Not sure believe it is one on 2 issues.
Not sure Old & New bolt will interchange your rifle may/may not have the "Locking Bolt" as may the other NOT sure they will interchange
Head space/ Barrel set back could be tooooo tite not allowing the bolt to close/cock

Good Luck

Jim

 

Since the bolt is 2 piece changing the head space by shortening one part or the other in very small increments until you get the correct headspace.

 

I had a 580 that I had the same problem with. Seems like I had to decock or cock the bolt before it would go all the way. The two pieces of the bolt had to be correctly positioned to install it. I hope I am remembering the right gun. Do an online search and you may find it.

 

If the firing pin is not on the top then I would think the extractor is not lined up with the notch in the barrel.

Rich

 

Just to clarify those pics are with the bolt gutted. It’s the same when fully assembled Here is what it looks like all in one piece. Thanks Jim I guess that’s my big question , could there be two bolts Designs and did they change the head spacing some way. I’m not much on headspace. Everything ive ever owned was fine and dandy even some of the government stuff that was not first rate. About all I know is that this barrel is pinned in place when it comes to that department. I’ve got no problem punching those pins nd backing that barrel off a turn if that will do the trick but isn’t to pretty well know it’s what needs doing before I go reinventing the wheel…………..
The sick part is that my bolt is still here someplace tucked 🫣away but after 20 years 🤢.

A
Firing pin and alignment is right the thing is just too long by a few thousandth or so. No way to change the bolt length and the lugs seem to align well. I just inverted the barrel and put plenty of ATF / ACETONE mix in the vcrack and pin recesses. I’m going to give it a few days to soak down and work it’s magic before trying to unscrew that barrel a turn And see where that takes me. Any grand ideas further let me know as head spacing is new to me.

 

I don’t think your barrel screws into the receiver. The one I rebarreled had a press-in barrel.

 

Take a look see if maybe someone stuck a washer between the two bolt halves.

Rich

 

I finally looked at mine closely and in better light. I’d say it’s pinned on. So how do you adjust the headspace with one of these

 

First off, you can't punch the pins "and back off a turn" because there is no threading on the barrel or in the receiver.

I've got 3 or 4 581/541 rifles with replacement (Hart, Shilen) or original set-back-and-rechambered barrels. Headspace was adjusted in a couple by how deep the chamber reamer went. Barrels were positioned before drilling the pin reliefs referenced from the closed bolt with consideration of cartridge rim thickness (chamber depth).

The front part of the bolt in your rifle can be described as "too long" as it jams into the barrel on closing. One of my rebarrelings had the same problem. The back of the front section of that bolt gave up a couple of thousands length and the firing pin was adjusted to match and the rifle now shoots like gangbusters with Eley. (It won't close on Lapuas and doesn't need to)

The 303 SMLEs happen to use 2 part bolts for probably the same reason Remington made these bolts 2 parters. The Brits had piles of nose-pieces of different lengths they could choose from when building new or rebuilding used SMLEs. The design isn't perfect, but it works.

 

I just got this. Nope I had the bolt fully apart and no washer or shims nothing but the 2 halves

 

Heres a photo of my rifles bolt in position. The firing pin is at a 90 degree position. As others have said your bolts components may not be aligned properly Edit… looking at your photo it seems your firing pin is in the same position as mine.

 

Driz, the bolts with the locking heads will interchange with the non lockers. I can generally figure these things out if the gun is in my hands. I will give it my best shot here. I think you have something in the lug recess preventing the bolt from turning in. It appears to be going forward it just won't turn in. I am not a 581 guy but I do know a little about 541's, same idea. Anyhow, I do remember for a short time that the 581 had a swept bolt handle and perhaps yours did originally and the bolt handle you have there is straight and that could be the difference. I say lug recess is your problem. I am 99.9% sure changing the position of that barrel is headed in the wrong direction.

