[kfields]

I had this same problem. The gun would fire, bolt would retract, but not fully close when it came forward. I went through two gunsmiths and they did nothing to fix the problem. The third gunsmith fixed the problem! He studied the issue and realized that the bolt face was rough - not smooth such that when the bolt stripped the next cartridge from the magazine, the base of the next cartridge would not fully slide up and seat itself against the bolt face and somehow prevented the bolt from closing completely.
He polished the bolt face and that seemed to have solved the problem for my model 65.
Kim

 

[kfields]

Tom, Glad to hear you fixed the problem! I was at that point in dumping my Model 65 when the gunsmith I used solved the problem for me. Now it is my favorite 1940's era .22 rifle!
Kim