bolt head with a flat face is fitted into the front of the bolt body and held in place by a small lug on the bolt head engaging in a matching slot inside the bolt body. This bolt head does not rotate with the bolt body. Fitted in a groove in the right side of the bolt head, and between it and the bolt body, is the simple one-piece spring steel extractor, while the sliding ejector is fitted on the left side in a dovetail. The arrangement of the bolt head, extractor and ejector is almost identical to the system used in the German M-88 Commission and early Mannlicher/Schoenauer actions. And as on these rifles, the breech of the barrel is recessed and slotted on both sides to accept the front end of the bolt head, extractor and ejector. There are no gas vent holes in the bolt body or head, but there are two small angled vent holes in the top of the receiver ring in junction with the breech of the barrel.
The bolt handle (Note: the original bolt handle on this action has been replaced with a modern-styled one) is an integral part of the bolt and its root serves as the safety locking lug which fits into a deep notch machined in the right receiver bridge wall. A flange encircles the rear end of the bolt and serves to seal off the locking lug raceways. Just ahead of this flange the bolt is machined to provide a preliminary cocking cam for the firing mechanism.
While the front end of the bolt with its separate bolt head arrangement is a familiar one, not so the arrangement of the parts on the rear of the bolt. To say the least, it is a very odd arrangement of parts that make up the safety, cocking piece and other parts to cock the striker. I was puzzled by it and I had the bolt on my desk for ten days and still could not discover how to disassemble it to find out just how it worked. It was not until I read about this action in Bradford Aniger’s book did I get the striker mechanism disassembled. I wondered just what the designer of it had in mind because it was surely one masterpiece of incompetency.
The bolt is drilled and bored out from the front to within about 1.5” from the rear end, leaving a collar at that point through which the rear end of the striker projects. The one-piece striker also has a collar near its tip and the coil mainspring is compressed between these two collars.
Thus far it is simple enough, but wait, it gets complicated. The rear end of the bolt is also machined out for the collar and a safety/half-cocking cam opening made into it while still leaving a collar.
What follows is reassembly of a completely stripped bolt, in proper order. Taking the striker with mainspring slipped over it, position it into the bolt. Next comes the part which I will call the striker sear, a small part which has a triangular sear projecting from it and which has a hole through its center partly threaded. This striker sear is then positioned inside the rear end of the bolt so that the rear end of the striker can pass through it.
Next comes the hook safety, a part that can also be called a cocking piece because the striker can be cocked with it, and it is slipped into the rear of the bolt, with the hook opposite the bolt handle. This part has twin projections on its forward end that engage in matching notches in the rear threaded end of the striker sear, the purpose to be explained later.
Next comes the striker head. It is a split two-piece part threaded at its front to slip into the safety and threaded into the striker sear. The rear end of the striker has two grooves turned into it, and the inside of the two-piece striker head has two matching collars so that the parted halves can fit over the rear of the striker and engage with it with the two halves held together by the safety and the threaded end. Now, to assemble it, the striker must be pushed back into the bolt to compress the mainspring fully. The two halves of the striker head are slipped onto the end of the protruding striker, and the striker is allowed to go forward again, drawing the striker head partly into the safety. To finish the job, the striker head is then turned clockwise until it is fully threaded into the striker sear, which will require about four turns. There is a small plunger in the knurled end in one of the striker head halves, and it must be depressed on the last two turns in order to slip past the safety. To disassemble this creation, remove the bolt head first, and with a metal rod which will slip into the bolt body held in a vise (Note: the cleaning rod in this carbine has a head specifically made to serve as this tool), and with the bolt in one hand and the striker tip on the end of the rod, press down on the bolt to push the striker in as far as it can go. The rear end of the striker will then project far enough out of the bolt and safety to allow the two halves of the striker head to be slipped in place; that is, if your fingers of the other hand are adept at handling two parts. When in place, relax the pressure on the bolt and the striker head will move into the safety and the threaded end will contact the striker sear. Now turn the striker head clockwise until tight. The striker head is fitted with a small spring-backed plunger, and it has to be depressed to slip under the safety on the last two turns. Conversely, this plunger has to be depressed on disassembly. The procedure for complete disassembly is to turn the striker head counterclockwise until the threads are out of engagement, and using a rod as mentioned before, push the striker into the bolt as far as it will go, remove the split striker head, and presto, everything comes apart.
How does the bolt and striker arrangement function and how is it operated? To replace the bolt in the receiver, the safety (the safety-lever is the larger hook) must be to the left— opposite the bolt handle. Cocking occurs on closing the bolt, and on turning the bolt handle down the action is locked and cocked. Pulling the trigger will release the striker and fire the rifle. If the rifle is not to be fired and put on safe instead, then pull back on the safety hook, swing the hook upright and ease it forward or release it to fall forward. Either way the rifle won’t fire because the twin projections on the end of the safety no longer align with the notches of the striker sear, thus halting the striker well before the striker tip (firing pin tip) protrudes from the bolt face. With the safety in this position the hook obscures the sight line and locks the bolt closed. To fire the rifle, the striker must be cocked again and to do this it has to be pulled back via the safety and the safety swung to the left.
I imagine this is the reason why this rifle is called the Hook Safety rifle. Anyway, before the safety hook can be swung to the left, it is being held back far enough so that when it is swung all the way the action is cocked and ready to fire. Closing the action, putting it on safe and cocking it again cannot be quickly or conveniently done. One reason the safety is not conveniently operated is due to the puny finger hook.
Disassembly in the field of the firing mechanism surely posed a greater threat of losing parts at both ends of the bolt.
This bolt has not a single commendable feature, or at least I have not found it.
The trigger mechanism is a simple, but rather crude one comprised of the trigger, sear, sear spring and two pins on which these two main parts pivot and are held in place. On the front end of the sear, and extending upward through a hole in the receiver, there is a pin. There is a matching groove cut into the bolt body so that unless the bolt is fully closed the trigger cannot be pulled to fire the rifle. This same arrangement is used on the later Arisaka rifles as well as in the P-14 and M-17 Enfield actions.
The trigger guard and magazine plate is a one-piece machined steel unit with a hole at each end to accept the two guard screws which thread into the receiver to hold the action in the stock. The magazine floorplate is detachable and held in place by a spring-loaded catch positioned in the front of the guard bow. Fitted between the trigger guard and receiver is a sheet metal magazine box. The magazine follower is also a sheet metal stamping and it is provided tension by a zigzag wire spring fitted to both the floorplate and the follower. This is the first high-powered action I have ever seen using spring wire for a follower spring.
All in all, this action is well made but poorly designed. In particular, both ends of the bolt. For example, take the bolt head. Field-stripping this bolt while on anything other than a bare floor or bare ground, the bolt head assembly could easily be lost, and if not the entire unit, the extractor and/or the ejector could be more easily lost. I have come across quite a few German M88 Commission rifles with the bolt head missing or the extractor gone, probably due to having been lost. This surely is a deplorable arrangement for a military rifle.
