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Practically Shooting

You're Doing it Wrong


BarryinIN

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OK, not everybody. But most do. I don't know why, but watching most people work the bolt on a bolt action drives me nuts.

They don't do it like this guy:

1943 Enfield No.4 MKI, Ten shots in nine seconds

They don't do it like these guys either. This one comes from a match in Norway called Stangskyting, named after a Col Georg Stang. They have 25 seconds to get as many hits possible on a head-sized target. They do it twice: Once at an unknown distance between 125 and 175 meters, and again at between 200 and 250 meters.

There are four rifles in this video: An AG3 semiauto (Norwegian HK G3/HK91), a Sauer 200 bolt action, a Mauser, and a Norwegian Krag.

The HK did not win. (P.S. I guess eye protection is not popular there.)

Krag vs Mauser vs Sauer vs (a)g3

They are leaving their fingers on the bolt knob and pulling the trigger with the middle finger. The English used this technique in WWI and made the Germans think they had more machineguns than they did. It's a pretty specialized skill that takes some practice.

There are lots of methods.

All of them are faster and smoother than what I see most people do.

Most fire a shot, lower it off their shoulder, lift the bolt, change their grip on the bolt, pull the bolt back, shift their grip, run the bolt forward, shift the grip, ease it most of the way down, move it the last bit down, smack it for good measure, and then bring it back to their shoulder.

You're killing me.

"What makes you think you're so fast, jerk face?"

I'm not fast. I'm just not glacially slow.

Remember the James Garner/Jack Elam movie "Support Your Local Gunfighter"? There is a scene in it where Elam is showing how fast he is on the draw. Garner is lying on the bed reading a newspaper not paying attention. Elam twitches and Garner has his gun out in a flash. Elam then thinks he's the fastest gun alive, but Garner corrects him by saying "No, I'm slow. You're slower".

That's me. I'm slow. I'm so slow it's sad. What's sadder is most people are slower.

What most people do when running a bolt is add a bunch of stuff to slow themselves down. Just work the bolt. Don't make a bunch of extra motions.

First, keep it on the shoulder if at all possible. Keep your cheek to the stock if at all possible.

Some rifles won't let you do this because the bolt travel is so long it will whack you in the face. Simple- Roll the rifle outboard a little. Try to avoid lifting your face off the stock. Once started, it's had to break the habit. If keeping your head on the stock but turning it toward your support side gets you enough room, it beats breaking your cheek weld by lifting.

Dropping the buttplate out of your shoulder is worse yet.

Besides leaving the rifle in place, the main thing to increase speed is to combine movements. All this grasping/regrasping, starting/stopping/starting stuff is unnecessary.

Leaving out the extra movements, working the bolt consists of lifting it, pulling it back, pushing it forward, and closing it, for four basic movements. Combine lifting with pulling it back. Combine pushing it forward with closing it. Now you are down to two movements- up and back, forward and down.

Starting with lifting the bolt:

1A) How you do this depends on the bolt handle angle and shape, bolt knob shape and location, stiffness of bolt lift, and length of bolt throw. I pull back hard with my support hand to anchor the buttplate to the shoulder and keep it from twisting.

The lift: Usually, I can do a sort of reverse karate chop to raise the bolt handle. My hand goes from gripping to stock to blading the fingers forward, then chopping up at the wrist. I usually hit the bolt handle with the bottom third of my finger, so I get plenty of strength and leverage. It hits the handle right about where the knob joins it.

If the bolt handle curves out from the stock, I might actually catch the bolt knob by rotating my hand out as I bring it up. Rarely do I have to actually grab the bolt knob.

I think the bolt lift is the key part. If I screw this up, I screw up the entire cycle. I might not contact the bolt handle solidly enough and not drive it fully up, or go too hard and slide off the handle. If I get this right, it's all down hill and I have it made.

Fine tune it to your hand and bolt.

