azgunslinger
Bearcat
- Joined
- May 17, 2015
- Messages
- 10
I wish I had made a video of this. I have two winchesters that don't do what this is doing. Also, the vertical path of locking the bolt when it is all the way forward is not smooth. It stopped quite positively 1/2 way down into place. If the rotation is 70 degrees, it stopped with a firm 'thunk' at 35, requiring a fairly deliberate effort to continue the rotation. I could see an inexperienced shooter mistaking that 35 position as bolt closed. The bolt is not closed though and squeezing the trigger does not fire the gun, but it does release the firing pin. There is some mechanism on the bolt that 'knows' the bolt is not in battery. By rotating the bolt to the proper position, perhaps by a different person handling the rifle, the firing pin is truly released, and it goes off.
I just tried it on my Winchester model 70 coyote lite and super shadow. Both have same action (to each other, not the ruger), and neither did this. First, the action does not have any catch 1/2 way. You can try to wedge it open partially, but it's not easy to make the mistake. Second, squeezing the trigger with the bolt in the fully forward and partially engaged position forces the bolt to drop into place the remaining distance to be fully in battery...first, and then the firing pin snaps forward. So yes, it works the 'same way' if you mean you are physically able to release the firing pin before the bolt is fully rotated. The difference is the Winchester cleans up your mistake (however small) and the bolt isn't touched. Only the trigger.
On the ruger American, the bolt could stop in the halfway position and the firing pin could be released. It was somewhat stable like that such that I could see my son hand the rifle to someone else in the group saying it didn't go off. Even engaging the safety at this point (which it did not permit, if memory serves), would not prevent the firing pin from completing its goal once the bolt was manually rotated to line up. I could not get the Winchester to do this any way I tried. Every time the bolt was partially engaged, I squeezed the trigger and the bolt dropped into place first while the firing pin went off. For that reason, while the rifle was in the hands of the person who squeezed the trigger, the gun would go off...every single time. Only the trigger would cause the gun to discharge. Even if the bolt not being locked down was a dumb mistake, it didn't put you at risk.
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video may have saved me however many I have spent here trying to describe it.
If you guys can take a video of your gun doing this I'd be shocked. Bolt partially open, trigger squeezed. Take your finger off the trigger and rotate the bolt to make it fire, if you like that feature...and think it's normal...cheers to you and yours and I hope no one gets injured.
I just tried it on my Winchester model 70 coyote lite and super shadow. Both have same action (to each other, not the ruger), and neither did this. First, the action does not have any catch 1/2 way. You can try to wedge it open partially, but it's not easy to make the mistake. Second, squeezing the trigger with the bolt in the fully forward and partially engaged position forces the bolt to drop into place the remaining distance to be fully in battery...first, and then the firing pin snaps forward. So yes, it works the 'same way' if you mean you are physically able to release the firing pin before the bolt is fully rotated. The difference is the Winchester cleans up your mistake (however small) and the bolt isn't touched. Only the trigger.
On the ruger American, the bolt could stop in the halfway position and the firing pin could be released. It was somewhat stable like that such that I could see my son hand the rifle to someone else in the group saying it didn't go off. Even engaging the safety at this point (which it did not permit, if memory serves), would not prevent the firing pin from completing its goal once the bolt was manually rotated to line up. I could not get the Winchester to do this any way I tried. Every time the bolt was partially engaged, I squeezed the trigger and the bolt dropped into place first while the firing pin went off. For that reason, while the rifle was in the hands of the person who squeezed the trigger, the gun would go off...every single time. Only the trigger would cause the gun to discharge. Even if the bolt not being locked down was a dumb mistake, it didn't put you at risk.
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video may have saved me however many I have spent here trying to describe it.
If you guys can take a video of your gun doing this I'd be shocked. Bolt partially open, trigger squeezed. Take your finger off the trigger and rotate the bolt to make it fire, if you like that feature...and think it's normal...cheers to you and yours and I hope no one gets injured.