Bolt (firearm)

“ When the bolt is closed, or only partly open, the cut-off may be turned up or down as desired, but if the bolt is drawn fully to the rear, the magazine can not be cut off unless the top cartridge or the follower be pressed down slightly and the bolt pushed forward so that the cut-off may be turned "off."
In the case of a misfire, don't open the bolt immediately, as it may be a hangfire. Misfires are often due to the fact that the bolt handle was not fully pressed down. Sometimes in pulling the trigger the soldier raises the bolt handle without knowing it. ”

“ But, the barrel body and bolt recoiling together 3/16 of an in, the rear end of the bolt-lock (10) is no longer supported, the rocker (15) acting on the forward tooth (14) pulls down the bolt-lock and its upper teeth, the nose of the bolt-lock falling into the recess just behind the projection (12) . ”

“ A spring returns the extractor to its place when the empty cartridge cases have been ejected, and brings the barrel to an angle of about 45°, for convenience in loading. The soundness and rigidity of the weapon depend upon the efficiency of the connexion between the barrels and the standing breech, and a top snap bolt has proved the strongest and handiest with the pistol, as with the shot-gun. ”

“ The whole action of the gun depends upon the hammer after it is pushed back by the bolt being held back until the bolt has gone completely forwards and locked the breech. If only the trigger detent existed, and that were kept pressed down, the hammer, after being pushed back by the bolt, would immediately follow up the latter, and might fire the cartridge prematurely, or fail to fire it at all; hence the use of the sear in addition to the trigger. ”

“ The magazine rifle is purposely made with a bolt like a door bolt, so that it can be operated easily under all conditions, but the automatic pistol, evidently to give it a neat external appearance, has no projection to take hold of to drive back the slide, which, besides, takes more strength than is required to operate the bolt of a magazine rifle. ”

“ During the first movement of the trigger in cocking the revolver, the nose of the bolt is withdrawn, allowing free rotation of the cylinder. The object of the bolt is to prevent rotation of the cylinder in transportation The hand is attached by its pivot to the trigger, and, as the latter swings on its pin when the hammer is being cocked, the hand is raised and revolves the cylinder, and also serves to lock the cylinder in position at the time of firing. ”

“ With the right hand he turns and draws the bolt back, takes a cartridge between the thumb and first two fingers and places it in the receiver; places palm of the hand against the back of the bolt handle; thrusts the bolt home with a quick motion, turning down the handle, and carries the hand to the small of the stock. Each rear-rank man moves to the right front, takes a similar position opposite the interval to the right of his front-rank man, muzzle of the piece extending beyond the front rank, and loads. ”

“ F is the hammer carrying the hand or pawl S, which operates on the ratchet-wheel, which wheel and hand are arranged in the same way with the same parts in the rifle; but the hand is as here represented on the reverse side. The bolt which holds the receiver is, however, differently constructed to enable it to act in the space which it must occupy. ”

“ After this battle we captured some damaged machine-guns; this was the firearm most dreaded by us. A large iron plate serves the purpose of a shield, through which aim is taken, and the trigger can be pulled while the gun is moving upward, downward, to the left, or to the right. More than six hundred bullets are pushed out automatically in one minute, as if a long, continuous rod of balls was being thrown out of the gun. It can also be made to sprinkle its shot as roads are watered with a hose. It can cover a larger or smaller space, or fire to a greater or less distance as the gunner wills. ”

“ Trigger.—Pull back trigger and lift out.
Sear.—Remove sear, sear spring box and sear spring.
Butt Latch.—Punch out butt latch pin and remove butt latch, and butt latch spring.
In ordinary practice the guard group need never be stripped.
52 Bolt and Rod Group. The bolt and rod group comprises the bolt complete and operating rod complete. These two assembled parts are withdrawn together from the receiver, and may then be separated by lifting bolt clear of operating post on rod.
Bolt Complete. Feed Operating Stud.—Unscrew and remove feed operating stud from rear end of bolt. ”

“ Fitting Bolt-Loops.—To ascertain the position of the loop where the bolt or wire goes through to hold the barrel in place, insert a fine steel needle through the wood until it strikes the hole, and then enlarge around it to accommodate the hole and the loop. [119] If for a bolt, a slender tool made like a saw will enlarge the hole in the wood, letting the tool follow in the loop and act as a guide to shape the hole. The finishing of the hole in the wood may be done with a bolt float, shown in Fig. ”

“ The locks and the large and numerous mounts on the stock are elaborately chiseled steel in strong relief with designs of animals, monsters, and semi-human figures against a background of floral arabesques.
Not all flintlocks were on firearms. The same mechanism was used on tinder boxes, alarm clocks, and gunpowder testers. The powder tester (Fig. 49) was like a pistol with a friction cover closing the mouth of the barrel. It was loaded (of course without a bullet) and fired. The force of the explosion blew the cover away from the barrel against the friction of a heavy spring ”

“ If now the trigger be pulled, the hammer flies forwards, strikes the protruding end of the firing pin, and the cartridge fires; the gases cause the gas lever to swing round and drive back the slide. The pin (14) working in the cam groove (97) causes the rear of the bolt to rise and clear itself from the recoil blocks (not shown) on the receiver, and then to move rearwards horizontally, driving the hammer back until the latter is caught and held by the sear and trigger. ”

“ We sat almost exactly in the centre of a circle of these rings.
"The reason is this," said Daisy: "every bullet in your cartridges is steel-tipped and armour-piercing. To the base of each bullet is attached a thin wire of pallium. Pallium is that new metal, a thread of which, drawn out into finest wire, will hold a ton of iron suspended. Every bullet is fitted with minute coils of miles of this wire. When the bullet leaves the rifle it spins out this wire as a shot from a life-saver's mortar spins out and carries the life line to a wrecked ship. ”

