Tikka rifle bolt woes

by AaronB, Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 16:03 (20 hours, 46 minutes ago)

Hi all.

I acquired an unfired Tikka M695 rifle in .270 when my father passed. He had obtained the rifle as a raffle prize from one of the clubs he belonged to, but whether it was South Mountain Rod & Gun club, the BRS Sportsman's Club, or the local American Legion post he couldn't remember.

Anyhow, he had this rifle for some years in his gun cabinet and never fired it. After it came to me it continued to be stored indoors in a gun cabinet, right up until I asked my son to see if he could put it on paper for me last week.

He brought a full box of ammo back to me, explaining that the rifle wouldn't bust a primer... wouldn't even touch a primer. That's when I remember my dad (in the last months of his life) telling me that for whatever reason this rifle had been displayed at the club with the firing pin out of it, the firing pin was still out of it, and said pin was in his dresser drawer. Therefore as of yesterday I was assuming that this firing pin was gone forever in the mess that has been my father's estate.

So. After I got over the ensuing panic, I took the rifle back into my shop and that's where I discovered that the firing pin was, in fact, still in the rifle. I could cycle the bolt, drop the trigger with a click and see the cocking indicator on the back of the bolt move, indicating that the spring had sprung and the pin had fallen more or less as it should.

I put a live primer in an empty .270 cartridge, chambered it, and dropped the trigger.

[click]

I opened up the bolt... the primer had not the least little indentation. No mark at all.

That led me to believe that my dad had probably thought the firing pin was missing because of just this behavior. Be that as it may, I watched a couple YouTube videos quick and learned how to disassemble that bolt. Turns out the M695s and the T3s are no different from each other.

As soon as I got the firing pin assembly out of it, I saw the culprit... rust. Rough rust in patches over the shank of the firing pin, and more on the inside of the bolt body. Evidently some combination of rust and debris was in the front end of the bolt body and preventing the firing pin from dropping all the way home.

I'm able to get the firing pin cleaned up. I'm able to clean up the bulk of the bolt body too. But what do I do about the rust in the little funnel-shaped hole in the back of the bolt face, where it's nigh-impossible to get to?

Any ideas you might have would be most welcome.

-AaronB