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Dear All, Is it adviseable to store your bolt action rifle with the main spring cocked (i.e. bolt open)?? Or is there a chance this might damage the rifle over time?? Reason: my safe is running full, and it is sometimes easier to pack in the rifles, when some of them are left with the bolt open. Sadly, it is not practical for me to store the rifles muzzle down. - mike ********************* The rifle is a noble weapon... It entices its bearer into primeval forests, into mountains and deserts untenanted by man. - Horace Kephart | ||
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Is there a reason you can't store it uncocked? By this I mean with the bolt open, (and an unloaded rifle) holding the trigger back while closing the bolt. This closes the bolt and uncocks the rifle. "There are worse memorials to a life well-lived than a pair of elephant tusks." Robert Ruark | |||
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SBT, the rifles I store with closed bolts, I decock in the way you describe it. Sadly, I have yet to find a universal way of decocking the main spring on a rifle with an open bolt. This naturally only goes for "cock on opening" designs, but these are easily the most common. In fact, offhand I can only think of two cock on closing design: the Enfield and the Swedish Mauser M96 - although I'm sure there are others. - mike ********************* The rifle is a noble weapon... It entices its bearer into primeval forests, into mountains and deserts untenanted by man. - Horace Kephart | |||
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Mike, I don't think it makes a bit of difference to something like a mauser. I wouldn't know about a bench rest action where lock time etc is more of an issue and parts may not be designed soldier proof. My own are all stored bolt out (as is required by my police force) with no apparent problems. Another cock on closure - the superlative Enfield! | |||
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Based on the larger numbers of functional surplus guns released over the years I would say the average spring has a lot longer life than the average human. After all, they are in a state of compression even after you release the firing pin; just not to the same degree. Ditto all of my older guns which were not stored in arsenals. The only mainsprings that ever failed me were leaf springs on a 1911 Colt and a military rolling block, never a coil spring. Unless of course it is a defective part and then it will fail sooner or later regardless fo storage method. "Experience" is the only class you take where the exam comes before the lesson. | |||
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This is good feedback, guys! It seems there are both historical and analytical reasons, why it should be innocuous to store your bolt action with the bolt open. Thanks for that! - mike ********************* The rifle is a noble weapon... It entices its bearer into primeval forests, into mountains and deserts untenanted by man. - Horace Kephart | |||
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Buy a bigger safe!  | |||
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Most if not all bolts can easely be decocked when out of the rifle. Usually there is a "catch" on the bolt head to push in then twist the bolt head. A handy safety feature if someone inexperenced gets your bolt and rifle. And they will insert part way back into the action if you don't want to chance loosing your bolt. John L. | |||
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Absolutely - except I first had one, then I bought a second, then I bought a third. Now I've long since run out of room to put up more safes...  Admittesly, these safes are not US-size, but still. Buying a bigger safe would be the best solution, though...  - mike ********************* The rifle is a noble weapon... It entices its bearer into primeval forests, into mountains and deserts untenanted by man. - Horace Kephart | |||
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mike, I wasn’t aware that we had bigger safes in the USA. See you learn something new every day. | |||
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Sure, most people outside the U.S. don't have many firearms, some of the safes sold in Australia because of the new gun laws were old storage lockers about 1 foot square, but plenty of height. Ma farmer could fit in her .410 snake gun, and Pop could fit in his .22 rabbit rifle. John L. | |||
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I thought everything in the States was bigger (cars, steaks, safes - you name it), or does that just apply to Texas??  Seriously, I'm sure there are smaller gun safes available in the States as well. But I have never seen gun safes as large as the larger US models in Europe. I'm not sure my floors would carry the weight of some of the "mega-models"... - mike ********************* The rifle is a noble weapon... It entices its bearer into primeval forests, into mountains and deserts untenanted by man. - Horace Kephart | |||
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Hey mho, Somewhere in a Sinclair or Brownell's catalog(maybe at their web site) I've seen a wrench cut out to exactly fit a Remington Bolt. With the Bolt out of the rifle you just slip the wrench over the end so it engages the Lugs and use the Bolt Handle as you normally would to cock or uncock it. When I looked at it, I wondered at the time why a person couldn't just use a boxend wrench or socket of the appropriate size. I've not followed up on doing it though. When I mess with Bolts, I have a leather strap I lay inbetween the jaws of a vice and snug it up just enough to prevent the Bolt from slipping past. Then I can cock or uncock the Bolt without any chance of maring anything. Just done it so long using the leather I'd forgotten about the "socket or boxend wrench" idea until just now. So, it is easy enough to uncock them for storage and recock them before reinstalling them in the rifles. Best of luck to you. | |||
