thegreatmodel8.remingtonsociety.com

I recently was able to get my hands on a 1917 manufacture Model 8 in 35 Remington. Overall the rifle is in very good shape and the bore looks really great. However, the bolt and receiver look as if they may not have been cleaned at any point in the last 100 years. There's a truly impressive buildup of old oil/grease and general gunk. I've been slowly going at the action and getting it cleaned up but I'm working on the bolt now and I have some questions.

First of all there was no sign of a spring associated with the firing pin when I disassembled it. Is this correct for a Model 8? There's no mention that I can see of a firing pin spring on the parts list but I wouldn't mind being sure.

Second, did Remington put any kind of finish on the bolt and bolt carrier? There's a layer of dark gray stuff on some of the surfaces that looks almost like parkerizing. Is that supposed to be there or is it just carbon buildup? I'd rather not spend a bunch of time carefully removing finish that's supposed to be on the parts.

I don't believe there is a firing pin spring in the Model 8, I just had a .30 Remington apart and there was no spring.
We've had several of these 8 & 81's and the bolts were all in the white.

I've never seen an 8 with a firing pin spring. There might have been some later ones, but I do have an 8 of the same year as your's and it has no spring and works just fine.

All the 8/81's bolts and carriers were in the white.

Thanks for the replies.

I didn't think that there was supposed to be a firing pin spring but the bolt disassembly material I have is for a model 81 so I wanted to be sure.

The news about the bolt and carrier is less good (from my perspective) because it means that I have some serious cleaning ahead of me.

I'm a believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" but in this case the bolt was so gummed up that it wasn't camming correctly, thus the detail strip.

I believe in this rifle. The bones are solid but it needs a bit of TLC to get it back to where it should be.