Most of us know the "trick" of holding down the trigger while closing the bolt on a bolt action rifle to relive spring tention before puttin a rifle away (of course on an empty chamber)...

SO I have a friend that does this while hunting with a live round in chamber. He then leaves the saftey off. His thinking is that if he needs to shoot he will just lift the bolt handle and he's ready to go. And that the rifle is uncocked and perfectly safe.

what do ya'll think of this practice. Is the firing pin now resting on the primer???

He's been doing this for many years with out incident.

Please give me some feed back

BTW, Mods if there is a better tittle for this thread please change it

Thanks

Nate

He's pushing his luck. How far depends on the action. An exposed cocking piece like several military surplus rifles have (Lee-Enfield, Swedish Mauser, Schmidt-Rubin,etc) will fire if the cocking is hit hard enough. I can tell you that hitting the hammer on a Marlin with a plastic hammer will fire it, and you don't need a round-house swing. Call it a good tap.

Actions with shrouded firing pins, like the Remington 700, or concealed firing pins, like the Savage 110, are safer. How safe, I don't know.

Bye
Jack

Personally, I think it is a bad practice due to the situations outlined by Jack in the above post.

A rifle can be dropped just as easily as a handgun. That's the reason most folks only carried five in the Colt single action and later on in Rugers before the transfer bar came into being.

In my opinion that's one of the really unsafe ways to carry a weapon. Makes me wonder why they put safety's on rifles.

My initial thoughts are that it would be unsafe to do this.

Coincidentally, I am reading an African Safari book right now and just last night read the chapter about firearms. The Professional Hunter that wrote the book was talking about this very thing. He stated that in heavy brush such as found in the African bush an external safety can be knocked to the 'off' position and with a false sense of confidence that the safety is on (when it actually isn't) is a very dangerous thing. Due to this he himself carries his weapon with a chambered round and the bolt in a de-cocked position. He does this for the need to fire quickly if confronted with a charging buff or ele.

I think that the safest ‘safety’ is the hunter or shooter. You’ve got to be conscience of your firearm and aware of your surroundings. Remaining mindful to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, ALWAYS, and your finger off of the trigger will go a long way toward safety of the hunter or hunters.

The book BTW is Peter Capstick's Safari, the The Last Adventure for reference.

I think that your Friend is safe enough;IF he is keenly aware of the downside of his action.
For manyyears,I hunted with a Krag,which has a "halfsafe"feature.If the safety lever is rotated only 90 degrees(vertical position)the trigger is locked,but the bolt is not.I used it when I intended to stay in a position for some time.I eventually abandoned it when I realized that,in a static position,where the deer has to come to me,I never realy needed that nanosecond of extra time.
I do know that heavy brush will change the settings on a safety.
Frank

We first have to go back to the understanding that the only true "safety" is between our ears. No mechanical safety can over come stupidity - and poor gun handling falls under stupidity.

In SOME rifles with a completely shrouded striker or firing pin, the uncocked bolt can be safe. But even then, if the firing pin isn't mechanically held, it could be jarred into the primer by a drop on the muzzle. This is worse in the rifle design where the firing pin is not spring-loaded off the primer.

Nonetheless, seeing somebody holding down the trigger while closing the action on a loaded round would give me the crawling willies. It'd also be my last hunt with him.

I think this practice is unsafe, unsound and unsmart! It doesn't matter how many times it hasn't fired, just the one time it does... and what might be in front of the barrel when it does. Won't be me!

I have 1 rifle that I don't use the safety on, much. But I hunt strictly from stands where I have positive and exclusive control of the arm. I don't let others use this gun nor do I sit in 2 man stands with it. Whenever I am carrying it the chamber is empty and if I need to shoot, I cycle in a round.

Simple:
Finger on trigger, safety off, live round in the chamber.

What's not to understand?
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Yep...I've seen people do it. I usually try to be at a great distance (behind them) before they try it again.