Bolt action

The first bolt action rifle was produced in 1824 by Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse, following work on breechloading rifles that dated to the 18th century. Von Dreyse would perfect his Nadelgewehr (Needle Rifle) by 1836, and it was adopted by the Prussian Army in 1841. While it saw limited service in the German Revolutions of 1848, it was not fielded widely until the 1864 victory over Denmark. In 1850 a metallic centerfire bolt-action breechloader was patented by Béatus Beringer. In 1852 another metallic centerfire bolt-action breechloader was patented by Joseph Needham and improved upon in 1862 with another patent. Two different systems for primers –the mechanism to ignite a metallic cartridge's powder charge – were invented in the 1860s as well, the Berdan and the Boxer systems. The United States purchased 900 Greene rifles (an under hammer, percussion capped, single-shot bolt-action that used paper cartridges and an ogival bore rifling system) in 1857, which saw service at the Battle of Antietam in 1862, during the American Civil War; however, this weapon was ultimately considered too complicated for issue to soldiers and was supplanted by the Springfield Model 1861, a conventional muzzle loading rifle. The Palmer carbine, an early rudimentary bolt-action rifle, was patented in 1863, and by 1865 1,000 had been purchased by the Union Army for use as cavalry weapons, although the war ended about a month before the Army took delivery of the rifles, as such they arrived too late to be used in combat; although the Palmer's bolt was only used to open the chamber, since the gun was fired with a separate side-mounted hammer, it is not considered a true bolt-action mechanism. The French Army adopted its first bolt-action rifle, the Chassepot rifle which used an paper cartridge, in 1866 and followed with the metallic cartridge bolt-action Gras rifle in 1874. European armies continued to develop bolt-action rifles through the latter half of the 19th century, first adopting tubular magazines as on the Kropatschek rifle and the Lebel rifle. The first bolt-action repeating rifle was patented in Britain in 1855 by an unidentified inventor through the patent agent Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford using a gravity-operated tubular magazine in the stock. Another more well-known bolt-action repeating rifle was the Vetterli rifle of 1867 and the first bolt-action repeating rifle to use centerfire cartridges was the weapon designed by the Viennese gunsmith Ferdinand Fruwirth in 1871. Ultimately, the military turned to bolt-action rifles using a box magazine; the first of its kind was the M1885 Remington–Lee, but the first to be generally adopted was the British 1888 Lee–Metford. World War I marked the height of the bolt-action rifle's use, with all of the nations in that war fielding troops armed with various bolt-action designs. During the buildup prior to World War II, the military bolt-action rifle began to be superseded by semi-automatic rifles and later fully automatic rifles, though bolt-action rifles remained the primary weapon of most of the combatants for the duration of the war; and many American units, especially the USMC, used bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifles until sufficient numbers of M1 Garand rifles were made available. These types of bolt-action rifles use an AR-15 lower receiver and a special bolt-action upper receiver, with M-LOK accessory rails, they retain the look, feel, and versatility of a traditional AR-15; but since they have no gas system and no semi-automatic function, they do not meet state law definitions of an assault weapon. Examples of bolt-action rifles using AR-15 magazines include the Ruger American Rifle, and examples of AR-15 style bolt action rifles include the Dark Storm Industries DS-15 Thunderbolt 5.56x45mm & .300 Blackout state-compliant rifle, and the high-end competition & hunting Q The Fix chambered in 5.56x45mm, .300 Blackout, 6mm ARC, 6.5mm Creedmoor, 8.6mm Blackout, & .308 Winchester. Bolt-action shotguns are considered a rarity among modern firearms but were formerly a commonly used action for .410 entry-level shotguns, as well as for low-cost 12-gauge shotguns. Bolt-action pistols like the Savage 110 PCS 6.5mm Creedmoor and the Aero Precision SOLUS 8.6mm Blackout are also popular with competition shooters and hunters; and like bolt-action ARs, some bolt-action pistols are designed for use in states that have banned AR-style pistols. ==Major bolt-action systems==

