Mk. III takedown w/o removing bolt?

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razumny

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 19, 2015
Messages
2
Yesterday, I picked up a new to me Mk. III. It was well used (or more likely abused) by its previous owner, a shooting club. I have no idea how many rounds it has had through it, a conservative estimate would be that it is north of 30000 rounds.

The first thing I did on getting it home, was to take it down, to remove the magazine disconnect. I opened the mainspring latch, swung it out, and removed the bolt retainer. At that point, all I needed to do, was slide the barrel and bolt off the frame (in fact, it is so loose that it simply falls off if I do not hold it in place.

When the mainspring is in place and latched, there is no appreciable play in the barrelled action, and the connection feels solid. The pistol functions fine with snap caps.

I've been looking closely at both the gun, schematics, and takedown instructions, and it is unclear to me why one would need to remove the bolt in order to take it down; there appears to be no locking other than the front lug and bolt retainer, so as long as it doesn't bind up, I am not sure what other consequences there would be?
Any guidance would be much appreciated.
 

SGW Gunsmith

Blackhawk
Joined
May 15, 2010
Messages
966
Location
Northwestern Wisconsin
I look at it (the manual) as more of a suggestion as to what to do, and to refer to the pistols parts by their "given" names. Obviously, not everybody does it, "by the book".
 

razumny

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 19, 2015
Messages
2
Looks to me like the problem is that the receiver sits loosely on the lug on the frame.
 

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