model 70 300 WSM safety stuck

68w · Sep 29, 2012

Anyone had this problem? The 3 way safety is stuck in the fire position. Took the bolt out and disassembled it. Looks like the selector is hitting the very back of the firing pin.

It seems like that spring is pulling the pin just a little to far forward putting the notch in the wrong place.

Straight Shooter · Oct 1, 2012

Did you change or adjust the trigger recently?

farfrompar28 · Oct 1, 2012

There was no trigger work done.

orygun · Oct 1, 2012

This may sound stupid, but are you trying to apply the safety without cocking the gun?

68w · Oct 1, 2012

no the gun is cocked, It seems like its not cocking it far enough back. if it came back a little farther seems like it would fit into the notch and clear the half moon looking piece that it is hitting. Still fires great tho, didn't have any problems putting rounds down range.

M67 · Oct 1, 2012

68w said:
no the gun is cocked, It seems like its not cocking it far enough back. if it came back a little farther seems like it would fit into the notch and clear the half moon looking piece that it is hitting. Still fires great tho, didn't have any problems putting rounds down range.

This made me think of the clip from Black Hawk Down.

Here you go-
Clip - Black Hawk Down - This is my safety - YouTube

68w · Oct 2, 2012

alright so playing around with it a little more this is what I have found. As you can see in my little hand drawn sketch below. haha. So if I take the bolt out and manually cock it I can rotate it into the safe position. While it is in safe the very back of the cocking piece/firing pin sticks out of the back of the bolt 1/4".

If I put the bolt back in the rifle and rotate to fire, the firing pin lunges forward ( not enough to strike the primer) about a 1/8". Leaving about an 1/8" of the pin exposed out the back as you can see in the top drawing. If I try and cock it again it stays like that and the saftey is stuck in fire. Its almost as if something was shaved down so that the pin can not be cocked and held back as far as it needs to.

Any other ideas what may be causing this? Or what I need to order to correct this?

68w · Oct 2, 2012

Problem with a Jewell Trigger on a Winchester Model 70

Looks like I'll be heading to the gunsmith. Weird part is the guy I got it from says it's never done this.

Retired4229 · Oct 10, 2014

68w said:
Problem with a Jewell Trigger on a Winchester Model 70

Looks like I'll be heading to the gunsmith. Weird part is the guy I got it from says it's never done this.

I experienced this problem yesterday on a M70 300WSM that my son has used for 10 + years.
The safety was stuck in the fire position. I took it to a gunsmith & he was able to get it unstuck but even after cleaning it & working it back & forth it still requires substantial pressure to put it in the safe position. It goes from safe to fire easy but does not go the other way easy. Did Your gunsmith resolve this problem, & if so what was the finding/cure?

68w · Oct 24, 2014

I believe I traded it to a member on this forum. He said he had done some research and thought that a good polish job could clear it up.

He text me later that night and let me know that after a couple hours with a dremel and some polishing he was able to get the safety to move freely. I am not positive but I think that he said he had to remove a little bit of material before polishing.

I'll see if I can locate who it was maybe he can explain with a little more detail