Monday, September 22, 2014

Thinking About Rifles

Earlier I was reading Jeff Cooper's Commentaries, looking in the old stuff from 1993 and came upon his thoughts on the modern bolt-action rifle.  I was considerably surprised at some of the criteria from that period in his writings.  We consider Cooper the father of the Scout rifle concept, but some of the earlier musings surprised me.  For example:
A modern bolt-action should be instantly convertible from right to left-hand operation. About one customer in six is left-handed, and should not need to put in for special consideration.
Altogether an excellent idea, a bolt that converts from left to right-handed operation.  With one left-handed son and several southpaw grandsons, this is a wonderful idea.  I'm not sure how the engineering would work out, but I like the ideal.
The modern bolt-action should feature a rotary box magazine with a shoulder detent to avoid masking soft-point spitzers flat while waiting their turn. (Personally, I would prefer something on the order of Savage 99, but the Mannlicher-type - if made of steel - would do as well.) 
Really?  A rotary magazine?  I didn't know that Cooper was a fan.

I also have been thinking about the modern bolt action rifle lately, so I thought I'd look to the guru to make sure that I am on firm ground.  If you're interested, the online compilation of Cooer's Commentaries can be found here.

4 comments:

Joel said...

I believe - could be wrong - that it was Cooper who dismissed DA/SA pistols as 'a brilliant solution to a nonexistent problem.' History seems to have applied the same putdown to the Scout Rifle concept.

Old NFO said...

Interesting concept, but I don't see how you could do that with a bolt action... Strength and the downturn on the bolt would prevent it, unless it was a straight pull bolt. But then the alignment... Ah... I'm gonna leave that one alone.

Mark Horning said...

3-lugs, 60-degree lift. You would need to make the bolt handle removable on a double set of screw holes. Mirror the bolt handle slots.

Doable.

Windy Wilson said...

I'm left handed, and the K-31 has a fine adapter for left handers. It is the reason I went to that rifle in the first place,as it's more awkward shooting the stock K-31 left handed than it is shooting the Mosin-Nagant with the straight bolt or any other straight bolt boltie left handed.