Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska the safest bolt gun safety?

When I still hunt, I hunt alone. If the terrain is such that I might slip or fall, I suppose things would be different.
If I’m hiking with a hunting partner to a location to start hunting, that’s different.
If I’m on a hill side by my self glassing a valley, that’s different.
Quite frankly I rarely am hunting with someone close by.

If I have one in the chamber, I do so in certain circumstances. If someone has a problem with my gun safety, they have not mentioned it.

If I have a magazine full of ammo and the only way to empty the magazine short of taking the barreled action out of the stock. I will ensure the safety is engaged while I work the bolt. If I don’t chamber the round while emptying the magazine that’s different too.

A little common sense goes a long way.

^^ me too and i won`t hunt with an idiot that does that ^^

As to actual bolt rifles, a pre-64 Model 70 or original Mauser. Sharps SS.
Also pre-war Winchester lever rifles. (I have heard there other rifles made-don't own any.)
{Lever action Winchester /Browning rifles with tang/side non-John Browning original design safeties}
NOT-allowed in my portion of the National Forest.

Hunt by myself or with Apache /Half-a-gas- can natives

I have installed two of PT&Gs Rem 700 three position M70-style swing safeties on the two 700's I hunt with. I like having a safety that locks the firing pin on my hunting guns and it is nice to have the mid position to operate the bolt with the safety on when clearing the rifles.

Had one that was made in 1979 ( ADL ) in 06. That thing went off on me several times, when closing the bolt.

Let a friend use it and when he was unloading it in a parking lot in the field, it went off and hit the rear box on a brand new 1 ton Chevy 4 door 4WD dually pick up. Still had the temporary plates on it. The owner was climbing in the front door when the rifle went off. When my friend returned it to me, he virtually threw the rifle at me. Had a gunsmith replace it, but it still did the same thing several times on me.

I won't pass off a problem like that to someone else, by selling the rifle. I rebarreled it to a 6mm Rem, with a fast twist.
I carry it in the field still, and still own it. When I hunt with it, it is strictly a single shot. I don't close the bolt all the way until I'm ready to shoot it. Occasionally I carry it to the range, where it is Single Shot used.

I don't want it to be someone else's problem. That is just good ethics. And Yes it was sent back to Remington, but they didn't solve the problem either. no other Remington I've owned has been a problem.

I won a stainless Remington mod 70 when the gun going off when the bolt was closed was still news. I never took it out of the box m I traded it for a Kahh MK40 handgun.

I don't know when this issue started or the bolt handles falling off. I don't disbelieve anyone. All I can say is I bought my BDL in 270 new in 1968. Hunted over many years with it some years 50 plus days per year. Hunted in Montana including the Bob Marshall Wilderness on horseback. Arizona south of Tucson. The Adirondacks. It never failed to function. Alway shot around .5 MOA and still does in my son's hands. Never lost an animal. Would it be my first choice for Alaskan brown bear, no. But if I won a Kodiak brown bear hunt under the condition I had to use it, wouldn't give me a minutes hesitation. I believe Remingtons quality control went down the toilet sometime in the 90s. I bought a Rem XCR II new in the box and had to have it fixed before I went hunting. I wouldn't buy another new one. Though I just bought a BDL in 7mm Rem Mag 1968 vintage. It's at Kevin Weavers getting the trigger adjusted to 2 3/4 lbs, a Decelerator recoil pad installed and my Leupold 3.5-10x50mm scope mounted Can't wait.

IE keeping the booger picker off the bang switch!

Well, that's good too.

Empty chamber doesn't work for me. I like to still hunt and jump shoot elk in the black timber. Learned a long time ago. sight picture, safety off, then and only then does my finger come off the trigger guard and touch the trigger. Once the safety is off I've already decided to shoot.

There are times a hot chamber is advisable, and times when it's just plain stupid, and times in between. I don't trust ANY mechanical safety, so pick your times to depend on one wisely.

If the one between your ears is functional, use that one, first.

My dad always said an empty gun will kill you....tell my grandson that every one in a while.

It's many years ago when I was in high school that a classmate friend of mine lost a younger brother, who was a twin of another brother, to a British carbine .303 stored in a closet with a live one in the chamber. I well recall the day as my friend was called out of school with the tragic news of his young brother's death.

It was the father's rifle for deer hunting and he never imagined any of the sons would touch it. There was another brother between my friend and the twins who had some mental issues. No parents at home that day, one of the twins (about 8 - 10 yrs old was ill and didn't go to school, so the other remained home with him. The next older brother with the issues came home from school for lunch. He somehow knew where dad kept the rifle, got it out (thinking it was "safe", aimed it at a wall and pulled the trigger. The bullet went through the wall into another room and hit the twin who stayed home with his sick brother in the stomach. He died within minutes! That was a severe shakeup to the whole community and the family never really got over it! And I believe that the young man who pulled the trigger was the one who least appreciated the full impact of what he'd done. The father, of course, grieved to his last breath!

This happened on a small Island on the east coast of Canada, in a fishing community. There were no ambulances, doctors or a hospital. I was a pallbearer for the funeral. I was 17 at the time and have never forgotten the aftermath of that tragedy.

It has been repeated here: "treat every gun as though it's loaded", and: " It's the empty ones that may kill you" (or someone you love)! Never ever let anyone hand you a firearm without the chamber being checked first!

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

exactly. The line I used teaching hunter/gun safety. A safety is a mechanical device that can and will fail. The only unknown is how many cycles it takes until failure.

I can't really recall the last time in Alaska that my rifle had a round in the chamber that the safety was on. I suppose the safety works on my rifles.

This…

I have been using the firing pin blocking 3 position Win. Mod. 70 safety for over 60 years of Alaskan hunting. None of them have ever failed me.

Using the middle safety position to field strip the bolt with out tools is a benefit. The older models also have the worlds best big game "hunting trigger" in my opinion.

Any system that blocks the firing pin.

I don’t have to concern myself with such tragedies, unless I get called to serve on the jury………which, of course, would never happen. I’ve never made it through jury selection in my life. The lawyers see it in my eyes like a neon sign.

Sorry for the loss. That’s a hard one.

I have used almost every type of safety still in use. Never had an unintended discharge so really can’t say one is better than all the others. I have found they all do the job as long as used as intended. I do have a couple of favorites. The CZ 550 3 position forward off safety being one but my absolute favorite is the old Ruger tang slide safety as on my Ruger 77 RSI. Works just like a shotgun safety of which I am well aquainted. The hardest for me to use was the Japanese arisaka twist knob style. Once I got used to it it worked fine just difficult for me to manipulate.

An empty chamber can NEVER kill you.