@jfleisher try removing the grip where the bolt latch is and leave it off and try using a magazine to hold it back.
I had to file some metal off the bolt latch in order for it to move freely up and down it was rubbing against the grip.
I have the grips removed, and it still takes a serious effort to move the bolt latch, like 20-30 pounds of force.
OK, figured out something. I have to pull the slide back a little bit to take the pressure off the bolt latch, then I can move it down just enough to allow the slide to drop. Maybe I'm spoiled by 1911's? Just seems like a lot more work to drop the slide.
Apparently I need three hands to do this, one to hold the gun, one to pull back on the slide, and one to pull down on the slide release.
I'm a 1911 guy too, but don't think of it as a slide-release - think of it as a bolt hold-open.
In other words, use it as a mechanism to manually lock the bolt open when you want to (when there's no empty mag in the pistol), but don't bother using it as a slide-release - use the thumb-safety for that (by pressing it all the way down) or sling-shot the bolt a la Glock.
@jfleisher I have also found the bolt stop to be very hard to release unless you pull the cocking piece back first. I thought about sending mine back to have it looked at, especially when I couldn't use the safety lever to release the bolt either. I mean it was very hard to engage the safety, and it absolutely would not move down past the fire position at all. I read the manual several times, and it was like my original, - up for safe, down to fire, down again to release the bolt. I thought about pulling the safety lever to see what was keeping it from working like my Pasadena ( like the manual said it should), but I saw a post from someone here who said that it was decided to eliminate the safety bolt drop feature as an engineering change to reduce the chance of an out of battery discharge. So, the right answer for me is to just pull the bolt a bit. I haven't had any problems with the bolt stop not engaging, and I would rather have a positive hold open anyway. I do like the fact that Patrick apparently went back to the original model for a starting point instead of picking up from the solid bolts where the old guns stopped, mine seems to be as smooth as the Pasadena, maybe even stronger.
Here's another off topic question, how do you disassemble a B or C series gun with the solid bolt? I have seen pictures of them with the barrel and extension off, but no further than that. All of the pictures I have seen show the bolt rotation pin apparently welded to the frame ring on the left. I'd like to have an idea how to break one down in case I ever come across one for sale. Thanks for any insight, you know how curious we are as fans of these awesome guns!
@robautomag Hey Rob Thank you for all your hard work! One question - since it has been approx a month, will the open order status list be updated soon?
We should have it done this week. For some reason it was messing up and we have been fixing it.
Here's another off topic question, how do you disassemble a B or C series gun with the solid bolt? I have seen pictures of them with the barrel and extension off, but no further than that. All of the pictures I have seen show the bolt rotation pin apparently welded to the frame ring on the left. I'd like to have an idea how to break one down in case I ever come across one for sale. Thanks for any insight, you know how curious we are as fans of these awesome guns!
You remove the cocking piece like a hollow bolt gun. The grooves in the bolt are machined so you remove the bolt going forward toward the muzzle end of the gun instead of out the back.
I’m not sure if I’m doing something dumb or what, but the slide release on my gun does not seem to want to move at all. Tried it with and without a magazine installed, no go. Tried it with the slide locked back, still no go. What am I missing?
You’re missing the redesign of the gun. Although there were a host of genuine improvements, one thing that was changed that I personally believe was a giant leap backwards was disabling the bolt release function of the safety lever.
On the original guns, the lever did double duty. Flip it up with the hammer cocked and it’s a safety. Press it down with the bolt locked back and it released the bolt. For some bizarre reason they chose to do away with that. If you remove the left grip and look at the parts, you will see they have been reshaped so they don’t come within a mile of one another. That means the only way to release the bolt is to pull back on the cocking piece and release it, which I find very annoying.
@bob-cohee Thanks for the info, I figured it would be apparent if I ever got my hands on one, I just didn't want to look like a rookie in front of someone who was selling one.
OK, figured out something. I have to pull the slide back a little bit to take the pressure off the bolt latch, then I can move it down just enough to allow the slide to drop. Maybe I'm spoiled by 1911's? Just seems like a lot more work to drop the slide.
Apparently I need three hands to do this, one to hold the gun, one to pull back on the slide, and one to pull down on the slide release.
Oh, sorry, I misunderstood what you were trying to do.
The safety performs the bolt release on the old guns. The new guns have no bolt release. The thing that the magazine pin actuates is a bolt hold-open. Not a release. It gets pushed up by the magazine to hold the bolt open but you can’t push it down with your thumb to release the bolt, on either the old or new guns. Not enough leverage. On the old guns, the bottom of the safety acts against the back of the bolt hold-open and forces it down, releasing the bolt. On the new ones, you just retract the bolt slightly.
We had two ready to go out yesterday. One had a bound book issue. So only one went out yesterday. We are making progress on in house production. I will need to confirm this with Patrick and the production crew but I think we will see a jump in production soon.
fyi, we have updated the back order list.
The latest info I've received is that 20 guns have shipped since they re-started production.
