Thanks to this website I have been bitten with the bug to tinker with these rifles. I recently picked up a new england 7-08 youth from a guy that popped open when he shot it. He said he got it new years ago and never sent it back or had it fixed. Apparently he shot it quite a bit because the latch shelf was beveled off at an angle. So I gave him a 100 bucks and started tinkering. Yall might think I'm crazy but I used a wire feed welder any ran a bead on the edge of the latch shelf and then carefuly filed and then honed it back to original until it locked up tight. Still it had some lateral movement on the lug so I used Fred's method in the FAQ's with the steel epoxy. To shorten this story, I just shot a 3/8 inch group (3 shots) at 50 yards with factory ammo. Next project will probably be a trigger job. This is my guinea pig gun. If I can conquer this one my others will be next.
