Bolt Action Rifles. Wayne Zwoll

safety and firing mechanism of any centerfire bolt action known to me. Not counting the trigger, sear parts, receiver or bolt, the firing and safety mechanism consists of only three parts. This design has its virtues and drawbacks, as we shall see, but it is a very reliable and effective arrangement for a military rifle.

      The bolt body is drilled from the rear to accept the one-piece hollow striker (call it the firing pin if you like) with its integral firing-pin tip in front and its cocking cam (sear) on the rear. The coil mainspring fits into the hollow part of the striker. The third part of the mechanism is the safety, although it has several other functions.

      The safety is a large one-piece affair comprised of a cap to which is permanently attached a stem projecting forward from its hollow center. This stem extends into the hollow striker to compress the mainspring.

      7.7mm Japanese Arisaka Type 99 (1939) long rifle. This version of the Type 99 is relatively scarce.

      The safety is held on the rear of the bolt by a lug inside of the cap engaging over a ridge on the outside rear of the bolt body. The safety can be quickly and easily removed from the bolt by pressing it forward and rotating it clockwise about one-quarter turn. The safety is linked to the striker by a small stud on the safety stem engaging in a matching groove milled inside the striker. The safety is linked with the receiver when it is engaged by a small stud on the outside of the safety cap engaging in an L-shaped groove in the bottom rear of the receiver. In all, there is a complicated hook-up between safety, striker and bolt, and also with the receiver when the safety is engaged, certainly the result of someone’s ingenuity. The lug on the outside of the safety cap, engaged in the groove in the receiver, prevents the safety from rotating when the bolt handle is raised or lowered. The rear surface of the cap-like safety is knurled in a circular pattern to prevent it twisting under thumb or palm pressure when it is engaged by pressing it forward and rotating it one-eighth turn clockwise, or disengaged by again pressing it forward and rotating it in the opposite direction. The safety can only be engaged when the striker is cocked, and when engaged it locks both the striker and the bolt. The outside edge of the safety cap is usually serrated and made with a small hump so located that it is up when the safety is engaged.

      Type 2 (1942) Japanese Arisaka takedown paratrooper rifle.

      Japanese Type 38 6.5mm Training rifle, this specimen with receiver and some of its action parts made of cast iron.

      The trigger system follows the Mauser M93-96 design (later copied in the Pattern 14 and 1917 Enfield actions). It consists of a sear pivoted on a pin through a small lug on the bottom of the receiver. The sear projection on the rear of the sear protrudes through a hole in the receiver and engages the cocking cam on the striker when the bolt is closed. The striker is thus cocked on the forward or closing motion of the bolt. A pin riveted on the front of the sear projects upward through another hole in the receiver, which prevents the trigger being pulled to release the striker, except when the bolt handle is straight up, the bolt then entirely unlocked, or when the bolt handle is fully lowered and fully locked. In these positions two narrow grooves in the bolt body align with the pin. The sear spring is compressed over this pin between the sear and receiver. The trigger, which pivots in the sear on a rivet, has two humps where it contacts the bottom of the receiver and these humps provide the usual two-stage military trigger pull.

      The striker can be lowered on closing the bolt as follows: push the bolt forward until the striker contacts the sear; pull the trigger to allow bolt and striker to be moved forward until the base of the bolt handle contacts the receiver; release the trigger; lower the bolt handle by striking it smartly with the palm of the hand. This should only be done on an empty chamber.

      The bolt-stop and ejector assembly is built into a long narrow integral housing which projects from the left of the receiver bridge. The bolt-stop, of Mauser design, is held in this housing and pivots on a screw through the underside of the rear end of the housing. It is tensioned by a flat spring locked to the front end of the bolt-stop. The ejector, positioned in a slot in the center of the housing, pivots on a separate screw, also turned in through the underside of the housing. There is no ejector spring. The ejector is activated by action of the auxiliary bolt-stop lug on the bolt which, on opening the bolt, pivots the front end of the ejector to the right, in the groove provided for it in the bolt head.

      An opening is milled into the bottom of the receiver for the magazine opening. Integral lips or cartridge-guide ribs at the top of the opening hold the cartridges in the magazine and guide them into the chamber. The magazine, a thin piece of sheet metal folded to form a box, is reinforced at each end with a heavier piece of metal welded in place.

      The milled steel trigger guard is combined with a magazine plate which has an opening to surround the bottom of the separate magazine box. A milled steel floorplate covers this opening. A lip on the front of the floorplate, engaging a groove in the trigger plate and a latch arrangement built into the front part of the trigger guard bow, holds the floorplate in place. Depressing the latch in the guard bow releases the floorplate.

      The ends of the W-shaped magazine follower-spring fit into mortises cut into the bottom of the steel follower and floorplate. The top surface of the follower has a rounded ridge on its left side which forces the cartridges to assume a staggered position when they are inserted into the magazine. The rear edge of the follower is square and, when the magazine is empty, the follower rises high enough to halt the forward motion of the bolt, indicating to the shooter that the magazine is empty.

      The action is held in the stock by the two guard screws through the ends of the trigger guard and threading into the receiver. The front guard screw passes through an integral stud on the floorplate and threads into a similar stud on the bottom of the receiver. The receiver has no recoil shoulder. The recoil is transferred to the stock by a recoil block which fits over the studs and between the receiver and the floorplate. This recoil block has one flat side (inletted into the stock so the flat side is to the rear) which has enough area to absorb the recoil and prevent set-back of the action in the stock.

      The Type 38 Japanese action was designed to eliminate one of the major weak points found in most modern military bolt-action rifles—the wrist or grip of the stock. In the Type 38 action strengthening the grip area was done with tangs connected to the receiver and trigger guard. The upper tang, made as a separate part, was milled and joined to the receiver to act as a solid extension to the receiver when the action is in the stock. The separate lower tang was also mated to the rear of the trigger guard. The rear guard screw passes first through lower tang, then through the trigger guard and threads into a square stud in the receiver. The ends of the tangs are connected by a long screw through the top tang and stock which threads into the lower tang. The tangs extend well past the smallest part of the grip, greatly strengthening the weakest area of the stock.

      Arisaka Type 38 (1905) 6.5mm action, minus breech cover.

      All bolt-action rifles are more or less open to the elements. Dust, mud, sand, water and sleet can get into the action through the top receiver openings and can cause problems.

      Japanese designers, evidently familiar with this shortcoming, decided that the action should be covered as much as practicable. The result was a very simple arrangement. Two longitudinal narrow grooves were cut into the receiver, one high on the left receiver wall, the other on the low right receiver wall. A curved strip of spring-tempered sheet metal, its edges folded in, was made to fit over the receiver and slide in the grooves. The bolt handle projected through a hole in the rear of this cover allowing the bolt handle to be raised and lowered. The bolt pulls the cover backward and forward with it as the action is opened and closed. This cover did effectively close the main receiver opening, but it still left a big opening around the base of the bolt handle where dirt could get in. The action was more difficult