Thread: BSA CF2 action mods

Originally Posted by Walker

Half cock is what the lee enfields did and were designed to do which was lock the firing pin, no rifle since has had one. The so called half cock put other rifles is an indent on the cocking camming path which can be jolted off with a knock firing the rifle.

Yes, correct meaning of half cocked.

I realise now that @i41do2 when talking of walking with the gun "half cocked" means walking about with the bolt half closed on a round, mountain safety council advice style.

The MSC advice was done after work done experimenting with Lee Enfield rifles cocked and with their safety on (the safety lever, not the half-cock facility) and it was found it was often unreliable, particularly you could drop the safetied LE on a rock and the rifle could go off if the rock impacted on its cocking knob. They could also set off rifles with a hammer to the cocking knob despite the safety lever being on.

Long story short, that was how the MSC advice was born. It was good advice for cock-on-close Lee Enfields which most people were using back then, but for a cock-on-open Mauser it is less great - with a smooth action you might accidentally go fully into battery by stumbling or by dropping it end-first.