Omark 44 bolt problem

[heymayk]

Hi, maybe someone familiar with the Omark 44 can help me with a problem I have with the bolt.
I don't know how it happened but when I remove the bolt it stays cocked and when I replace
it becomes uncocked. I'm sure there must be some way to rectify the problem and would really
appreciate some help.

[tachyon]

I will preface this with saying I've never owned an Omark, however...

The way pretty much every bolt action rifle cocks is that the cocking piece (which sticks out the bottom of the back of the bolt and engages the trigger sear) runs in a groove and rides up a cam as you open the bolt. This means when you remove the bolt it is cocked. So what you report - "I remove the bolt and it stays cocked" is normal and expected.

When you put the bolt in, what is supposed to happen is that the cocking piece engages the trigger sear, so when you close the bolt (and disengage the cam the cocking piece was being held back by) the cocking piece is held back by the sear and rifle is now ready to fire.

If this is not happening then your trigger sear is not engaging the cocking piece ie the problem is (almost certainly) your trigger, not your bolt.

It's possible your trigger is broken or the cocking piece/sear are worn/out of tolerance.

Most (not all) triggers have a set screw that allows you to set how much sear engagement there is. For example, with a Barnard trigger the instructions are to cock the rifle, adjust the sear engagement set screw until the firing pin falls, then back that off 1/4-1/2 a turn - this sets a safe quantity of sear engagement. NB: The more engagement the sear has the "safer" but also the more creep the trigger will have.

At the moment it appears you have 0 sear engagement with the cocking piece.

I would make a strong recommendation to take this rifle to a competent gunsmith.

You should be aware that a rifle with borderline sear engagement is the reason we do bolt checks. The worst case is the firing pin falling just as you start to close the bolt with an out of battery discharge. Think about where your face is relative to the back of the bolt.

[heymayk]

Thanks for the quick reply, it seems my problem is more complicated than I thought.
I'll take your advice and take my rifle to a gunsmith and let an expert sort it out.
Thanks again for your wise advice.
Cheers