My 45/70 Marlin started having some misfires a while back. A second cock would fire it. I had been shooting BP in it and thought some of the residue may have found it’s way into the bolt and was preventing the firing pin from striking as hard as it should.
I finally got around to knocking out the roll pin and started to disassemble the bolt. I didn’t remove the more complicated pin to remove the firing pin itself, because it seemed to be moving freely. As I inspected the bolt I noticed the striking pin between the hammer and firing pin wasn’t perfectly aligned with the hole where it strikes the firing pin. It’s made worse because of the spring underneath pushing up on the pin. I finally discovered that the hole/passage the pin travels in is elongated, especially at the back. This allows the pin to go down in the back and up in the front, misaligning it with the firing pin.
I guess this is simple wear. The gun had a long hard life in Alaska. How can this be repaired? Can it be bored out and sleeved? How hard is the steel of the bolt? Can it be machined with HSS tools?
Thanks for any and all advice.