, some on the push. Neither trigger technique actually pulls the sear down. After you use the position of the bolt to push down the sear, the pressure from your push/pull on the trigger holds the depressed sear down via friction until you pull the bolt free. BSA's use of the sear as a bolt stop is the weak link in that action; seems to work OK, though. It would be a good idea to take it easy on that bolt stop when cycling the bolt. Very good action otherwise, IMO.
F

+1 to what Fussy1 said.

On the older BSA action (Royal, Imperial and Viscount ... iirc?), with the full length, Mauser type Extractor, you need to Pull the trigger to the rear, then lift and remove the bolt.
On the later Majestic's/U9, CF2 etc (iirc?), you need to Push the trigger forward, then lift and remove the bolt.

Hope that helps.

Avagreatweekendeh!
Homer
 
Sometimes , with older rifles the wood has compressed enough not to allow enough "movement" on the trigger to get tbe clearance you need to nave the bolt pass.
 








 
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