Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats ULA accidental Discharge

With that trigger the only safe position is all the way back. Start pulling the trigger in some intermediate position and you are asking for trouble.

I can do the same with a Model 70 if I get it in just the right position. Safe on, bolt free to unload the rifle, but I have to work at it.

I get the feeling that some folks think I am trying to make a mtn from a molehill so I did a 15 second video that clearly shows this "spot" is similar to a detent and the other bad thing is it's almost all the way to the rear.
I'll have it uploaded Monday. I think anyone with an open mind will get it,

Great, I would like to see it, and you are making an assumption that I think you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I just said that pulling the trigger when the safe is not either on or off is asking for results which you don't want. Pretty much a basic precept of firearm usage. If that in someway offends you, ask for strength to stop bearing imaginary burdens.

As far as the "detent" both of mine have it and I would bet the third being made up presently will also. It is just how it works. Also for me that pause when I bring the safety back has become a tactile clue that the rifle is not on full safe until I bring it all the way back. Something that I personally take as a positive.

I also indicated how to have it not be there: Just lift the bolt and bring the safety all the way back. Mr. Forbes said this is perfectly fine.

This is the first time you have mentioned the pause is almost all the way back. Mine are approximately half way back. You have now changed the circumstance and description of the situation.

If you fell the necessity to make a video to prove your point, have at it. But so far you have only described a safety that works as it is supposed to, and perhaps even more importantly, doesn't work when you try to operate it in a manner in which it was not designed to function. Again there is only one safe on that trigger. All the way back.

I personally don't care if you like or don't like the Nula safety. If possible get it changed if not.

Perhaps there is something in this for all of us, no matter what rifle we use.

If we pull the trigger and the rifle is supposed to fire yet doesn't, then something is wrong. We should stop and figure out the problem before we nonchalantly go on our way thinking nothing out of the ordinary just occurred.

battue- it wasn't just you but I have learned that someone doesn't agree with it's ok and I can learn about folks and their core values by listening.

BTW-twice in this thread I mentioned it's 2/3rds back and because of that it gives the visual illusion it's on safe. After this thread I won't have a problem and didn't before as am a zealot regarding firearm safety.

Additionally this is what is called an error precursor or simply an accident waiting to happen. Just because it hasn't doesn't mean much.

Standby on Monday...

Dave,

Will be looking forward to the video.

Now truthfully I think I know where you are coming from. One brings the safety back and it stops at the hesitation position, therefore one may think the safety has been placed on, and go on there merry way without bringing it all the way back.

The push down feature to unload was new to me on my first one. I must have played with that safety off and on for at least an hour to familiarize myself with its function. It how I discovered you could just lift the bolt and bring the safety smoothly back on.

In the field, when we are putting the safety back on the game is over for that moment. Just take the time to override the middle hesitation, there is no rush. Then check it often as I'm sure we all do.

However, if you show me you pulling the trigger when the firearm is not on safe-or in the so called middle position-and then pushing it forward and the hammer falling, I can only conclude that was improper use of the safety. It can be nothing else. The firearm was never on safe. That is our responsibility.

In effect this subject was inappropriately headed. That never was an AD. AD for me is when the rifle goes off because of nothing I did. In this case it was operator error. And yes I too have been guilty of operator error in the past.

When working with safetys, I don't think that it is possible to be over cautious. Several years ago, I worked as a gunsmith, and except for firearms brought in for re-bluing, most were defective in one way or another.

Knowing the firearm is defective, whether it is a safety, too long firing pin, or worn part, you soon learn that not all parts are going to work as they should. How about a .22 self loader that fired when the trigger was pulled, then fired again when the trigger was realeased. The safety worked as it was supposed to, but it did not prevent the gun from firing when the trigger was released.

How many normal, everyday shooters have ever seen a trap gun with a release trigger? Probably not many, and I cannot think of anything much more dangerous if you are not familiar with a release trigger, and do not know the gun is so equipped.

Probably the most scary gun I ever worked on was a bolt action M-S made sometime in the 50s. It had a double set trigger. When the trigger was set, or unset as the case might be, or the safety on, you never knew what it was going to do, whether fire when it was supposed to, or not fire, then fire when the trigger was released, or when put on safe, or taken off safe.

The point of what I am trying to say is that it seems like the OPs safety is not working safely. It might be working as designed, but with the detents he describes, and not being to tell when it is in a safe condition or not, then I would say it is poorly designed.

I would not want a gun where you had to work the safety in a combination to determine whether or not it was on safe, and then, after working the combination, still not knowing if the gun was going to fire when I touched the safety.

Fiddled with it this morn..... Again....
Removed the trigger and outside of the action it felt like it should, no "spot"must safe or fire.
Put a Rem 700 trigger in it and no "spot" but the 700 shoe is to far to the rear of the TG and no worky without grinding and I'm not doing that.
Interesting exercise.....
Video tomorrow if I can get it loaded at work.

I had a ULA circa 1997 that had this exact problem and it scared the heck out of me. I tried to get it fixed by Mel during the whole Colt debacle and Mel could not work on the rifle for a few months due to the situation with Colt. I got frustrated and sold the rifle. That said I got two other NULAS since then 2003 and 2008 and neither one will do this with the safety...

bump

As I noted earlier, I've been around at least a dozen NULA's over the past 20-some years, and my wife and I have three right now. None of them have ever showed this sort of hitch in the safety, which is why I originally suggested sending it back to Melvin.

I still do. I don't think he is grasping the idea when it's explained over the phone.

M.D. I agree. I can't understand why all the discussion, the safety/trigger unit has something wrong with it. No gun should fire without a finger on the trigger, any kind of accidental discharge is totally unacceptable. I'd send the gun back to Mel.

I am going make sure I haven't missed something and then send it back but Mel shot the rifle before sending it to me and Mel did the work.
Additionally he was INSISTANT there was nothing wrong.....
The video is still on hold as i took it with my Panasonic camera so it's a .MOV file and huge.

bumping this for a thread on the rifle forum....maybe this adds some clarity or muddys the waters more....anyway here you go

Call Jack Belk...

I have a NULA 28 in 7x61 S&H. I recently took it from the safe and opened the bolt to check the chamber. When I closed the bolt quickly, it didn't remain cocked! I took it to good gunsmith who adjusted the trigger mechanism and the rifle is fine now. My rifle has been fired a great deal over the years, mostly for load development. The second barrel is worn to the point I'll soon be sending it back for the third, and hopefully last barrel.

Trigger has never been touched on this rifle until recently. As for the safety, I've never had a problem, but I seldom use a rifle safety, preferring an empty chamber until I need to load a cartridge.

I understand this is a "Timney" trigger? If the trigger was not modified, I`d call them.

I would rather have no safety at all than one that "sits" between safe and fire allowing partial sear movement when the trigger is pulled. A safety that does that is either faulty or a terrible design. The safety should not be able to be left anywhere other than safe or fire (or safe/bolt locked, safe/bolt unlocked, fire in the case of a 3 pos).

The scenarios that have been described are invitations for AD's while in the field. Any rifle exhibiting that behavior needs to be fixed. I imagine, and hope, there was a misunderstanding of the issue over the phone.

It only sits where the user allows it to be. When you put it in safe, safe is all the way back. Fire is all the way forward. If the user allows it to be any place else, it becomes user error. I posted an easy way to do it. Then users have eyes to verify position. Any safety is either on safe or on fire, and there is a positive position for both. A Nula isn’t any different.

When you use your rifle, whatever it may be, do you consider safe some other position than the way it is designed? Do you visually verify that it is in its proper place?

Now if a safety malfunctions when properly positioned that is another issue.