Here’s a pic of the original bolt on my Mosin-Nagant M44.
It’s a stubby little thing, and although it’s fun to slam with an upward strike of your palm after the bolt sticks after 30 rounds or so, I decided to replace it with something that gives me a bit more leverage and fits the more modern look of the aftermarket stock.
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I started by marking a line across the bolt body and chopping off the original bolt with a hacksaw.
Unfortunately after that, I was whipped into a frenzy of inspiration and forgot to document most of the process, but I basically followed the method which is outlined in great detail on Steve and Sandra Wagner’s site here: www.gswagner.com/mosin-nagant/bolt/mnbolt.html, except that I put a sharp bend in my bolt and went straight into the bolt body instead of angling it like Steve did. I sliced off the rest of the original bolt nub from the original ball, drilled a hole in the ball, and silver-soldered the ball onto my new bolt handle. I never quite liked the plain old round shaft on the sniper bolts (the home-made ones I’ve seen, the aftermarkets you can buy, OR the original issued sniper bolts), so I decided to add a little flare to mine and cut a sort of tombstone, diamond-facet effect into the metal with a combination of belt/disk sander, hand files, a steady hand, and a lot of patience.
The subtle ramp/transition leading up to the bolt where it meets the body (remember that used to be a round construction bolt with a 90 degree bend, stuck into a flat surface) was achieved by building it up with silver solder, then filing it down and smoothing it out with a thin smear of JB Weld, which was later used like Bondo and sanded smoother. What you’re seeing here isn’t the 100% finished product, though. I just dusted a little black paint on the bolt so I could even-out the surface visually and see any areas that still needed sanding. I still have a few nicks to even out.
Another pic-
And there you have it. A custom rifle bolt made using only your original parts, some solder and a 10 cent bolt.
-~D~-