Hello all. I am new to this forum and just obtained a vintage 87A from my father in law; Excellent condition and took it out to the range for test fire.
First round of testing .22LR revealed function very well in single round loading into the chamber, then releasing the charger/bolt. excellent performance and the rounds ejected flawlessly. Second test was loading the magazine. I could not get a round to lift into place. Ended up needing to manually remove the rounds I tried to chamber.
Took it back home and found this forum, and its wealth of information. Also found a copy of the "very basic Manual" for this rifle. It talked about "greasing/lubricating" the rounds you wished to use the magazine feed (never use "dry rounds". Went to the gun shop and no one has really heard of needing to do this. They actually got a good chuckle out of the manual instructions. One shop did entertain the idea, and suggested a synthetic grease.
Out to the range again. for the fun, I did grease a few .22LR rounds and tried it. They got stuck as well and would not lift. I single chambered them and functioned well. For kicks (more likely sadistic self degrading behavior), I went back to "dry" .22LR rounds. Low and behold when I charged the bolt, it lifted and cycle properly. However, after the casing ejected, the next round lifted flawlessly into position, but the bolt did not chamber the next round. The bolt held back in the semi retracted position. Releasing or Pulling the trigger did not release the bolt (as I had seen in some videos. I them manually pulled the bolt back and it flawlessly chambered the round. It functioned flawlessly in this manner through 50 rounds.
I found one video on Youtube that demonstrated this same action, and stated that the rifle was not malfunctioning, but was one of the earliest models that was designed that way.
Is this correct, or am I just not operating the rifle incorrectly. Any input would be appreciated.
