I had posted a few days ago about a problem with the last round bolt hold open. At the time I thought I had fixed the problem by lubricating the mechanism (this is a new gun) but upon further inspection, a different problem has presented itself.

What happens is that when the hammer is all the way forward, it presses against the backside of the bolt hold mechanism and creates enough tension/friction that it wont enable via the magazine follower. When the hammer is pulled back (cocked), there is some front/back "play" in the bolt catch and it would engage smoothly. How do I correct this problem? At first I thought about grinding/polishing the front of the hammer bar where it is prematurely engaging the bolt catch, but decided that would be foolish. On top of that, the grind/polish area would need to be arc shape in lenght to allow the bolt catch to travel normally and I figured that would only cause trouble.

Could a few people check their guns to see if the hammer bar actually stops its forward travel against the piece of frame between the hammer and the bolt catch or if it like mine where is is actually hitting the bolt catch. The other thing that concerns me is that dry firing will beat up the bolt catch prematurely as it takes the full force of the hammer coming forward....

What should I do? I hope this post makes sense to someone.

Thanks

+1 Heavy Metal

Hmmm. I should have added that I observed this phenomenon when the lower reciever was apart by itself. If I understand you correctly, when the upper is in place, the bolt actually catches the top of the hammer before it would "strike" either the frame or the bolt catch mechanism??

If this is true, my bolt catch still seems rather stiff and does not hold the bolt open after a empty mag. Further more, because the bolt catch actually holds the mag follower down rather than vice versa, the last round or 2 occasionally has feed problems. I have about 300 rounds thru the gun. Is this something that will loosen up over time or are their other sugestions I could follow up on to decect a possible issue/problem.

Thanks for the responces thus far.

So we've concluded that it still does it when fully assembled, right?  Sounds like it.

If the bolt catch is still sticky with rifle assemble and cocked (hammer back), then I would pull the bolt catch out and inspect the hole and the roll pin holding it in.  Also inpect the detent hole and detent action.  The detent spring might be buggered up causing some issues.  

Punch the roll pin out and look for anything abnormal.

Your second to the last round should not be effected by the BHO.  Even the last round shouldn't.  The BHO isn't in contact with the follower until the last round is stripped.

I can't see the BHO contacting the follower with any rounds in the mag at all.  

When you pull the BHO out, look at the channel it lays in.  Any wear in the finish on the BHO or in the channel?  Maybe the BHO is bent or out of spec causing some drag.