Cooper 22BR

[flyrod]

Originally Posted by JSH

Opening and closing the bolt, just ridiculously hard. No difference if it is cocked or not and no difference if a round is in the chamber.

Thanks for coming back and updating your thread. It sounds like the threads between the shroud and bolt body need to be lubed, or they might be damaged. If you take the firing pin assembly out of the bolt, does the problem go away?

[JSH]

I pulled the bolt apart, everything looked fine. All contact points nice and smooth, no burrs or galding.

Cleaned up, inside and out, greased everything and back together. Maybe a very slight difference.

[dungheap]

If I didn't want to drop a bunch of $$ into it in gunsmithing, I'd get hold of some valve lapping compound (several grits) from an automotive machine shop, and then go back to working the bolt, cleaning and refreshing the compound frequently, moving from coarse to fine compounds. For my part, a tight fitting bolt is good, so long as it doesn't go overboard, as yours seems to be. Good luck!

[SmokinJoe]

As y'all may have read, I have a M38 with a very rough bolt, problem seems to be some sort of mismatch between bolt head machining and bolt bore. I have done what dungheap suggested starting with 120 grit, then 240, then 500. After two sessions of this it works fairly well, but could benefit from one more session I think. Before you do anything else, paint the bolt with a marker pen or Dykem and work it a bit, then see where the tight spots are so you will know where it needs attention. And there is always the option of returning it to Cooper for repair. I did not do this because I was afraid they might want to replace the bolt and I have already had it bushed by Greg Tannel along with a custom chromoly firing pin. BTW, I got my abrasives from Brownell's. Hope this helps.

[20VarTarg]

I own in the neighborhood of 7 or 8 Cooper Rifles. They all shoot so good its stupid. I do have one or two that the bolts are very rough on. I've never owned a high end action on a custom build but my Model 52 chambered in 338 Win Mag has the smoothest action out of any rifle I've personally shot. My cousin owns a Kelbly and that 52 action is smoother then it. Good luck with smoothing it out!

[Bayou City Boy]

Maybe I'm just having an old man moment, but it runs through my mind that some Coopers in the past....maybe 15 years or so ago? ......had very steep cocking notches in the bolt that made them hard to cock. Could this be the issue?

If anyone remembers something similar, please chime in with what you have in the way of additional information. Or at least let me know that maybe I'm hallucinating about all of this......... Gently please.........

-BCB

[JSH]

I suspect the cocking notch as well. If you run the action briskly when closing, it is fairly smooth. But a rig with a McMillan BR stock on it should set on the bags/rest and be run with way less movement. The darn thing shoots to well to complain a lot, I just feel it isn’t right.
This being preowned, no telling what prior owners did to it. The Jewel trigger was set so light it would trip off when closed, that is now fixed and a pleasure to use.

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by JSH

I suspect the cocking notch as well. If you run the action briskly when closing, it is fairly smooth. But a rig with a McMillan BR stock on it should set on the bags/rest and be run with way less movement. The darn thing shoots to well to complain a lot, I just feel it isn’t right.
This being preowned, no telling what prior owners did to it. The Jewel trigger was set so light it would trip off when closed, that is now fixed and a pleasure to use.

From my memory, if it is the cocking notch, it came from the factory that way and likely it has nothing to do with any previous owners other than maybe he/they peddled it for the same reason you are asking about.

Cooper rifles are semi-custom mass produced rifles, so it follows that they are not always on a par with a full custom action. I own more than just a couple of Cooper rifles and I have sold a few others, and this has never been a problem with any of them. But on the flip side, none of them by any stretch of the imagination are the equivalent of an old Nesika action or something similar in terms of super smooth operation. Coopers are what they are, but they are not magic.

-BCB

[Teddy Bear Rat]

Originally Posted by JSH

No difference if it is cocked or not...
Jeff

Am I missing something? If it is that stiff whether cocked or not, could the cocking notch be the problem? Granted, there could be slight firing pin retraction even when cocked, but for there to be no difference seems odd.

Dittos on the blackening of the bolt to look for contact areas. Sometimes there are burrs or minor distortion in the receiver bore from D&Ting, or just from manufacturing. Protruding scope base screws also cause this, but I'm guessing you've already checked those obvious possibilities. If nothing in the receiver bore, I would look at the cocking piece/bolt area. Again, sounds like you've already done that though

This is one reason I dislike three-lug actions; they just don't usually have the leverage for a smooth, precise cocking stroke, especially in the more petite actions with small diameter bolt bodies. I have noticed quite a difference in the cocking stroke, rifle to rifle, on the now-discontinued M38s, with the more recent iterations feeling generally smoother, so, yours being an earlier rifle, it probably left Cooper that way.

Good luck.

TBR

[georgeld]

IF it's that old.

Avoid sending it to Cooper.

This new bunch has NO obligation to work on it.

I sent foxhunters in and it was right at two years
before getting it back and then had to have the
chamber recut as they didn't set it right.

This rifle came out as a CCM, then shortened and rechambered
for .17/VR. Hell of is, I'd fired ten rounds and sent the brass
so they could use it. No such doings.

IF you can't get it to working slick, have a gunsmith check it out.