Bolt Actions: 101

Ok, I'm a little late to this party. I was amazed at how much I really didn't fully comprehend of the intricacies of a given "bolt action" rifle until I watched this episode. Kudos! I hope you could do a followup video, say a round table of you, Bruno, Mae, Jay, and perhaps Mark and Suzy, to discuss what you consider the best and worst of each subpart of the bolt action rifle in WWI in historical context to come up with what the "best" fantasy WWI rifle would look like (perhaps even animated). Might be an easier episode, other than wrangling up everybody and the multi-camera setup/editing.

Any chance of 1889 Belgian episode soon? Pretty please.

Just to fan the flames of the cock on open vs. cock on close.....for those that honor the genius of Paul Mauser, I'll note that the only actions he designed that cocked on opening were for Germany (M71, M71/84 and M98). The actions that were designed for others or for the open market in general were cock on close. Yes most of the world jumped on cock on opening once the M98 was in mass production.....but that wasn't Paul Mauser's doing.

Very interesting episode! Another advantage of the cock-on-closing action is that the cocking piece does not extend beyond the end of the bolt as the bolt is worked, letting the shooter maintain his cheek position on the stock while working the bolt. The Enfield adds to this with rear locking lugs, making the bolt stroke another half-inch or so shorter than it would be with front lugs.

Have ya'll reconsidered the No Evac decision? Things may get sporty for SC if the models are correct.

mild steel is going to be softer than the barrel, the problem there is steel on steel is a recipe for galding, it's going to try to cold weld itself inside the barrel if there's enough contact to do so, rifling and plain steel projectiles don't get along. You can see this in other areas as well, if you look at a worm and wheel gearbox, the worm is usually steel, and the wheel is usually brass/bronze. Copper alloys are far more expensive than steel, and steel can easily exceed the strength of those alloys, so it would make sense to make it with a steel wheel, but worm and wheel gearboxes don't roll like other gears do, they slide, and steel sliding on steel like that tends to cause the gears to try to weld together, particularly under high load. The material on the outside of a rifle bullet should therefore be a material that won't try to weld itself to the inside of the barrel

That was one long bathroom break. :)

Othias you are the man!

As a left handed, devil-spawn shooter I definitely prefer cock-on-open actions. My M1917 was difficult to operate.

Could another reason for long barreled rifles be a hold over from bayonet charges?

The beards that are feared

Noice! Also, I don't think you really have to be that apologetic to the Patreon supporters. I would assume that most of us keep tabs on what's been going on with the channel and we know by know that you're committed to this project: we (or at least I for one) won't hold it against you if you do an occasional easy episode to ensure you can pace yourself and not go completely insane from the workload. We stick around for the quality and the character... and Crozier & Lewis. Yeah, lots of Crozier and Lewis

Good luck riding it out. Hopefully it diminishes and/or misses you entirely.

That's an epic bonus episode. As nitty gritty as i can handle. Good luck with the weather.

OH ? well stay safe and thanks for the emergency up load. and thanks for show us the elusive Bruno ! I'll have to watch this tomorrow. I'll take 2:40 on rifle any day. I know this is going to be an informative and entertaining episode.

Almost three hours about Bolt Actions? That seems pretty neat to me!