[Ike27]

Has anyone attempted to straighten a bent bolt? I have a 43 matching rifle whose handle was bent AFTER it was stamped. The serial numbers are stretched on the top of the handle while there are "folds" of metal in the underside.

I suppose this was done post it military life.

Has anyone attempted to reheat and bend the handle back?

Thanks

 

[Betonfahrer]

YES-A friend of mine had a Mauser that had the same problem-the stretched numbers and pucker marks on the underside.My friend-Randy-was good with metal and just about anything mechanical-We carefully heated it up dull red and slowly bent it back on a vise with wooden jaws.Then after it cooled in the air he polished the bolt back to orginal brightness.I later tried this my self with a Mosin Nagant bolt and didnt have as good a results.Randy said"Metal has memory,if we are carefull we can bend it back" and he did!but I by my self was not able to recreate the results.

 

[PrayingMantis]

I helped someone better with metal working than myself straighten the bolt on my Erfurt 1899 and was very pleased with the results. It looks like its been messed with and bends slightly forward but is still a great improvement. However the numbers and proofs were unaffected by the bend so that wasn't a factor.

Nevertheless its always worth a try. We just used put a piece of pipe on the bolt knob and gradually knocked it up into place. It turned out slightly rough where it had been glowing red, so I had to smooth it out a little.


I documented the whole process.
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?t=32533
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?t=76690

 

[NavyGunner]

I had the reverse problem with a matching Kar98k bolt that had been straightened. I sent to to board sponsor Jim R The Boltman and he did an excellent job restoring it to the proper configuration.

 

[Homer2]

+1 on the Boltman. He is fixing my Finn M38 bolt now.