Sam Report post Posted February 18, 2012 As our minds drift into thoughts of drawing that early bull tag or antelope tag, I have an opinion type question to ask everyone. It involves the storing of guns in a gun safe. How many of you guys store your guns with the action open? I have heard that this is the best way to store a gun because it takes tension off of the trigger.......any thoughts? Is it really necessary to keep the bolt or action open? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yotebuster Report post Posted February 18, 2012 I would say its quite the opposite. With autoloaders you are putting tension on the recoil spring by storing with action open. My bolt guns get put away with the firing pin down, you can do this by either dry firing it first or by holding the trigger down while closing the bolt (this will let the firing pin down "slowly"). I just dry fire my pumps and autos after I close the action. There are lots of people out there who will raise red flags about dry firing, but with centerfires you can dry fire the heck out of em without hurting them. If you are really worried about it, get a spring loaded snap cap to dry fire it into, or jam some pencil eraser into the primer pocket of an empty brass and make a poor mans snap cap, better yet, just dry fire it. Disclaimer: make sure your gun is unloaded before dry firing it, so as to make sure you are not an idiot, and also to keep someone from posting about how dry firing is dangerous. Then you have a gun with all of the springs let down. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yotebuster Report post Posted February 18, 2012 One more thing, you can hurt a rimfire by dry firing it, because the firing pin can hit metal in your chamber when dry fired (or so people say) so I just leave my rimfire pumps and autos cocked, never had a problem. My bolt rimfires get the firing pin let down in the above stated fashion. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
#1huntinfool Report post Posted February 18, 2012 My dad is gunsmith, and he says not to, cause you get dust in your gun after a period of time. doesn't hurt them either way. Some people like to leave the action open to show it's unloaded. But in my opinion every gun is loaded right?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
308Nut Report post Posted February 18, 2012 All guns are loaded. When mine come out of the safe, the muzzle is always pointed somewhere safe and the bolt gets opened to verify that it is unloaded. When not being used, I use my pinky finger to verify the chamber is clear. Then I depress the firing pin by setting the safety in the firing position then pulling the trigger while slowly closing the bolt. Weakened firing pin springs will slow the locktime of the firing pin when the trigger is pulled. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Airbusdriver Report post Posted February 18, 2012 I would say its quite the opposite. With autoloaders you are putting tension on the recoil spring by storing with action open. My bolt guns get put away with the firing pin down, you can do this by either dry firing it first or by holding the trigger down while closing the bolt (this will let the firing pin down "slowly"). I just dry fire my pumps and autos after I close the action. There are lots of people out there who will raise red flags about dry firing, but with centerfires you can dry fire the heck out of em without hurting them. If you are really worried about it, get a spring loaded snap cap to dry fire it into, or jam some pencil eraser into the primer pocket of an empty brass and make a poor mans snap cap, better yet, just dry fire it. Disclaimer: make sure your gun is unloaded before dry firing it, so as to make sure you are not an idiot, and also to keep someone from posting about how dry firing is dangerous. Then you have a gun with all of the springs let down. What Yote said, +1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
