Who else drops their bolt?

[cjm1066]

Even decocked, their is still a lot of tension in a spring, perhaps you need to strip the bolt and release all that tension?

Then you have trigger springs and several other springs co to consider.

Your car will have big springs on the wheels, small valve springs and numerous others.

Your life is about to get very busy

 

[bluesako]

yeah i dropped my bolt, under a bench grinder and nearly cut it in halfbs

 

[gixer1]

Bolts in and closed - I check the rifle before putting it away.

I have a couple of same brand rifles in different chamberings so don’t want to mix up bolts.

I feel the HO guidelines on bolt removal are silly…I explained this once when I took my underlevers out of the cabinet for inspection…

regards,
Gixer

 

[Liveonce]

Bolts in and closed - I check the rifle before putting it away.

I have a couple of same brand rifles in different chamberings so don’t want to mix up bolts.

I feel the HO guidelines are silly…I explained this once when I took my underlevers out of the cabinet for inspection…

regards,
Gixer

And it is just that Guidelines, my FEO has never objected to keeping the bolt with the firearm, so long as the ammunition is locked away separately to the firearm.

 

[Tim.243]

Always surprised to find lots of people store their rifles with the bolt in a cooked position.
So empty rifle, closed bolt cocked or open bolt in/out of the rifle but still with the firing spring under compression.
When I first started out I was shown how to drop the bolt (always onto an empty chamber) to release some of the compression in the spring or if storing the bolt out of the gun, how to decock it.
Just wondering if anyone else bothers or is it just a weird thing I do?

There are 100's of 1000's of shotguns/rifles in shops and home safes with the springs in tension.....

It is like people lining up the ELEY @ 12 o'clock on they shot gun

 

[muddy42]

yeah i dropped my bolt, under a bench grinder and nearly cut it in halfbs

I dropped my bolt once....on the floor. Bits went everywhere, it took me ages to work out how to reassemble it.

 

[TH4]

Absolutely no idea I think this was actually @gonzo's quote. The speed and deadly efficiency with which I can deploy my honed Luddite skills is breathtaking sometimes

It must have been the gremlins

 

[1066]

These are the wooden items I made to
de-cock and re-cock my bolts. I have them for Schultz and Larsen Legacy and Victory plus Sauer 202 and Cooper rifles.

I've 3d printed a de-cocker for my Sako Finnfire S94.

 

[bluesako]

wow id like one of those for my finnfire bs

 

[1066]

wow id like one of those for my finnfire bs

PM sent.

 

[User00040]

Even decocked, their is still a lot of tension in a spring, perhaps you need to strip the bolt and release all that tension?

Then you have trigger springs and several other springs co to consider.

Your car will have big springs on the wheels, small valve springs and numerous others.

Your life is about to get very busy

Stop being mean to these guys, that's my line!

Let them do whatever makes them feel happy, warm, fuzzy and safe

Decocking a bolt is hardly a big deal

 

[Taff]

I don,t unlock our bolt actions we only have 250 on the shelf, most guns come from the manufacturer cocked ?

 

[Dunwaters]

Always surprised to find lots of people store their rifles with the bolt in a cooked position.
So empty rifle, closed bolt cocked or open bolt in/out of the rifle but still with the firing spring under compression.
When I first started out I was shown how to drop the bolt (always onto an empty chamber) to release some of the compression in the spring or if storing the bolt out of the gun, how to decock it.
Just wondering if anyone else bothers or is it just a weird thing I do?

Remington put this to bed about 50 years ago.
They started in the late 1930’s ( as I remember the tale), leaving a selection of guns cocked and then measured the drop off in spring tension over time. Their conclusion was that leaving a gun cocked has no effect on spring tension or performance, so the experiment was discontinued after about 40 years.
That might not be the case with a century plus Mauser, or a flat spring side lock, but a modern firearm with coil springs should be fine.

