Rich Lucibella just sent me the bolt of his Scout for modifications that will hopefully allow it to fire ALL ammo, and be at least a little smoother on cocking once the spring is set up to the required tension.
Lots of polishing of internals, and a redo of the bolt handle itself to give greater length and leverage with a truncated cone type knob instead of the poorly finished, grotesque butter knife handle it sports now.
The problems stem from Steyr's pathetic fit and finish of the primarily cast parts of the bolt components, as well as the too short bolt handle. It is now clear that Steyr spent NO extra money on fit and finish of these critical components. Quite cheesy, really.
Shame on them.
The cast parts are mostly left in the "as cast" condition, and a lot of these areas are bearing surfaces. The porous, rough finish is a terrible bearing surface, and will require a lot of careful polishing to render them smooth enough to be considered adequate. The porous finish of the stainless steel parts is also a great way to encourage galling and corrosion. Not what you want in your ultimate "utility rifle" for reliability's sake anyway...
All of the little pits on the parts are already full of red oxides, and this ain't good.
I have recommended hard chroming the parts after they are polished to render the surfaces hard and abrasion resistant, while increasing their corrosion resistance.
If you doubt me, take apart your Scout bolt, and look at the components with a loupe. You will see what I mean.
It would appear that the en masse solution is for the bolt components to be electro polished and hardchromed, and the bolt handles to be modified or replaced with a longer knob as I am doing for Rich.
Don't bet on Steyr picking up the ball on this, they won't even admit that there is a problem with their little Vundergunn.
Perhaps I will start a Scout refurbishing side business...
Lots of polishing of internals, and a redo of the bolt handle itself to give greater length and leverage with a truncated cone type knob instead of the poorly finished, grotesque butter knife handle it sports now.
The problems stem from Steyr's pathetic fit and finish of the primarily cast parts of the bolt components, as well as the too short bolt handle. It is now clear that Steyr spent NO extra money on fit and finish of these critical components. Quite cheesy, really.
Shame on them.
The cast parts are mostly left in the "as cast" condition, and a lot of these areas are bearing surfaces. The porous, rough finish is a terrible bearing surface, and will require a lot of careful polishing to render them smooth enough to be considered adequate. The porous finish of the stainless steel parts is also a great way to encourage galling and corrosion. Not what you want in your ultimate "utility rifle" for reliability's sake anyway...
All of the little pits on the parts are already full of red oxides, and this ain't good.
I have recommended hard chroming the parts after they are polished to render the surfaces hard and abrasion resistant, while increasing their corrosion resistance.
If you doubt me, take apart your Scout bolt, and look at the components with a loupe. You will see what I mean.
It would appear that the en masse solution is for the bolt components to be electro polished and hardchromed, and the bolt handles to be modified or replaced with a longer knob as I am doing for Rich.
Don't bet on Steyr picking up the ball on this, they won't even admit that there is a problem with their little Vundergunn.
Perhaps I will start a Scout refurbishing side business...