PJ,
You wrote, "I doubt though that he would ever get as fast as a target shooter with bolt gun in a rapid fire contest." Well, that's what I am. A lot of the NRA high power matches have rapid fire stages. No one ever uses a single shot rifle. The bolt rifles commonly (but not always) beat the semi-autos because their lock time is faster.
I shoot the same way in hunting. Rifle stays on shoulder. Left (non master) hand stays on for end and rotates the rifle to the right. Concurrently I raise my right hand and, in one rotary motion with the outside of my right hand, whang open and withdraw the bolt. Another motion closes it, pushed by the bottom of my thumb. Continuing this motion, my right hand rests on the stock and my trigger finger goes in the trigger guard, helped by the left hand rotating the rifle back into the correct position. Most of this while the rifle recoils and returns back down.
You see a lot of hunters take down the rifle from their shoulder (to admire the shot?), grasp the bolt with the thumb and forefinger, fiddle around getting a sight picture because their stock does not fit, and, in general, wasting time. In the cowboy movies you even see the actors take lever actions down from their shoulders to flip the lever, which is really dumb because one advantage of a lever is that you can stay exactly in your cheek-weld position.
I used to think I could get off the second shot as fast as a double rifle, because I'm doing all this bolt operating while the rifle returns from recoil. But lately I've been shooting Sporting Clays and doubles are definitely faster for the second shot. Basically, "fast" equates to "less motion." Also, with a single shot, there's always the danger of dropping a cartridge. A bolt action can have a feeding problem, though mine never have. A double doesn't.
