Thread: Ruger 10/22 wont cycle

I'd lighten the bolt. Chuck it in the mill and find a spot that's not consequential to mill out. You'd have to remove a lot for it to be dangerous.
The hammer spring and the recoil spring both do work to slow the bolt down, but you need both of them to have full power to chamber the next round and fire it.

Originally Posted by Skirch

I'd lighten the bolt. Chuck it in the mill and find a spot that's not consequential to mill out. You'd have to remove a lot for it to be dangerous.
The hammer spring and the recoil spring both do work to slow the bolt down, but you need both of them to have full power to chamber the next round and fire it.

I believe the 10/22 bolts are case hardened. Which means a) you don't want to remove metal from a bearing surface and b) if you "chuck it in a mill" without consideration of that you're going to break tooling. It's generally recommended to grind them.

You can also check your "headspace" in the bolt and make sure that's up to scratch for the rim-thickness of your ammo.

And grind-down the angle of your extractor claw also make sure the pocket for the claw is deep enough, and clean. You can chamfer the edges of it too.

The advice about a nylon bolt buffer is good.

You can also get away with clipping coils. This will require pulling the charging handle and peening the crimp out, cutting coils, and re-crimping.
How much to cut? Depends on age of spring and use. Trial and error, less is more. Real easy to take length off a spring, impossible to put it back on.