jimbo1972
AH veteran
If you look at how current sniper programs were established is in Vietnam they had a big need for what would later become Marine Scout Sniper. The Major in charge of the program went down to the local sporting goods store and bought Remington model 700 and Winchester Model 70s of the shelf along with Redfield scopes. The Winchester model 70 was post 64 so both were push feed designs. Once the program was established everyone copied their training, weapons etc. so the standard became push feed. Plus the “security” for the sniper is protected by M-16 or similar type weapons.
Big issue with push feed is the extractor. Imagine a rifle is loaded with a cartridge that was originally tested in 50 degrees, put those cartridges a hot environment and many powders will produce a lot more pressure than tested at 50 degrees. Add to this is dust that gets into everything, it is easy to pull the extractor out of the rifle, with the only alternative is to use a cleaning rod to push the fired cartridge out. Not something I want to deal with with DG animal bearing down on me. I’m sure 99.9% of the time it won’t matter and you will be fine, but that small percentage of hunters this happens to is in trouble and better pray their PH doesn’t miss.
Big issue with push feed is the extractor. Imagine a rifle is loaded with a cartridge that was originally tested in 50 degrees, put those cartridges a hot environment and many powders will produce a lot more pressure than tested at 50 degrees. Add to this is dust that gets into everything, it is easy to pull the extractor out of the rifle, with the only alternative is to use a cleaning rod to push the fired cartridge out. Not something I want to deal with with DG animal bearing down on me. I’m sure 99.9% of the time it won’t matter and you will be fine, but that small percentage of hunters this happens to is in trouble and better pray their PH doesn’t miss.