 

Driz, the bolts with the locking heads will interchange with the non lockers. I can generally figure these things out if the gun is in my hands. I will give it my best shot here. I think you have something in the lug recess preventing the bolt from turning in. It appears to be going forward it just won't turn in. I am not a 581 guy but I do know a little about 541's, same idea. Anyhow, I do remember for a short time that the 581 had a swept bolt handle and perhaps yours did originally and the bolt handle you have there is straight and that could be the difference. I say lug recess is your problem. I am 99.9% sure changing the position of that barrel is headed in the wrong direction.

I just tried a swept bolt in my 581 and I believe you are spot on. How would you remedy this?

 

oh yeah, it's a good idea NOT to shorten the front of the front part of the bolt. The extractors have a hard enough time as it is.

 

driz, you did say the bolt was contacting the barrel, right?

otherwise there would be no value in moving the barrel, right?

 

I have not done this - but read on this forum about removing pins and barrel from receiver. You can then headspace by cleaning up barrel tenon and receiver and then use loctite on the barrel and receiver to lock it in.

Or you can mail your whole rifle to Brian Voelker in Iowa and have him fit it along with his other services to accurize it.

 

Take the front of the bolt off and see if the back will turn in!

 

This is where you start. If the back goes in and turns down all the way then you need to put the bolt together and try it again. This time do not put the pin back in the rear of the bolt body that holds the front half in. If it still does not go down easily that tells you that the problem is in the over all length of the bolt.
If the bolt does close all the way when there is no retaining pin in the bolt then you have to have the groove for the retaining pin in the front half moved forward .005 or so then check again until it works with the pin in place. If not,
Then you need to have .001 to .002 turned off on the back face of the front half of the bolt on a lathe. Try it again until it closes easily. This is how you headspace a two piece bolt on a pinned barrel. ON THAT GUN.
The barrel is not to be touched., It is pinned and not adjustable
Do not do anything that will change the reciever or barrel because as soon as you get this done you will find the original bolt. Murphys law!

 

I checked out the other suggestions you guys made and everything lines up with the forward bolt half firing pin ect. Here’s where it got weird. I removed the front half of the bolt and tried to reinsert it……..and it doesn’t go in as far as it did with the front piece on😵‍💫. This looks is crazy day right ? Here’s the pix. View attachment 313943 View attachment 313944

 

I checked out the other suggestions you guys made and everything lines up with the forward bolt half firing pin ect. Here’s where it got weird. I removed the front half of the bolt and tried to reinsert it……..and it doesn’t go in as far as it did with the front piece on😵‍💫. This looks is crazy day right ? Here’s the pix. View attachment 313943 View attachment 313944

OK, something is blocking the movement, right. Look inside the receiver. Where the rear part of the bolt moves.

A stiff bristled brush (like the right size shotgun brush) might help clear whatever it in the way.

It sounds like whatever is stopping the closure is moving around if the bolt doesn't go in as far as before.

 

Interesting. Let me think on it

 

Jiggle the bolt turning the bolt both ways a tad while pushing the safety forward and the trigger pulled to the rear all at the same time.try that.I use to have trouble getting those bolts in as everything has to be lined up perfect then it would go right in perfect.If I remember correctly if it’s even a tad off it will never go in fully.

 

Just a suggestion from an Old Machinist point of view. Check for Burrs on: Locking Lugs, fit between the 2 Halves of the Bolt and on the Bolt Face. Other thoughts, your trying to get an Unknown Bolt to fit. As a complete Assembly there are just too many variables.
Pull the Trigger, Ejector, Firing Pin and Extractors. One part fits, add another and so forth. Good Luck!