1B) Run it back. With the bolt up, I just bring my hand back by moving at the elbow and pull the bolt all the way open. Where and how my hand is contacting the handle depends on the handle/knob shape, but it's wherever my hand is when the bolt opens. I don't move it around to some certain point. It's usually low on my one of my first two fingers. Run the bolt back hard. Don't baby it and flick it back so it coasts open. My hand stays on the bolt handle the whole way. The bolt should hit the rear stop hard.

I think this is more flexible with bolt travel than grasping the knob. I shoot bolt actions with travel as short as .22s and the Ruger 77/44, and as long as a Sako .375 H&H. My hand doesn't fly off the bolt when running the .22s, and I don't short stroke the .375. If I grasp the knob with my fingers like many do, I have to watch the throw or I will get it wrong.

Combine them so the hand comes up to open the bolt and you roll right into hauling it back. Movement 1A and 1B combine to be one motion. Up/back.

2A) Running the bolt forward. Again this depends on some things, mostly bolt travel and he shape of the bolt handle and knob. Sometimes I just reverse the movement and my thumb hooks the bolt forward. Most times, the action of pulling the bolt back causes my hand to roll over the bolt knob and I just continue that roll so my hand is behind it. Either way, the bolt gets slammed forward. Again, don't baby it and fling it forward to coast home. The hand stays on it all the way.

2B) Closing the bolt. When the bolt hits home, your hand should be where you can just drop it down to close it. This should be the easiest part. You can be sloppy here, because just about any way you can move it down will work. Do whatever causes your hand to land back on the stock's grip in a firing position.

Combine 2A and 2B into one motion. Run it forward and drop your hand down when it stops. Forward and down. Forward/down.

Then combine opening with closing.

This is mostly done with the wrist and some with the elbow. Nothing should move beyond the elbow, which is why it works in any position, including prone where movement is limited. In fact, I think it's best practiced in prone, because your elbow is anchored in place so it can be a pretty solid pivot point.

Obviously there will need to be fine tuning for you. You will also no doubt find other things that help. Remember the trick of rolling the rifle outboard so the bolt clears your face? Soon after the M1903 was adopted, really skilled shooters could slightly rotate the rifle outboard while they lifted the bolt, which shortened that bolt lift movement fractionally. It took perfect coordination to help, and then it only helped slightly, but these guys were at the top level and it was worth it to them for the tiny difference it made. And of course, there's the technique in the video.

But without that advanced stuff, just doing the things above puts you ahead of most people.

So now the question: Why? Why operate a bolt action fast?

Why not? Why run it slow and sloppy when you can do it smooth and fast? Maybe you will never, ever need to run a bolt fast, but it won't hurt all the other times. Practice it now and make it a habit, then you will be able to do it quick if you need to. Every time I take a pistol out of the holster, it's the same way I'd draw it if I needed it.

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  • 3 months later...

That is an option.

I have a Swiss K31 straight pull. I don't think it's any faster than a skilled user of a fast bolt action like a Lee-Enfield, but it sure is neat. If limited to bolt actions and if I had to equip and train an army for rapid fire work as a priority, and do it in a short time, a straight pull would probably do well.

I want to try a Winchestet Lee Navy rifle sometime. They look like they could be fast.

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I'd thought about getting a K-11 or even K-31, but passed due to price and possible reliability issues. It takes time to give the Rubins that extra "smack" many seem to recommend. May still get one eventually...

Of my "turn-bolt" action rifles, I'd say my M24/47 is faster than my K98 or Mosin.

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The K-31 is on my list of "Wish I'd bought several when they were $_____". I have the one, and it was worth buying just to study. I doubt we will ever see anything resembling that design again, and sure won't see the fit and finish on a military rifle.

Everything I hear is they are incredibly good shooters. I can't tell, because the sights don't agree with my eyes at all, but it does really well considering that. I have been wanting to install a no-drill scope mount for several years now to give it a fair chance.

The cartridge is kinda nifty too.

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I haven't crossed the K's off the "list", but would like to use my M95 more and they are still super-cheap. I'm thinking of finding someone to rebarrel/rechamber one to use 7.62X54R. I did a test fit in the clips and feed/extract and had no problems at all. Mine's one of the cut-down long rifles- M95/34

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  • 4 months later...

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