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Sunday, September 25, 2011
How a Bolt Action rifle works
Pretty interesting, from Midway USA. Of course, the history buff in me would like to see the finer points of difference between the Mauser action and the Enfield.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I thought that the Mausers cock on the bolt moving forward or on the bolt being pushed home, and that they had three locking lugs, not the two in the Enfield action.
Pretty interesting video. I like the cutaway views. Yeah, there's COO and COC, but with a minute and a half you don't want to get into all of the different kinds of actions. It happens at some point. I'm pretty sure Mauser is cock on opening and Enfields are cock on closing.
Anonymous, I don't know (but should learn) how many lugs are in each. But for some strange reason, the Enfield (and Garand) sing to me, and the Mauser doesn't. Fine instrument though it no doubt is.
The biggest advantage to the Mauser "open face" action over the enfield "closed face" action is what is known as "controlled round feeding." To put it simply, when you work the action on the mauser, the cartridge is never "on it's own" so to speak, meaning that at all times in the re-charging process, it is being held in place by some part of the rifle. Not guided or directed, but firmly, unmovably held in place. Prior to being removed by the bolt face, it is in the mag. As the bolt face removes it from the mag, the mauser "claw" holds it to the bolt face, and as it is chambered, the bolt locks in place holding it there (obviously). This design is used, in modern times, by manufacturers such as winchester (the newer ones and the old pre-64 ones, anyway) Ruger, and a handful of others. In the closed face designs, used by enfield and in modern rifles such as Remington, savage, and so forth, the cartridge is loose inside the action as soon as it is freed from the mag by the forward push. It is loose, as in, it rattles around in there, and if the rifle isn't held upright, it can FALL OUT. This is known as "uncontrolled feed" and while it works very, very well, that split second where your cartridge is no longer part of the rifle has made them disfavored among folks who's lives depend on that follow up shot - namely, dangerous game hunters in Africa, who typically do not like closed face bolt setups. The pic in the first frame of the video is a Mauser style. You can claerly see the flat bar on the side of the bolt - the "claw" previously mentioned, and how it holds the rim of the cartridge fully and firmly in place.
Tangentially, this is one of the reasons that the post-64 Winchesters fell out of favor, because Winchester went to a closed face setup and many folks didn't like that.
4 comments:
I thought that the Mausers cock on the bolt moving forward or on the bolt being pushed home, and that they had three locking lugs, not the two in the Enfield action.
Could be wrong, of course.
Pretty interesting video. I like the cutaway views. Yeah, there's COO and COC, but with a minute and a half you don't want to get into all of the different kinds of actions. It happens at some point. I'm pretty sure Mauser is cock on opening and Enfields are cock on closing.
Yeah, I think you're right 45er.
Anonymous, I don't know (but should learn) how many lugs are in each. But for some strange reason, the Enfield (and Garand) sing to me, and the Mauser doesn't. Fine instrument though it no doubt is.
The biggest advantage to the Mauser "open face" action over the enfield "closed face" action is what is known as "controlled round feeding." To put it simply, when you work the action on the mauser, the cartridge is never "on it's own" so to speak, meaning that at all times in the re-charging process, it is being held in place by some part of the rifle. Not guided or directed, but firmly, unmovably held in place. Prior to being removed by the bolt face, it is in the mag. As the bolt face removes it from the mag, the mauser "claw" holds it to the bolt face, and as it is chambered, the bolt locks in place holding it there (obviously). This design is used, in modern times, by manufacturers such as winchester (the newer ones and the old pre-64 ones, anyway) Ruger, and a handful of others. In the closed face designs, used by enfield and in modern rifles such as Remington, savage, and so forth, the cartridge is loose inside the action as soon as it is freed from the mag by the forward push. It is loose, as in, it rattles around in there, and if the rifle isn't held upright, it can FALL OUT. This is known as "uncontrolled feed" and while it works very, very well, that split second where your cartridge is no longer part of the rifle has made them disfavored among folks who's lives depend on that follow up shot - namely, dangerous game hunters in Africa, who typically do not like closed face bolt setups. The pic in the first frame of the video is a Mauser style. You can claerly see the flat bar on the side of the bolt - the "claw" previously mentioned, and how it holds the rim of the cartridge fully and firmly in place.
Tangentially, this is one of the reasons that the post-64 Winchesters fell out of favor, because Winchester went to a closed face setup and many folks didn't like that.
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