 

[gixer1]

Remington put this to bed about 50 years ago.
They started in the late 1930’s ( as I remember the tale), leaving a selection of guns cocked and then measured the drop off in spring tension over time. Their conclusion was that leaving a gun cocked has no effect on spring tension or performance, so the experiment was discontinued after about 40 years.
That might not be the case with a century plus Mauser, or a flat spring side lock, but a modern firearm with coil springs should be fine.

Same story I heard…not aware of any ill effects I have ever heard of…

regards,
Gixer

 

[Alantoo]

Well designed springs last a long time and can perform many cycles without sagging.

If you ever make a compression coil spring you will know how much material you are spreading the load/flex over. Every coil has more than three times the diameter (πD+) and the flex movement is spread over the entire length of material which is what keeps it within its elastic limit.

Consider a motor car valve spring, cruising at 60 mph / 2,500 RPM it will have cycled 1,250 times in one minute. That is more than most centre fire hunting rifles' firing pin springs will ever do in their lives, according to the round count advertised on second hand sales.

For the higher round count rimfire rifles you may have ten minutes worth of car valve cycles ...in a 15 year life of 150,000 miles the car valve spring will have cycled around 187,500,000...

When the motor is at rest there are likely some valve springs fully compressed.

Alan

 

[Tazz]

Dry fire my 2 standard bolt action CF’s 223/243 before storing. Have 2 Sauer 404’s they have the advantage that you decock the hammer separately. My 2 shotguns are over and unders I store them cocked

 

[gixer1]

Well designed springs last a long time and can perform many cycles without sagging.

If you ever make a compression coil spring you will know how much material you are spreading the load/flex over. Every coil has more than three times the diameter (πD+) and the flex movement is spread over the entire length of material which is what keeps it within its elastic limit.

Consider a motor car valve spring, cruising at 60 mph / 2,500 RPM it will have cycled 1,250 times in one minute. That is more than most centre fire hunting rifles' firing pin springs will ever do in their lives, according to the round count advertised on second hand sales.

For the higher round count rimfire rifles you may have ten minutes worth of car valve cycles ...in a 15 year life of 150,000 miles the car valve spring will have cycled around 187,500,000...

When the motor is at rest there are likely some valve springs fully compressed.

Alan

Yeeeeaaah…but we all know the round count is underestimated…

 

[MAH]

Shotgun and rifles stored with eased springs. Bolt in rifles.

As above.
M.

 

[Heym SR20]

Well designed springs last a long time and can perform many cycles without sagging.

If you ever make a compression coil spring you will know how much material you are spreading the load/flex over. Every coil has more than three times the diameter (πD+) and the flex movement is spread over the entire length of material which is what keeps it within its elastic limit.

Consider a motor car valve spring, cruising at 60 mph / 2,500 RPM it will have cycled 1,250 times in one minute. That is more than most centre fire hunting rifles' firing pin springs will ever do in their lives, according to the round count advertised on second hand sales.

For the higher round count rimfire rifles you may have ten minutes worth of car valve cycles ...in a 15 year life of 150,000 miles the car valve spring will have cycled around 187,500,000...

When the motor is at rest there are likely some valve springs fully compressed.

Alan

When you put it like that it’s amazing how many engines can do 250,000, or 1,000,000 miles without really any bother at all, especially when all the moving parts going up and down and round and round. There is really clever engineering and metallurgy going on. I know of one chevy surburban that’s done close to 2 million miles. It was built for diplomatic protection for US embassy in London. It was then sold off and chap bought it 20 odd years ago as a tow vehicle and he spends his towing rowing boats and sailing boats across UK and Europe for all the international squads. He does well over 100,000 miles a year and its pretty much just had regular servicing. It has large a lazy V8 up front and does 8 mpg but tows a full laden trailer with no fuss.

 

[Pedro]

Moving back to firearms, I note that those people with a lot of rifles advocate keeping the bolt in the rifle. Which makes sense. But there's an argument to be made that keeping bolts separate is at least a small degree safer when it comes to burglars. Although if they've got into your cabinet, it's likely they will get into where your bolts are kept anyway.

As for leaving rifles cocked, I suspect the real truth is that the difference it makes is something pretty small. I do like the idea of leaving the bolt in the rifle but open. Might experiment with that.