Safety Lever on a Model 70 Difficult to turn|Restoration, Repair and Maintenance|Forum|Winchester Collector

Yes, it’s a simple fix, take it to a good gunsmith. Don’t force it.

Calvin-

Yes, I’m sure there are many people here who know how to fix a stuck safety on a pre-64 M70.  Explaining it, in words, to someone not already familiar with the component parts and how they work together is the problem.  I’m sure that there are automotive transmission problems that are an “easy fix”, but I seriously doubt that you’d be able to talk me through it!!! 

If you want to work on a M70 and haven’t taken one apart before, I strongly suggest that you get an illustrated step-by-step manual, like the A.A. Arnold booklet mentioned above.  I find it makes more sense to me than even a YouTube video, since it has step-by-step drawings illustrating not only the disassembly but also the reassembly!!!  Videos always seem to move by too quickly and I’m constantly having to re-wind…

Once you know how to take the bolt/bolt sleeve apart, there are two principal areas where the safety can get hung up.  Since these safeties were hand-fit at the factory, usually these “hang-ups” occur when a safety or firing pin/striker have been replaced or mating surfaces have worn/developed burrs.

First (easiest) trouble spot to check is whether the safety moves freely in the bolt sleeve when it doesn’t have to engage the firing pin/striker.  If it sticks, then the issue between the detents in the vertical rotating shaft of the safety and the spring loaded plunger in the bolt sleeve.  To check this you have to remove the bolt sleeve/firing pin/spring assembly from the bolt (no tools), then remove the firing pin spring/retainer (there’s a simple fixture that helps with this), then remove the firing pin (screwdriver).  Now you have the bolt sleeve/safety assembly free of all impediments.  The safety should work freely back and forth (with discrete stops at the “off”, “middle” and “on” safe positions).  If it doesn’t go, then the safety plunger in the bolt sleeve is catching on the groove/detents in the safety shaft.  This can happen sometimes from abuse (trying too hard to force a stuck safety on/off).  If there’s a problem here you need to remove the safety (1/16″ drift pin) and remove any burrs that are causing the problem.  I strongly recommend a copy of Arnold’s drawings if you need to disassemble the bolt sleeve, as there are spring loaded parts that can go flying…

The other (more common IMHO) trouble spot is where the rotating vertical shaft of the safety has to engage the firing pin/striker.  The safety has a semi-circular notch, in which the firing pin can move back and forth in the “off safe” position.  Moving the safety to either of the “on safe” positions rotates the shaft of the safety such that the semi-circular cut out rotates away and the cylindrical side of the shaft moves into a like-sized semi-circular cut out on the firing pin.  As it does so the safety “lifts” the firing pin off the trigger sear.  If my words make any sense, you can see that for this to happen there are two “sharp edges” that have to slide over one another at the engagement surface to allow the safety to rotate.  Wear (or replacing the safety) not uncommonly leads to the safety becoming blocked from this rotation (won’t go “on safe”).  Careful stoning of one of these corners (involving very little removal of metal), will usually allow the safety to “cam” over the firing pin and lift it (against the pressure of the firing pin spring).  Big issue with this is that it’s kind of trial-and-error…  You have to clean up the right corners, re-assemble the bolt, put it back in the gun and test it, and if it’s not “fixed”, then it apart again and polish a little more.  Having the little “fixture” mentioned above, that’s used to reinstall the firing pin spring/spring retainer, is almost a necessity if you’re doing this step repeatedly…

Removing too much metal or from the wrong place can potentially compromise safety function, which is why the usual recommendation is to have it looked at by a gunsmith familiar with the workings of the M70 bolt.  It’s not rocket science, that’s for sure, but “experience is the best teacher”… 😉  

There are other possible trouble spots, but the two above are the most common in my (limited) experience…  Moreover, I am NOT a professional gunsmith and YMMV…

Lou

Without casting aspersions on anyone’s mechanical skills, it is good to remember that gunsmithing not only requires (1) mechanical skill and knowledge sufficient to diagnose a problem and what to do to fix it, but (2) a certain delicacy of touch and an accurate – even artistic –  ability to use – and not overuse – the correct tools to make the remedy. This latter can be gained only through experience and considerable practice and is often the underappreciated thing that trips up many DIY gun tinkerers. In short, knowledge alone is not enough.

To take an extreme example, woodworking is a hobby of mine and I once made a pretty determined study of the task of recutting checkering patterns. I laid in a copy of Monty Kennedy’s The Checkering and Carving of Gunstocks, and ordered a set of tools from Brownell’s.  After some practice, I went at it on the cast-off walnut stock of a Ruger 77, one a pilgrim had “refinished” by applying a heavy coat of polyurethane without bothering to tape off the checkering patterns. 

Brothers and Sisters, I knew what to do!  But I could not to save my soul keep from making overruns nor keep the lines straight, even with double and triple cutters. And this on already existing, if worn, patterns. The result looked like it was done by an Armadillo. 

The Ruger stock went into the dumper and I learned a very cheap lesson of lasting value: Don’t do anything to a gun that you can’t undo without harm, until you’ve perfected your skill on something you won’t regret ruining. Not your Super Grade Featherweight .358WCF. 

Respectfully submitted, 

I’ve never ordered a custom rifle in its entirety, the closest to it having been the restoration of circa 1927 Winchester 1892 that included replacing the wood. No checkering done on that one but I did have it recut on a pre-64 Model 70 Featherweight. I refinished the stock but knew better by then not to touch the checkering and sent that work out.

Fortunately for me, the other Winchesters I’ve ever acquired that needed serious help were all uncheckered field grade models,  an ’07, the 1892, and a grooved 61. 

That last, the 61, is worth a story by itself and I’m sore tempted to challenge our Original Finish commandos to pick it out of a stack of originals. A late standard rifle with grooved receiver but happily still a checkered steel buttplate, in very high condition but for one tiny problem — some fool’s driving license number scratched large in the left receiver wall. The entire receiver had to be reblued. You can’t tell it, right down to the shade of the red enamel on the safety button.  It looks like a 97-98 percent gun. Never fear, will stay in the family. 

As you say, checkering really is a separate art and I think there has been a tendency in recent years for even stockmakers with national reputations to send checkering work out to specialists who do nothing else, as with engraving.  

With the current rage for “precision rifles” that look to me like insecticide sprayers, I hope our checkerers and engravers can survive.  

If my memory serves me correctly (that would be awesome!) during certain periods the engravers also did the checkering and (going way out on a limb here) made their own checkering tools. I wish that somehow these artisans could know the high value we place on their work. I know there are some talented engravers and stock makers out there today but they are hard to find and we’ll pay dearly for their years of practice. The engravers whose work we enjoy today worked their way up to production engravers through an apprenticeship program few folks would have the patience for today. I spent 20 minutes putting a lens back into my glasses today. If I buy a checkering tool it will be an antique and will join my Winchester loading tools in an eye candy display. 

Mike

tim tomlinson said
 I do know one who does repairs, but doesn’t want his name out there as he has all the work he can handle and then some. 

That’s why I wouldn’t divulge the name of a scope repairman I know, except to a good friend who’d promise to keep quiet about it; I don’t want the next job I might send him to take a year’s time!  EVERYONE capable of doing quality work is snowed-under!