Thread: Half cock or safety

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Well at least we have moved away from what was a shocker of a practise I often saw used 40 years ago...bolt closed with trigger held back so the fireing pin was sitting on primer.....I know of one fella who dropped his 8mm mauser carried in this manner,it went down bank(assumably he was hanging on to stop himself falling) rifle struck rocks or some such,it fired and round went up through his hand arm and shoulder,luckily deflecting outwards rather than inwards removing his head....

Less dramatic but a chap I hunted with ( many years ago) used to carry his 303 with one up the spout and the bolt closed in the fired position, he claimed it was safe (“see, you can pull the trigger and it won’t go off”) and all he had to do was pull the cocking piece back when he saw a deer.

Told him to empty his magazine and give me all the bullets from it and I’d show him which ones had been up the spout.

Showed him two bullets with noticeable ‘dings’ in the primers and told him both would have been up the spout at some stage with the firing pin resting on the primer and all it would take to fire the rifle would be dropping the rifle on its butt or smacking the cocking piece on a rock when he slipped and fell.

He didn’t use his ‘safe’ method after that.