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Santa Barbara Action...
Michibay
Member Posts: 816 ✭✭
I have a Santa Barbara mauser rifle in .284 imported by Fajen in the early 70's. These were called Acra Rifles. The action is smooth but locking and unlocking takes more effort than my other German mausers. I have read that for some unknown reason these spanish actions work harder than the german ones. Can anyone offer any comment as to this situation. Thank you!
Comments
The most common reason it takes more effort to actuate a Santa Barbara action is that the Spaniards used much stiffer springs than other Mauser manufacturers. Add into this that the finish on most of these receivers is not great. Yes, they polished the most obvious outside areas to impress the public but the internal areas, those places where metal-to-metal contact occur, were left in most part rougher than we would normally expect. This includes both the cocking, locking and extraction cam surfaces.
The other area that causes some difficulty is the inside of the bolt body, which was usually left in a rough machined state. It's this roughness that contributes to the drag and additional effort required to open and close these actions.
All of this is easily fixed but if you don't understand the interactions of the cams, it would be best to leave this to a gunsmith. The spring is a quick fix simply by replacing the original spring with one that is slightly milder. The inside of the bolt body can be honed but be careful down towards the area that steps down to the firing pin shoulder. If you don't understand this, let a gunsmith take care of it.
Best.
Lapping the lugs does give more surface contact but it's generally a much smoother surface and therefore less friction and resistance.
Best.