Bolt Operation

[pewpewfever]

I’m having an issue regarding bolt rotation throwing my sight off the target. I’ve been starting out at low magnification, finding the target, zooming in until I can see the hash marks on the reticle, aiming my wind hold, and advancing the bolt, but then when I rotate the bolt, I lose my sight picture, and I have to reaim, which costs me time. Sometimes, the bolt rotation throws the target out of my field of view, and so I wind up hunting for the target with a closed bolt, which is hardly better than sky bolting to me. So it’s costing me time, but it’s also a potential safety issue.

What do I need to do to address this issue? I was using my friend’s RPR. Is it realistic to think that this problem will disappear with a better action? Would it be better to use a different procedure, such as finding the target at low mag and aiming the best I can with the crosshairs, advancing and locking the bolt, and only then increasing magnification and aiming my wind hold? Seems like that would save me time, but I’m not sure it’s a safer procedure. Thoughts?

 

[Sheldon N]

My suggestions would be...

Don't mess with zooming out zooming in. It's a huge time waster. Set your scope at 12-15x and run the stage. If you have trouble finding targets, work on that in position building where you point the rifle and set up your body aligned with the target.

Find target in scope once you are in position, ideally it's already in view since you pointed the gun correctly when you set it down and built the position. If you lose the target, re-align yourself by looking with the naked eye then go back to scope. Don't try to "hunt through a straw" to locate the target.

Secure the rifle with three points of contact, front hand on the fore end of the rifle, rifle on the bag, buttstock in shoulder pocket. Hold the gun in position then close the bolt while looking at the target through scope.

You should be able to easily stay on target when closing the bolt. If it's taking so much effort to close the bolt then perhaps something is not right with your ammo headspace or bullet jam. Closing the bolt should feel like dry firing, no extra effort.

 

[CShooter92]

What magnification are you zooming in to once you find the target? I generally run my scope on 12x throughout the entire match, very rarely change it unless I can't find a target.

How stiff is your bolt close? I've never had the issue of losing target when closing my bolt. If it's really stiff, you may have ammunition issues.

 

[pewpewfever]

The RPR bolt close is stiff even without any ammunition. My friend thinks it’s just dirty but I think it was always this stiff. I’m the one who cycled it 1000 times trying to loosen it up. It did smooth out the advance but not the rotation.

 

[Sheldon N]

If it's that bad when dry firing it, then yes a better action will help.

FWIW, with my TL3 I can close the bolt with one finger, holding the rifle only by the fore end pinched against the bag on a barricade (no shoulder contact), and can still stay on target in the scope when closing the bolt.

 

[Surfingsk8r]

You could try polishing some of the bearing surfaces that the bolt and bolt head interface with to try and smooth it out a bit. Just don't go to overboard. A little goes a long way. Try some valve lapping compound to start and make sure you clean it up really well afterward

 

[308pirate]

Shoulda bought a Howa

 

[brianf]

Teach your self to shoot both eyes open.
Or at least both eyes open and transposing the ret “outside” the scope.
Both eyes open
swing rifle around to target
Once you see the ret on the target you can close one in you want.
But both open also helps with wind flags and such

 

[OlieTheDog]

Teach your self to shoot both eyes open.
Or at least both eyes open and transposing the ret “outside” the scope.
Both eyes open
swing rifle around to target
Once you see the ret on the target you can close one in you want.
But both open also helps with wind flags and such

Shooting with both eyes open is really helping me. With my non-magnified guns, I shoot lefty, but I’m finding if I shoot righty with my magnified optics, I can see he target “floating” with the reticle on it. Hard to explain, but shooting double eyed with a magnified optic has made a huge difference.