Bolt stop problem with Model 54 Winchester

[Montana Pete]

Hi, guys--

Many years ago -- maybe around 1980 -- I had a target trigger installed in my Model 54 Winchester, a .270.

Shortly after I took the gun out shooting, I discovered that unless I was careful, the bolt would come completely out of the action when I tried to jack a shell. I have continued using the rifle, but some years ago a guide was going to assist me by working in a shell to my rifle before handing it to me . . . and the bolt came completely out, fell out of his gloved hand, and fell into the deep snow. We had a busy 5 minutes digging around in the snow trying to find the bolt.

Reading in the "Book of the Springfield" by Crossman, I see that one complaint he makes about the Model 54 -- a rifle which would have been rather new when his book came out -- is that the trigger mechanism has to do double-duty as a bolt stop. With the custom trigger now installed, that "bolt stop" feature is no longer there.

Is there another way of providing a bolt stop without messing with the trigger?

 

[Big Al]

Not unless you go to the pre-64 style bolt stop. It would mean modifing the action and bolt. Unless you go back to he orginal style tigger.

 

[chris k]

bolt stop

One can drill and thread the side of the reciever where the left locking lug should stop ,and a threaded screw installed as the stop.(VERY BASIC).The screw needs to be short enough not to interfer with the bolt body ,and can have a flat indexed to mate the locking lug of the bolt . Or a more complex way is to mill and adapt a bolt stop from another style of rifle.

Chris

 

[Riflemeister]

A more elegant bolt stop would be the Ruger 77. It requires drilling and tapping one hole and milling/filing a squared off hole. I've not done them on the Win 54, but on Rem 700's they look and work great with the BR type triggers without the bolt release actuator on the trigger.