It sounds as if you're using a rifle with a hammer, probably lever action. Muleskinner, method of disabling the firing pin is by far the safest for a bolt action. This method has always been common practice with anyone I've ever hunted with and for that matter ever would. The fact is, dry firing has always been and always will be unsafe practice. Those who claim otherwise only give fuel or reason for some to demand better gun control laws. Like it or not and regardless of your perception I'm"idiot", you have never been properly schooled in the proper handling of firearms.
No,,,,,idiots with firearms (sounds like someone we know here, larry) are the reason for stricter control laws.
I'm not biting on your bait, but just in case there is someone here who doesn't know better, wouldn't be good to have them reading your drivel and believing it.
It is never unsafe to drop the hammer on an empty chamber, and get ready, it's alot for you to understand, but here goes,,,or ON A LIVE ROUND, as long as your muzzle is pointed in a safe direction.
Slowly closing the bolt on a bolt action rifle, or any rifle for that matter, on what could possibly be a live round IS DANGEROUS.
I don't know what kind of bolt actions you're using, but on my 77's, if you drop the bolt on an empty chamber, the firing pin is DOWN AND EXTENDED BEYOND BOLT FACE. If there is a round in the chamber, THE PIN IS RESTING DIRECTLY ON THE PRIMER OF THAT ROUND. That translates into a fired round if there is one in the chamber and the rifle is dropped. Period.
Some bolt actions may have a firing pin block preventing the pin from dropping fully without a trigger pull. Do you know which ones they are off the top of your head? I sure as heck don't.
Again, the safest way to clear a weapon is to unload it, observe the chamber, close the action, and drop the hammer (dry fire) on that empty chamber (or snap cap if you desire) while the gun is pointed in a safe direction.
Ten years in the military and law enforcement, carried and used every day for years, and around guns all my life, I know how to "clear" a rifle / handgun, etc. I'm not the one her who hasn't been properly schooled in firearms handling, bub.
Saving a $13 firing pin, or even a $5k elk hunt because you dropped a broken firing pin on your shot of a lifetime, IS NOT worth it if you make a mistake and leave a round in the chamber and the weapon falls and injures or kills someone.
I won't rip on a guy for doing it this way, but I will try to educate him, and I will rip on him for trying to tell me it is safer than dropping the hammer on the empty chamber or snap cap.
All the guns I've owned, and all the dry firing, I have NEVER had a broken firing pin. I have had unintentional discharges. It happens to the best of us if you're around them enough. I've never had an accident.
My definition of unintentional discharge is the
unintended discharge of a firearm in an
intended and safe direction.
An accident is an unexpected or expected discharge, in an unsafe direction, resulting in injury, or the possibility of injury, to yourself or another.
There is a reason why the military and law enforcement agencies will not discipline someone for an unintentional discharge into a clearing barrel.
Fail to properly clear that same firearm, have a discharge outside of the clearing barrel or in an unsafe direction, or hand it to an armorer with a live round under a slowly lowered hammer, and you are looking at more than a little trouble.
As I said, now we know why your father had so many rules.
Anyone who is clearing their firearm and drops the hammer on a live round resulting in a discharge in my camp while outside that camp and clearing to come in, and as long as the firearm is pointed in a safe direction, is welcome any day to share a camfire and a hunt with me again.
There is no shame in unintentional discharges. There is shame in accidents. There's a difference.
mnable[/email] jeep!
