2-position bolt-lock safety, engaging to reload?

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

ArmedBear

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Messages
23,171
I have been dry-fire practicing with my deer rifle and snap-caps, just to make sure I am used to cycling the push-feed action well and taking it off-safe silently.

It has a bolt-locking 2-position safety.

I've noticed that I can slide the safety selector to F, open the bolt handle, then put it on S, slide open the bolt, and load it.

That way, when I close the bolt and lock it down, it ends up chambered, on Safe, with the bolt locked down, ready to use in the field.

Does anyone know if there's any reason not to do this? Will the safety still work properly (it seems to)? Will this cause extra wear or damage?

If it matters, this is a Weatherby Vanguard Sporter from a few years back (Howa action).
 
I'm not really sure why you'd want to do it that way, it sounds a bit awkward. Can't you simply chamber a round and then put the safety on? Or are you trying to leave the action open when not in use so that you just have to close the bolt and flip the safety instead of going through a full loading motion?
 
The one I have with 2 position safety, the bolt cannot be closed with the safety on.

I cannot think of a scenario in which I would choose to do this.

Do you carry the gun in condition "0", magazine loaded, chamber empty?
 
That is the way that particular safety was designed to operate. It is like the Remington safety's.

On an empty chamber, like it would be coming right out of the gun safe or the deer camp early in the mourning, you put the safety on F and open the bolt(really the bolt should have been left open from the night before)...next you put the safety on S...load er' up and close the bolt with a round in the chamber...safety is ON and everything is copacetic.

Why anyone would want to close the bolt on a live round with the safety in the OFF position and THEN engage the safety while in proximity of deer camp and or other hunters, I assume you were in this scenario, is beyond me.

You could forget to put the safety on if you load a live round and THEN go to fool with the safety...you know, you just bolted up a live round and your buddy standing next to you just has to have that dip of skoal right then...you oblige, and whoops, you ride off on the four wheeler with the safety off.
 
Why anyone would want to close the bolt on a live round with the safety in the OFF position and THEN engage the safety while in proximity of deer camp and or other hunters, I assume you were in this scenario, is beyond me.
Click to expand...
Precisely. That is why you do not. Either a) leave deer camp in condition "0", magazine loaded, chamber empty or b) leave deer camp in with a clear and unloaded gun.

b) is what I typically do.
 
Thanks, Uncle Mike. That's kind of what I figured, but wasn't sure.

Uncle Mike understands what I'm asking and why. The idea is that you don't need to have the gun loaded with the safety off until you want to fire the gun, and you don't even have to close the bolt on a gun with the safety off. As an added benefit, it locks the bolt down when you close it, so you never have to worry about whether or not it's all the way down.

I'm more a bird hunter than anything else, and you don't handle a shotgun in the field with the safety off, unless you're ready to fire. Most break-action field guns (SxS or O/U) engage the safety automatically when you open them. Even my oldest one, from 1926, does this, so it's not some new "lawyer" feature, either. Semiautos and pumps can be opened, shut, loaded and unloaded, all with the safety engaged.

So it occurred to me that similar safety practices would be good with a rifle, also.
 
I read hunter safety literature that seems to assume the same process is possible across platforms. Just be aware that not all firearms designs even allow this, and many types of firearms recommend completely different process. Moreover, a trigger based safety is far less robust than a firing pin block, open action, or unloaded firearm.
 
Sooner or later, though, you have to load it.

Might as well do so in the best and safest manner the equipment allows.
 
Don't have one. When I get one, I'll post it.:)

That said, a 3-position safety makes my question moot. I'm asking, essentially, how to use a 2-position safety as if it were a 3-position. And Uncle Mike confirmed my experiment.
 
And Uncle Mike confirmed my experiment.
Click to expand...
In a round about way, I am asking does the manual for a Howa say to do this, or is this something that has been tried and worked for users, with no knowledge of the designers intent or testing.
 
Along these lines... any of you who hunt with a surplus-based rifle: do you carry the rifle chambered, cocked, safety on or chambered, uncocked (and manually cock the striker upon seeing game)?
I'm thinking primarily of 1903 and Enfield based rifles.
 
+1 on what pale horse says...
That striker/cocking piece was used for a second strike capability type scenario...if you pulled the trigger and the round didn't go boom, instead of lifting or cycling the bolt to re-cock the firing pin, a simple pull of the striker knob would reset the fireing pin for another chance at lighting off the round.

If you have the chamber loaded, striker in the forward, or relaxed/down position and strike the cocking piece/striker knob with enough force...boom!

be barry barry careful!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
Remington 721 safety
Replies
6
Views
308
jmr40
jmr40
H
  • Locked
AR safety stiff when bolt locked back?
Replies
14
Views
4K
moxie
M
A
  • Locked
For the rifle experts: Bolt gun safeties.
2
Replies
25
Views
3K
Offfhand
Offfhand
critrxdoc
  • Locked
Older Model 700 trigger/safety won't engage
Replies
8
Views
646
LeonCarr
L
C
  • Locked
Semi-auto with locking bolt?
Replies
15
Views
4K
MachIVshooter
MachIVshooter
Back
Top