“ The great defect in the hexagonal-bored rifle is the extreme amount of friction, and the consequent useless expenditure of means.
The bullet is produced in the most accurate manner in a lathe, and is composed of an alloy of lead, tin, [373] and manganese, so as to render it hard enough to resist the tendency to squash or swage; which is the case in General Jacob’s principle. The angles on the bullet are cut with the greatest precision, in order to fit the groove of the barrel; constituting, in fact, a female screw of two turns in every thirty-nine inches of length. ”

“ In loading a rifle the powder is first measured in a “charger,” and then poured down the barrel; next comes the patch, which is usually a piece of new and strong cotton cloth, most commonly the kind known as white drilling. This, having been tallowed upon one side, the tallowed side is spread over the muzzle of the gun, and the bullet is pressed upon it into the muzzle, the side from which the “neck,” formed in moulding, has been cut, must be directly downward. Generally with the handle of a knife the bullet is pressed into the bore as far as it can be sent by such means ”

“ The small-calibre rifle shoots straighter and hits harder than the large bore one, and the recoil is less, and so is the weight of the weapon. Lead is found to be too soft a material for the bullet of the small-bore rifles, as it does not keep in the rifling, which has a sharper turn than that in the older weapon; hence the bullets are now cased in steel or nickel. These bullets have remarkable power of penetration. Some will go through a steel plate 11⁄4 inch thick, making a clean hole in it, and the Lebel bullet penetrates 15 inches of solid oak, at a distance of 220 yards. ”

“ For hand-guns, this early match-lock was followed by the wheel-lock. This led up to the flint-lock, which it is curious to compare with the cross-bow, for the bent bow released by the trigger, which in the cross-bow did the actual work of shooting out the missile, has now come down, in the form of a spring and trigger, to the subordinate use of striking the light to ignite the powder which actually propels the ball. In more modern guns, the trigger and spring still remain, the improvement lying in the use of fulminating silver in the cap, ignited by the blow of the hammer. ”

“ If the bullet sticks in the mould, strike the empty half of the mould on the outside, directing the blow toward the bullet. This will jar the bullet out of the mould without difficulty. Never strike the mould with a hammer or any hard substance, and never attempt to pry a bullet out of the mould or touch the interior surface with an iron implement, tool, or anything that will mar it. The least indentation of the sharp edges of the mould will cause the bullets to stick and make them imperfect. ”

“ The military rifle carried a spherical bullet, and, like all others of the period, it necessitated the use of a mallet to strike the ball, which, being a size larger than the bore, required the blow to force it into the rifling of the barrel in order to catch the grooves.
Sporting rifles were of various sizes, but they were constructed upon a principle generally accepted, that extreme accuracy could only be obtained by burning a very small charge of powder. ”

“ To place a weapon from full to half-cock, by not lowering the hammer to the full extent of the spring, and then drawing it back to half-cock as before described, is a most dangerous practice, as the hammer may not be properly inserted in the clip, and an accident might be the result. A man once having taken up his position at the firing-point, and [28] having loaded his piece, should never return into the company of his comrades till his piece (particularly if a pistol or revolver) is discharged, or till all its chambers have been expended. ”

“ Each barrel has its own breech-plug, striker, spring, and extractor, and each fires independently of the rest, so that all are not out of action together. The gun has a swivelled mount easily elevated and trained, and the steel frames take up the force of the discharge. In rapid firing one gunner [Pg 99] can work the firing-handle while another lays and alters the direction. The firing is operated by a lever working backwards and forwards by hand, and the gun can be discharged at the rate of 600 rounds per minute. ”

“ When the full charge is used, a metal-cased bullet is required which must be purchased from the manufacturers. Reduced loads with lead bullets will operate in some of the pistols only. An overcharge of powder for a lead [Pg 166] bullet will lead the barrel and is liable to cause difficulty with the mechanism, and accidents. Only experienced persons familiar with the operations of loading the rimless shells and whether or not the arms will operate with the charges they propose to use, should attempt reloading this ammunition. ”

“ No attempt should be made to secure higher velocities or greater penetration with the ordinary lead bullet than is obtained with black powder. Such results can only be produced with hard alloy or jacketed bullets, special rifling, etc., and in arms designed to withstand the severe conditions incident to such augmented effects. Excessive charges in regulation arms, besides being extremely dangerous, are likely to cause the bullet to strip the rifling and lead the barrel. ”

“ To communicate this very high rotary movement to the bullet in the instant of time during which it is passing through the barrel, the rifling of the gun has to exert an enormous torsion on the bullet. Lead, no matter how hardened, is not sufficiently strong, as it will not only strip and pass straight through the gun without taking any rotary movement whatever, but under such very high pressures it behaves like wax, and is thrown from the gun in a distorted mass. ”

“ The barrel of a first-quality gun of this character is wrought iron, made eight-square, and finely finished. The lock is steel, well put up, and provided with double or set triggers. The stock is either black-walnut or maple highly polished and oil-finished. The bore is given as perfect a degree of finish as iron is capable of taking, and the rifles are deeply-cut and entirely regular all the way through. The sights are made with great care, some of the finest guns having an elevating hind-sight to be changed for long or short range—say, for 500 or 50 yards. ”

“ A second improvement gave the shooter the choice of cocking the hammer and firing it in the usual way, if he preferred it. The next step was to make the chambers breech-loading, by boring them right through, and packing the powder and bullet in a strong based cartridge, carrying its own ignition. In pistols constructed on this plan the chamber arriving at the top is brought against a false breech through which the striker is driven by the hammer. In the latest pattern of this pistol, the cylinder and barrel open away from the false breech on a hinge underneath ”