Thread: half open bolt

Hi, I've just gone for my 10 yearly firearms licence renewal.

I see, on page 17 of the Arms Code 2011, it recommends the half open bolt for rifles (action for shotguns).

For semiautomatics it is deemed safe enough to use a rigorously pretested safety catch.

The half open bolt is, to me, a special feature of the Lee Enfield action. It is reasonably safe because it cocks on closing, so some force is needed to push the bolt forward and get the cartridge into the chamber, then a second force at right angles to close the bolt. In a stumble, an oblique pressure could conceivably close the bolt but in practice it is rare. I think the Mauser 96 might be another cock on closing action ?

For every other bolt action, the firing spring is compressed and it is cocked as you open the bolt. There is no natural position where the cartridge is half way into the chamber and where a substantial push is needed to load it. One has to have the bolt handle forward and up so that a simple single direction knock can flick it closed and fully cocked. Various detents and stop devices exist or are added a modifications, but I don't know of any that are as secure as the half open bolt on the .303. I have never felt safe carrying any other bolt action with a half open bolt. I would be interested to see photos, if anyone has devised a mechanical solution to this.

I hope my new permit is in the mail, because I would like to share that I use the safety catch on my new bolt action rifle.

I test it each time I apply it: first that the bolt is locked as it should be, then by pulling the trigger hard with the gun pointed in a safe direction. When I return to a track or grovel through thick stuff where I sling it across my back, I unload, then release the safety and carry the rifle with an empty chamber (checked visually and by feel, uncocked by closing the bolt while pulling the trigger). On major tramping tracks and at the hut or camp I take out the detachable box magazine as well. I don't think this is any more dangerous than using the same procedure with a semiautomatic, which is apparently acceptable for them.

I would like to suggest that the police remove the reference to the half open bolt, now of limited applicability to a small subset of firearms in NZ, and recommend the use of the "pretested safety catch" in appropriate safe situations for all types of forearms.