Thread: Opening bolt before handling rifle.

Originally Posted by zimmer

Ha ha nothing like a purple charge to get peoples' attention.

Went to a gun and hunting expo many years ago where an army instructor was demonstrating the 303's "safety" features.
He was up on the stage a bit away from the audience (mostly local NZDA members a lot of whom still used 30s back then).
After some handling and talking he closed the bolt and then proceeded to wack the butt down on the stage several times with the intention that he could make the thing "go off"
What he hadn't bothered to tell the audience was that he had slipped in a blank round.
Well, instead of just a click the bloody thing went off big time and the sound was extremely load in the small auditorium we were in.
I still clearly remember that demo.
Slightly OT for this thread but still a noteworthy lesson.

Had the same thing done to us back in 1988 in school lot of boarded looking farming sons did not look so board once the semi auto went off after repeatedly raking the slide. Was a centre fire too. Never forgotten that lesson.