 

I have a spare bolt for my 541 that I took out of a spare parts box when our gun shop closed years ago. Same deal as the OP's. Bolt won't close. I've always assumed the headspace is too tight and if I ever need it I'll machine a little off the back of the front half and fit it to my rifle. Adjust the length of the firing pin and all should be fine

 

Yea I’m dumb. lost the bolt 15+ years back and finally got around to buying a new one. Gun was new bought by me in 1974-75 when in college and broke. I got an eBay bolt that looks identical in all respects to the Remington schematic . The bolt fits well. Trouble is it won’t close fully. I will attempt a couple pics to show how far it goes.
In the pic the exreactors are offas is their retainer band. I’ve had it apart and everything was fine and dandy . Did they change along the way somewhere on the design possibly? You’ll notice the bolt isn’t fully down but there’s no daylight showing . The firing pin you can see is bout 30 degrees from top Where it ought to be. I’m wondering what to do next with this rig as everything looks perfect EXCEPT🥺 View attachment 313705
View attachment 313704

Not sure but if front and rear sections move independently which i am sure mine do the firing pin should be at the top when inserted. Never worked on your type of rifle.

 

Well I put it all back again and it seems to be hanging up farther back than it did in the first place. Maybe that’s a good thing not sure . I wish I could see how those lugs engage. As for lugs I do see one that seems to be a bit “ Shiny” in one spot. I will try to post a pic of it. It’s not as shiny comparatively now that it’s oiled but you can see where it’s slightly flattened. That’s more than a burr. I’ll dry and paint it with a sharpie there and retry to make sure it’s not coincidental🤷🏻
When I get a chance I will pull off the trigger group to make sure something isn’t interfering there. Beyond that who knows………. i did see from parts sales on a site they made some sort of changes along the way 1967-81 so I could have the wrong bolt.

 

..i did see from parts sales on a site they made some sort of changes along the way 1967-81 so I could have the wrong bolt.

Looking through John & Roy's book (Remington .22 Rimfire Rifles) at all the models that use this style bolt, as far as I can tell the changes were...

The earliest bolt faces were flat. In 1967 they started rounding the outer edge of the bolt face. The width of the striker on the firing pin was reduced at the same time. In 1969 they went back to the original bolt face design. In 1971 they went to the firing pin (wider chisel point) and mainspring used in the 590's to help resolve misfire issues. Personally, I thought the only real changes to the firing pins was they added a return spring at one point. I could be remembering wrong though. They also added a detent between the two halves of the bolt at some point. I didn't see that noted in the Remington book but I could've missed it somewhere. There's a lot of info to cover

 

Nice picture 😃
Looks like there's a "Chunk" missing on the Lug. Might want to check the Lug Area on the Receiver, small Inspection Mirror works good. Down the Rabbit Hole as they say.
I'm learning as you go, Thanks.

 

Ok.

 

I would carefully file that dented lug flat on the face towards the front. And more free advice: do not put allot of force on a 581 bolt handle trying to close or open the bolt. Many have broken off the handle where it is brazed to body. Same goes for the 591 5mm and 788 center fires.

 

Above all, take your time. DO NOT file anything or remove metal until you are 100% certain you have found the problem.

Use a Sharpie or magic marker to find out where things are definitely (not just a teenie bit) too tight, as you have started to do. Do not assume that the very first tightness you find is the problem. Keep looking.

Be sure that a buildup of rust or hardened grease and powder fouling is not reducing clearances so that it only looks like tight metal is scraping off Sharpie ink.

As somebody said, look for burrs, and remove them if you find them, but go no further with metal removal. Then find out what caused the burr, normal use or a tolerance problem elsewhere.

When you do think yo have found a metal tightness problem, remove a very small amount and check it again, oiled, to see if more needs to be removed. And don't try to work on more than one area at a time. How else can you determine which fix is doing any good? And if your metal removal made no difference at all, the problem was likely elsewhere.

I've done some dumb things, by being in a hurry and removing too much metal from the wrong place. Then it takes a long time to do precision welding and machining to get back to square one. Or you may have to buy an expensive new part, if even available. Or just junk something.

If it fit before and doesn't fit now, don't file metal to make it fit again. Metal does not grow thicker in the gun cabinet.