Rotating bolt Most of the bolt-action designs use a rotating bolt (or "turn pull") design, which involves the shooter doing an upward "rotating" movement of the handle to unlock the bolt from the breech and cock the firing pin, followed by a rearward "pull" to open the breech, extract the spent cartridge case, then reverse the whole process to chamber the next cartridge and relock the breech. the Mauser system, the Lee–Enfield system, and the Mosin–Nagant system. All four differ in the way the bolt fits into the receiver, how the bolt rotates as it is being operated, the number of locking lugs holding the bolt in place as the gun is fired, and whether the action is cocked on the opening of the bolt (as in both the Mauser system and the Mosin Nagant system) or the closing of the bolt (as in the Lee–Enfield system). The vast majority of modern bolt-action rifles were made for the commercial market post-war, two of the others use the Mauser system, with other designs such as the Lee–Enfield system and the Mosin Nagant system, of only limited usage. Mauser action The Mauser bolt-action system is based on 19th-century Mauser bolt-action rifle designs and was finalized in the Gewehr 98 designed by Paul Mauser. It is the most common bolt-action system in the world, being in use in nearly all modern hunting rifles and the majority of military bolt-action rifles until the middle of the 20th century. The Mauser bolt features two strong forward locking lugs, a third rear safety lug, and the iconic Mauser-style Controlled Round Feeding (CRF) system that uses a non-rotating claw extractor (known as the "Mauser claw"), which engages the rim of the cartridge as it leaves the magazine and remains engaged through the entire feeding and ejecting process for better control (as opposed to push feed systems where the bolt doesn't grip the cartridge until the bolt is closed). A novel safety feature (at the time) was the introduction of a third locking lug present at the rear of the bolt, the third lug acts as a failsafe in the event the two forward locking lugs fail, which prevents the bolt from flying back into the shooter's face. Many Mauser M 98-inspired derivatives feature technical alterations, such as omitting the third safety locking lug, to simplify production. • Lee–Enfield (all marks and models) • Ishapore 2A1 • Various hunting/sporting rifles manufactured by BSA, LSA, SAF Lithgow, and Parker Hale • Australian International Arms M10 and No 4 Mk IV hunting/sporting rifles • Rifle Factory Ishapore's hunting Lee Enfield rifle in .315 Mosin–Nagant The Mosin–Nagant action, created in 1891 and named after the designers Sergei Mosin and Léon Nagant, differs significantly from the Mauser and Lee–Enfield bolt-action designs. The Mosin–Nagant design has a separate bolt head that rotates with the bolt and the bearing lugs, in contrast to the Mauser system where the bolt head is a non-removable part of the bolt. The Mosin–Nagant is also unlike the Lee–Enfield system where the bolt head remains stationary and the bolt body itself rotates. The Mosin–Nagant bolt is a somewhat complicated affair, but is extremely rugged and durable; like the Mauser, it uses a "cock on open" system. • Swing rifle • RPA Rangemaster • RPA C12A1 Other designs The Vetterli rifle was the first bolt-action repeating rifle introduced by an army. It was used by the Swiss army from 1869 to circa 1890. Modified Vetterlis were also used by the Italian Army. Another notable design is the Norwegian Krag–Jørgensen, which was used by Norway, Denmark, and briefly the United States. It is unusual among bolt-action rifles in that is loaded through a gate on the right side of the receiver, and thus can be reloaded without opening the bolt. The bolt locking mechanism of a straight pull action is achieved via different designs, usually one that resembles the rotating bolt head of a self-loading rifle. Straight-pull firearms typically have a faster rate of fire than conventional bolt-action guns, as the entire operating cycle needs the shooter to perform only two hand movements (pull back and push forward) instead of four (rotate up, pull back, push forward, and rotate down), which also doesn't interfere with the aim when shooting off the shoulder because there are no rotational movements that can impart canting on the gun. In 1993, the German Blaser company introduced the Blaser R93, a new straight pull action where locking is achieved by a series of concentric "claws" that protrude/retract from the bolthead, a design that is referred to as Radialbundverschluss ("radial connection"). As of 2017 the Rifle Shooter magazine listed its successor Blaser R8 as one of the three most popular straight pull rifles together with Merkel Helix and Browning Maral. Some other notable modern straight pull rifles are made by Beretta, C.G. Haenel, Chapuis, Heym, Lynx, Rößler, Savage Arms, Strasser, and Steel Action. Most straight bolt rifles have a firing mechanism without a hammer (same as most bolt-action guns), but there are some hammer-fired