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I store all my rifles with the bolt de-cocked. This is after I had a Rem 700 fail to stay cocked after a long unused period. I replaced the springs with ones from Brownells and all was fine. I [admittedly] had the trigger set far too light and this was probably the main reason too. I just remember unloading mags in the service after patrol. We were told the springs would take a set if not relieved of the tension. I just think it`s a good idea to take the pressure off the springs. As to safes?? If you run out of room for more safes you obviously need to build a walk-in cement vault with an old bank vault door!!! Simple ???? Aloha, Mark When the fear of death is no longer a concern----the Rules of War change!! | |||
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Remove the bolts and store them separately from the rifles. A pawn shop or back-alley crook won't buy a stolen gun without all its parts. | |||
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Uh...maybe I'm missing something, but if you grip the bolt lugs with a wrench and try to rotate the bolt handle, nothing will happen. Well, in the case of a Remington, the bolt handle might come off! "There are only three kinds of people; those who can count, and those who can't." | |||
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Glen, I think these gentlemen are confusing the Kleinendorst tool, used to remove a Remington firing pin assembly, with some imaginary tool that “de cocks†the bolt. I don’t know of any such tool for “de cocking†and can’t think of a single reason why one would ever need such a damned fool thing anyway. | |||
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unless it's a rimfire or a double, there's no reason you can't ON AN EMPTY CHAMBER dry fire and be done with it. jeffe opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club Information on Ammoguide about the416AR, 458AR, 470AR, 500AR What is an AR round? Case Drawings 416-458-470AR and 500AR. 476AR, http://www.weaponsmith.com | |||
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Jeffe, The guy that started this thread wanted some way to de-cock his bolts because for some reason he doesn’t have enough room in his safe to store his rilfes with the bolts in them ?????????? | |||
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If a spring is not injured when it's worked normally, the amount of time it exists in the "tension" position is not relevant. It's still as good as ever. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill | |||
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Modern springs will NOT be damaged by leaving them cocked. However, I always uncock older doubles drillings, and combination guns. "Bitte, trinks du nicht das Wasser. Dahin haben die Kuhen gesheissen." | |||
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"Bitte, trinks du nicht das Wasser. Dahin haben die Kuhen gesheissen." | |||
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On my mauser style, and my M70 you can just depress a "latch" and turn the bolt head by hand and it will go to the uncocked position. Both are easy to recock by hand. In Aus. for fullbore we have a lot of single shot Omarks, the drill was to decock them by hand and use a little spanner to recock them. The spring was under a lot of tension even uncocked. One was supposed to change them every year or so. And the old spring was always shorter. The quickest way to stuff a spring air rifle is supposed to be leave it cocked. May not be any big deal on a modern gun but it's so easy to do I get some piece of mind. But, it's more likely to loose the bolt if it's not in the rifle. Then you'd have to put a lost ad in the paper. Maybe 700's are different to decock.? JL | |||
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JL, Most of us would agree that it is probably better to store rifles with everything as “relaxed†as possible...but I, personally, had just never heard of the removing the bolts to make more room in a gun safe practice. That’s why my original answer was to “get a bigger safe.†| |||
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Iunderstand his problem precisely. I have a well hidden/disguised walk in vault. I also have a 52-rifle capacity gun safe in my shop. Unfortunately, the 52-gun safe right now has just over 100 firearms in it. If the bolts are all closed, I can not get that many guns in the safe. When some of the bolts are closed, and some are fully open and pulled back as far as they will go, they all can be fit in there, just barely. Guess I'll have to get a bigger shop. That's the only way I can also get another safe into it. Anyway, yes, bolt action coil springs can "take a set", and do need to be replaced once in a while. That's one of the things that keeps Wolfe's Springs in business. When I used to buy rifles 3 times a month at auction in Britain and Europe, I found many where misfires and hang-fires were occuring because of coil mainsprings which had taken a "set". That was particularly common in Mannlicher-Schoenauers which seemed to have a particularly heavy cocking piece/firing pin assembly (and maybe not as strong a mainspring to begin with). Anyhow, I soon made it a common practice to replace those springs after bringing the rifles to NA, but before resale. So yes, I would suggest that he neatly mark or label the bolts with the SN of the rifles to which they belong, and remove them completely from the rifles if necessary, to get them all in his safe. If he then stores the bolts in separate sealed, plastic "baggies", he can remove the firing pins & springs from the bolts and thus ease the tension partially...the same as if he had dry-fired the guns with the bolts in them. Even so, after a substantial number of years, he may need to replace the main springs as a routine maintainance step. My country gal's just a moonshiner's daughter, but I love her still. | |||
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Pull the trigger THEN close the bolt.  Doug Humbarger NRA Life member Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club 72'73. Yankee Station Try to look unimportant. Your enemy might be low on ammo. | |||
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The discussion here concerned how to de-cock the bolt when it is OUT of the rifle so the rifle can be stored sans bolt and the bolt can have the spring relaxed from full cock. I’m not quite sure how pulling the trigger and closing the bolt would accomplish that.  | |||
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