Suhl actions

K

katokoch

Guest
I recently picked up a Suhl 150-1 recently and did a little informal shooting with it (let's just say it involved empty feed sacks and the hood of a truck) and it does show alot of promise.

One thing that bothers me, however, is simply how rough the bolt lift is. It is very stiff and gritty and I'm just wanting to know if much can be done to improve this.

I'll get it on a bench this week hopefully more than once this week (thankfully indoors) and wanted to quick ask this question. At least the trigger is pretty nice.
 
Clean it

After extensive cleaning, use a tephlon based lube on the cocking ramp and HD grease on the locking lugs. I use Tetra Gun Grease and it works great,
 
So how did your bolt lift turn out ? The polishing of the bore of the NTSS and the polishing of the shank of the firing pin are the most difficult but return the most gains IMO. Smoother bolt lift and better ign since the firing pin will now not be slowed down by the rough surfaces.
 
The Suhl I had looked like it had been ridden hard and put away wet, like it had NEVER been cleaned. Mine had an extraction problem that was cured by removing the extractors and cleaning the crud from their recesses in the bolt. I'm sure that cleaning with some good spray degreaser (brake cleaner or carb cleaner will work) will improve things some and smoothing any rough surfaces should take care of the rest.

Sort of wish I hadn't sold it, but there's no rimfire BR around here. :(
 
Larry Elliott said:
The Suhl I had looked like it had been ridden hard and put away wet, like it had NEVER been cleaned. Mine had an extraction problem that was cured by removing the extractors and cleaning the crud from their recesses in the bolt. I'm sure that cleaning with some good spray degreaser (brake cleaner or carb cleaner will work) will improve things some and smoothing any rough surfaces should take care of the rest.

Sort of wish I hadn't sold it, but there's no rimfire BR around here. :(
Click to expand...

Mine had a beat up stock that had been broken and repaired at the wrist. There was some improper storage corrosion under the stock line on the rec and the trigger housing. The bolt and bbl'ed action appeared unfired :confused:
 
I don't think that the East Germans took very good care of these rifles, and/or whoever packed them for sale wasn't the most careful. If your rifle had been fired you'd likely be able to see a load of gunk in the bore, and on the bolt face and extractors.

If your rifle was never issued and shot a bunch it may well have a rough cocking cam and/or internal bits. Disassemble the bolt and look for anything that's rough and smooth it with a stone or Dremel if you feel comfortable doing that sort of work. I'm sure that the workers in the DDR had the same attitude that was reported of workers in the USSR, "we pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."
 
Dont know about the Suhl but the Anschutz which is supposed to be almost identical, I had the same concernsa and Neal Stepp told me one day that most people grease the lugs but forget you really need to also remember to grease the surface that pulls the firing pin back which is directly related to hard bolt lift....I bet you will find the same on your suhl. Made a night and day difference on my Anschuts 54.

Charlie
 
People can obviously make the Suhl's into fine shooters. Records have been set with them I believe. There's always going to be a way to fix a gun like that.
 
I've checked out the suggestions on RFC (I'm a member there too) but was simply looking for some more opinions here.

I haven't disassembled the firing pin assembly to clean it all apart but all I've basically done is lightly polish the cocking surface on the firing pin with 600 grit paper and then packed it all with Flitz, removed the trigger, and ran the bolt in the action for awhile to polish up all of the bearing surfaces.

The Flitz worked extremely well. Made a huge difference in the bolt lift. I've got a touch of lithium grease on the bolt lug and cocking surface. I have yet to clean it all with brake cleaner but it'll happen. I also think I'll replace the original firing pin spring with a stronger one per Calfee's suggestions, but I'll only do that if I have problems with ignition or the rifle isn't shooting too well. One thing I'll do for sure, however, is lap the crown. The muzzle is ugly. I feel quite reluctant to really modify anything with the rifle, since parts seem to be impossible to replace.

DSCN9946.jpg


My Suhl is in pretty good shape... the only marks look like they were from handling and light use. The bore was extremely bright and everything was pretty clean, except for a light layer of what I can assume to be grease from storage. I will be pillar bedding the factory stock before I make a custom one for the rifle because the barreled action tends to get crooked as I tighten the screws down.

DSCN9961.jpg


I'll finally get some quality range time with the rifle today, so we'll see how it does. I've got a Leupold 36X mounted and a bunch of ammunition to test, so it'll be fun. I think I lucked out and got a rifle that hadn't been used much. The barrel twist is approx. 1:17 3/4", so we'll see what happens.
 
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