Research Press

Historical Firearms, Long Range Target Shooting & Military History

When you first remove the barrel from the stock, what appears to be step one is to unscrew the tang/”breech plug” from the bolster. If you do that one then sees a recessed “plug” flat on two sides. We first tried to remove that with no success. I then ordered a parts diagram from Eurorarms – which showed the tang/breech plug, the bolster and the barrel. It did not show the threaded center that actually holds the bolster onto the barrel and into which the tang is screwed. This is the piece that actually has the chamber cut into it on one end and is solid on the other. We'll call it the "chamber".

This information is John's experience in working on his rifle. Reader's undertaking such work should ensure they are fully conversant with the tools and techniques required, and the consequences of their own actions.

When you first remove the barrel from the stock, what appears to be step one is to unscrew the tang/”breech plug” from the bolster. If you do that one then sees a recessed “plug” flat on two sides. We first tried to remove that with no success. I then ordered a parts diagram from Eurorarms – which showed the tang/breech plug, the bolster and the barrel. It did not show the threaded center that actually holds the bolster onto the barrel and into which the tang is screwed. This is the piece that actually has the chamber cut into it on one end and is solid on the other. We'll call it the "chamber".

Volunteer breech plug

Breech plug disassembled

 

We received the assembly with the tang removed. In retrospect, it would have been best to mark the position of the tang relative to the bolster with a scratch line on the bottom. That is how we marked the alignment of the bolster with the barrel. It would be helpful in re-assembly.

We then put the bolster in a vice and used a barrel wrench to turn the barrel off. The bolster came off the chamber, but the chamber remained screwed into the barrel. It would seem the best first try would be to leave the tang plug in place so as to not disturb that alignment and screw the bolster off the chamber.

We then placed the flats of the chamber into a vice and tried turning it out of the barrel – with no success. After heating the chamber, it did come out of the barrel.

After cleaning we attempted reassembly. One needs to assure:

  1. The hole for the bolster screw is perfectly aligned with the hole into the chamber.
  2. The bolster aligns properly with the tang and barrel so the front sight is in proper vertical.

This isn't quite as easy as it would seem. Our first try failed because when we put tension on the threads to realign the bolster to the barrel, the chamber twisted and holes went out of alignment.

We disassembled the pieces again, put loctite on the chamber, screwed on the bolster and set it aside. This was a mistake as the threads aren't tight enough to keep everything in alignment and we couldn't get the barrel and bolster to properly align when reassembly was attempted.

We disassembled everything again, cleaned the parts and reapplied loctite to the chamber, screwed on the bolster to proper alignment and then carefully screwed the chamber into the barrel so as to assure longitudinal alignment without disturbing the "fire channel" alignment.

It took several tries with some de-burring of the barrel, bolster and tang to get everything to realign, but finally everything went together.

It is our observation that the manufacturers probably assemble all the parts and then drilled the hole through the bolster and chamber.

Again, in retrospect, if one had the machining capability, it would be ideal to machine a key-way or drill a hole through the bolster and chamber piece so when put together in proper alignment, they could be locked in place by a key or pin. This would prevent any rotation.