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Tuning Sheridan Blue Streak rough bolt

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Dec 7, 2020
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Indiana, United States
I bought a 1975 Sheridan Blue Streak off eBay about a week ago. The pump arm was missing a chunk so I built a replacement in my wood shop and refinished the stock at the same time. It was more work than anticipated, but I learned a lot about how the guns were built and it turned out indistinguishable from the factory pump arm, except no missing chunk :) 
I drilled and tapped the receiver and mounted a Williams peep sight. Sighted her in and she’s a tack driver! One fly in the ointment: The bolt has been pretty gritty since day one. Does anyone have advice on how best to slick up the bolt action? 
 
Thanks Michigander :)

The whole video series from Northwest Airguns is fantastic! It gave me the confidence to drill and tap for the peep sight instead of sending it off to be done. 
I removed the bolt prior to drilling and tapping for the peep using the technique John from Northwest Airguns posted which was very helpful. Last night I decided to remove the bolt again and polish the bolt shaft with a buffing wheel on the Dremel. It’s better but not quite where I want it yet. I suppose the next step would be to polish the internals of the receiver. Not sure I’m ready for that! I’ll probably just the shoot the hell out of it and trust it’ll eventually wear itself smooth.
 
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The bolt is probably not the source of your gritty feel on cocking. It most likely is the striker side loading in the tube bore. Try smoothing the bore with some 400 grit paper on the side of a dowel then lube the bore. Sheridans have a relatively heavy striker spring that tends to deflect the steel striker into the brass tube bore and create marks that you will feel when cocking the gun.
 
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fivestar45 That’s an excellent tip, and you’re absolutely correct. The same thought occurred to me last week. I used a Dremel with jeweler’s rouge to buff both the hammer and inside of the action tube to a near mirror polish. The action is butter smooth now. The only grit I feel in the bolt is when shooting JSB Heavy Diabolo pellets. The front of the bolt encounters resistance because of the shape of the hollow on that pellet. I can live with that because the rifle really loves that pellet!
 
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