mauser cock on open?

B

Butch 1963

Inactive
Can someone please tell me just how to install a cock on open kit in my mauser 96. This is a dayton with a new trigger also.I cannot compress the spring far enough to
install the new sear.---PLEASE HELP---Butch
 
trigger

Sir:
Don't even think about doing it! The No.4 Enfield, and it's ilk all cocked on closing and they were feared by the Germans! It's fast when properly done.
Harry B.

PS. The Enfield was the best BATTLE RIFLE fielded in WWII!
 
Those kits are something fairly new, and didn't exist when I was working as a gunsmith. I would like to see how they work, as the 96 has almost no cocking cam, just enough for firing pin retraction. Can anyone enlighten me how they work without major changes in the cocking piece, firing pin and bolt body?

Jim
 
about 15 years ago I bought a cock on opening conversion for a Winchester 1917 from Numrich gun parts corporation. it consisted of the entire insides of the bolt and you used your original bolt body. I don't know if they are the same but it was a fairly simple process. I remember doing it, but the details have been replaced now with more current projects. My brain is like a sponge that gets squeezed frequently.
 
If I recall correctly, the Mauser "cock on opening" kits require some very careful gunsmithing.

The M1917 kits were more or less "drop-in".
 
Well, that is the thing. The Model 1917 cocks almost half way on opening the bolt, leaving the firing pin resting in a "half cock" notch of sorts. The conversion kits simply used a heavier spring and altered cocking piece so that the firing pin dropping from that position would have enough momentum to fire the primer (they sometimes didn't, but that is another story).

But the M1896 and other earlier Mausers don't have that cocking cam setup, so I was wondering how they could be converted to cock on opening. I just am not curious enough to spend money to buy the kit just to see how it works, and thought someone might know.

Jim
 
Jim, you actually have to cut a cocking cam in the bolt body.

The Model 98 has the rear section around the cocking cam made larger in diameter so that the cam has a larger helical surface to do the work of camming back the cocking piece. A modified Model 96 does not have the benefit of this wider section. The cam that you carve into the bolt body is going to have less surface to cam back the cocking piece with.

I would not make the cock-on-opening conversion myself. That is just opinion on my part -- Dayton Traister has sold a lot of conversion "kits" in the past, and apparently they still do sell them. It does not make the conversion any wiser, however. For what it is worth, Jerry Kuhnhausen recommends against a cock-on-opening conversion in his Shop Manual.

Clemson
 
Thanks, Clemson. I have the book, but didn't recall that. I had figured that with a change to the firing pin, and cutting a cocking cam in the bolt, it could be done, but I had sort of assumed the kits were "drop in" and cutting a new cocking cam is not exactly "drop in."

Of course, my thought on that conversion is the same as the "Enfield" conversion - why bother? There is no special benefit either way (though SMLE fans always claim cock on closing is morally superior or something) and it boils down to what one is used to.

Jim
 
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