Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Question about Forbes rifle safety

I have been looking at a used Forbes 270 in a local GS. It's an early model with the jeweled bolt. The action feels great,very tight and precise. The safety however feels horrible. It is very loose and wobbly,nearly like it was attacked with a rubber band. I think you could move it around in a figure 8. Anyway,it wiggles a lot side to side.

What I want to know is if the Forbes safety is a unit that can easily be replaced or possibly fixed by a competent gunsmith fairly inexpensively, couple hundred at the most.

I called Mr.Forbes to ask what it would cost to replace the safety but I never got a straight answer from him. I couldn't pin him down to even completely replacing the safety. I got the impression that I might wind up with a completely new rifle if he started working on it.

I've been thinking about trading for this rifle and I just want to know if the safety might wind up to be a much bigger issue that I anticipate.

They are supposed to have Timney triggers. I would imagine a decent smith could get it fixed.

Maybe have the store pull the action out of the stock before you buy? Take a look at things and see if you can spot the problem.

If push comes to shove, replace the trigger. A Remington 700 trigger will fit. The Timney Calvin Elite triggers are very nice.

worst case just replace the trigger for around 100.00 dollars

non of my nula rifles that have the safety act like that so I am thinking something is loose

if it is a real early model I understand that it went thru Melvin before it went to retailers so it should be a good one

Thanks guys. I'm not sure if this one is early enough that Melvin checked it out. Melvin told me that the serial numbers started in the teens. This one is number 00042.

I looked at it again today. The safety seems to work it is just mushy and doesn't have any solid click or any kind of solid feel when moving it back and forth.

Forbes was screwing up early. The jeweling on the bolt of this one is only on the inside of the bolt. In other words when the bolt is down the jeweling faces inside the action rather than being visible on the outside.

I might trade on it.I'm going to make them an offer next week and a gun to trade in and it will depend on what they say. I'm hoping they will want to trade it though since they have had it well over a year,maybe close to 2 years on the used shelf.

I bought a Forbes 270 a few years ago and the bolt release and safety had issues after a while. I sent the rifle off to Mel and he fixed it quickly and got it back to me. I have read recently that he is getting "grumpy" -- I think he has probably been a bit grumpy all along .... all I can say is I received great service from him and the price he charged me to work on it was really fair. This was last year.

I wasn't saying against Melvin.I was grateful that he took the time to talk to me about the gun,and he did say he would be happy to look at it. I just couldn't pin him down to any kind of price or even what a new safety and trigger would cost.

I was basically trying to find out if the parts were proprietary,or if parts were currently available through a secondary vendor.

Forbes should seriously question himself as to whether he should still be in business.

really why is that because he didnt answer a question on an issue with a rifle he didnt build.....

I've talked to Mr. Forbes several times about CLR/NULA hybrids and he has always been more than willing to spend a reasonable amount of time talking to me, answering questions, and correcting me whenever I was on the wrong track. I'll bet that the Forbes and Colt cause him much aggravation and don't put any $$ into his pocket.

Or so it seems to me.

And obviously there are times he's not willing, so clearly the problem still stems from his temperamental attitude.




The owner was talking about possibly buying a new trigger unit from Forbes.

Everybody has their bad days, so its possible that you caught him on one of his. That said, I've always found him to be helpful, never temperamental, but I'm lucky that way.

So getting good service from Forbes is down to pure luck.

Maybe for you, but not for me. People generally respond positively to me and I get what I want. But I'm lucky that way.

First you said it was because you are 'lucky that way' , but now you say it was not because of luck
....FFS make up your silly mind.

You do realize that Melvin Forbes didn't build that rifle don't you?

So what?...the customer on the phone simply wanted the price of a new trigger unit for a Forbes design weapon.
Heaps of people buy triggers from shops that didn't make the rifle they own, so why do you think it so strange?

Melvin Forbes is not in the business of selling triggers. Nor does it seem like he was adverse to fixing someone else's problem.

Forbes told you that personally?...or was it just another one of his 'bad days' where he wont sell one?



Forbes is adverse to fixing crappy stock problems with the cheap Colt version of his NULA,
by fitting one of his own for customers, on a rifle he didn't make.

I have several CLRs and don't find that stocks to be particularly crappy and actually a bit better than the average injection molded synthetic stock. But things just seem to fall into place for me, it is good to have been born under a lucky star.