models, such as the Merkel Helix. Firearms using a hammer usually have a comparably longer lock time than hammerless mechanisms. In the sport of biathlon, because shooting speed is an important performance factor and semi-automatic guns are illegal for race use, straight pull actions are quite common and are used almost exclusively in the Biathlon World Cup. The first company to make the straight pull action for .22 caliber was J. G. Anschütz; Peter Fortner junior designed the "Fortner Action", which was incorporated into the Anschütz 1827 Fortner. The Fortner action is specifically the straight-pull ball bearing lock action, which features spring-loaded ball bearings on the side of the bolt which lock into a groove inside the bolt's housing. With the new design came a new dry fire method; instead of the bolt being turned up slightly, the action is locked back to catch the firing pin. The action was later used in the centre-fire Heym SR 30. == Operating the bolt ==

Typically, the bolt consists of a tube of metal inside of which the firing mechanism is housed, and which has at the front or rear of the tube several metal knobs, or "lugs", which serve to lock the bolt in place. The operation can be done via a rotating bolt, a lever, cam action, a locking piece, or a number of systems. Straight pull designs have seen a great deal of use, though manual turn bolt designs are what is most commonly thought of in reference to a bolt-action design due to the type ubiquity. As a result, the bolt-action term is often reserved for more modern types of rotating bolt designs when talking about a specific weapon's type of action. However, both straight pull and rotating bolt rifles are types of bolt-action rifles. Lever-action and pump-action weapons must still operate the bolt, but they are usually grouped separately from bolt-actions that are operated by a handle directly attached to a rotating bolt. Early bolt-action designs, such as the Dreyse needle gun and the Mauser Model 1871, locked by dropping the bolt handle or bolt guide rib into a notch in the receiver, this method is still used in .22 rimfire rifles. The most common locking method is a rotating bolt with two lugs on the bolt head, which was used by the Lebel Model 1886 rifle, Model 1888 Commission Rifle, Mauser M 98, Mosin–Nagant and most bolt-action rifles. The Lee–Enfield has a lug and guide rib, which lock on the rear end of the bolt into the receiver. Bolt knob The bolt knob is the part of the bolt handle that the user grips when loading and reloading the firearm and thereby acts as a cocking handle. On many older firearms, the bolt knob is welded to the bolt handle, and as such becoming an integral part of the bolt handle itself. On many newer firearms, the bolt knob is instead threaded onto the handle, allowing the user to change the original bolt knob for an aftermarket one, either for aesthetical reasons, achieving better grip or similar. The type of threads used vary between firearms. European firearms often use either M6 1 or M8 1.25 threads, for example M6 is used on the SIG Sauer 200 STR, Blaser R93, Blaser R8, CZ 457 while M8 is used on the Sako TRG and SIG Sauer 404. Many American firearms instead use 1/4" 28 TPI (6.35 0.907 mm) or 5/16" 24 TPI (7.9375 1.058 mm) threads. Some other thread types are also used, for example, No. 10 32 TPI (4.826 0.794 mm) as used by Mausingfield. These are often made of either rubber or plastic. ==Reloading==

Most bolt-action firearms are fed by an internal magazine loaded by hand, by en bloc, or by stripper clips, though a number of designs have had a detachable magazine or independent magazine, or even no magazine at all, thus requiring that each round be independently loaded. Generally, the magazine capacity is limited to between two and ten rounds, as it can permit the magazine to be flush with the bottom of the rifle, reduce the weight, or prevent mud and dirt from entering. A number of bolt-actions have a tube magazine, such as along the length of the barrel. In weapons other than large rifles, such as pistols and cannons, there were some manually operated breech-loading weapons. However, the Dreyse Needle fire rifle was the first breech loader to use a rotating bolt design. Johann Nicholas von Dreyse's rifle of 1838 was accepted into service by Prussia in 1841, which was in turn developed into the Prussian Model in 1849. The design was a single shot breech-loader and had the now familiar arm sticking out from the side of the bolt, to turn and open the chamber. The entire reloading sequence was a more complex procedure than later designs, however, as the firing pin had to be independently primed and activated, and the lever was used only to move the bolt. ==See also== • • • Other firearm actions • • • ==References==