M70 Safari Express 458 Win Mag vs CZ550 458 Lott

[Scott CWO]

Winchester swapped back over to CRF around the mid 1990's I believe. It came out as the "Classic" action. For awhile, they offered both the push feed and CRF actions in different models.
Ruger swapped over to CRF when their Mark 2 action came out in 1989 I believe.
I've used all sorts or different designs over the years, and never really had any problems with push feed or CRF rifles. People make a big deal about it, but I don't think it's as big of an issue as it's made out to be. I have a few Sako rifles, and they are as reliable as any true CRF rifle I've owned. In my opinion, the main rifle that caused the debate between CRF and push feed is the Remington 700. It has a tiny extractor, made from a very thin piece of spring steel, held in place with a rivet. I've heard stories of those breaking and or wearing to the point that they won't extract a stuck case. But on the other hand, I've had one for 40 years that's never had a single problem. That said, I still prefer either the Sako extractor or a Mauser type extractor.

For a TRUE dangerous game rifle for guides, PHs and guys that plan to hunt Africa a lot, I would respectfully disagree and there is no reason to take the risk when CRF is available.

One of my best friends was mauled in the woods by a brown bear that his client wounded on a beach on Admiralty Island in Alaska due to a rifle that would not feed a round during the attack as he laid on his back with the bear on top of him while trying to feed a second round into the chamber. It is a big issue when your life depends on it and when the rifle may be inverted or upside down in a struggle. It's not a benchrest or sticks situation.

He survived but the bear tore his right foot to shreds, tore a chunk out of his left thigh (but miraculously missed the femoral artery) and badly chewed up his hands as he shoved the unworkable rifle's stock into the bears mouth with both hands while trying to keep the bear away from his head and neck. When he realized the rifle wouldn't feed, he just kept shoving it into the bears mouth as best he could. The bear had been shot four times and luckily it gave up the attack and laid down to die right next to my friend. My friend waited a while and then crawled out to the beach and passed out. Thankfully, the bear did not pursue him.

The doctors were going to amputate his foot but he begged them to try to fix it so they flew in a surgeon from Seattle. After a long recovery and a several surgeries, he is back to guiding for brown bear with a CRF rifle.

These incidents are rare but it is best to stack the odds in your favor as much as possible. He hit the bear with the fourth round as it charged him at close range in the woods after being shot three times on the open beach. A fifth round to the head or vitals as the bear was on top of him likely would have ended the attack earlier.

 

[TOBY458]

For a TRUE dangerous game rifle for guides, PHs and guys that plan to hunt Africa a lot, I would respectfully disagree and there is no reason to take the risk when CRF is available.

One of my best friends was mauled in the woods by a brown bear that his client wounded on a beach on Admiralty Island in Alaska due to a rifle that would not feed a round during the attack as he laid on his back with the bear on top of him while trying to feed a second round into the chamber. It is a big issue when your life depends on it and when the rifle may be inverted or upside down in a struggle. It's not a benchrest or sticks situation.

He survived but the bear tore his right foot to shreds, tore a chunk out of his left thigh (but miraculously missed the femoral artery) and badly chewed up his hands as he shoved the unworkable rifle's stock into the bears mouth with both hands while trying to keep the bear away from his head and neck. When he realized the rifle wouldn't feed, he just kept shoving it into the bears mouth as best he could. The bear had been shot four times and luckily it gave up the attack and laid down to die right next to my friend. My friend waited a while and then crawled out to the beach and passed out. Thankfully, the bear did not pursue him.

The doctors were going to amputate his foot but he begged them to try to fix it so they flew in a surgeon from Seattle. After a long recovery and a several surgeries, he is back to guiding for brown bear with a CRF rifle.

These incidents are rare but it is best to stack the odds in your favor as much as possible. He hit the bear with the fourth round as it charged him at close range in the woods after being shot three times on the open beach. A fifth round to the head or vitals as the bear was on top of him likely would have ended the attack earlier.

Here's a short video I made, showing a Sako 85 feeding upside down. It's been said to be a Semi-CRF by some, and a push feed by others. Either way it works.

 

[bruce moulds]

bad case controlled round feed rifles can also fail to feed.
bruce.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Winchester swapped back over to CRF around the mid 1990's I believe. It came out as the "Classic" action. For awhile, they offered both the push feed and CRF actions in different models.
Ruger swapped over to CRF when their Mark 2 action came out in 1989 I believe.
I've used all sorts or different designs over the years, and never really had any problems with push feed or CRF rifles. People make a big deal about it, but I don't think it's as big of an issue as it's made out to be. I have a few Sako rifles, and they are as reliable as any true CRF rifle I've owned. In my opinion, the main rifle that caused the debate between CRF and push feed is the Remington 700. It has a tiny extractor, made from a very thin piece of spring steel, held in place with a rivet. I've heard stories of those breaking and or wearing to the point that they won't extract a stuck case. But on the other hand, I've had one for 40 years that's never had a single problem. That said, I still prefer either the Sako extractor or a Mauser type extractor.

Great info and perspective. I later thought of the Weatherby rifles, which have been push feed actions forever. Thanks!

 

[Scott CWO]

Say what you want. I wasn't going to mention it and offend your love of Sako but the rifle that failed him was a Sako. He had a gunsmith look at it. Sako was contacted and he shipped them the rifle. Sako covered his medical bills. It happened. The bolt didn't secure the round and failed by over-rotating and wouldn't close on the next round he tried. Bolt wasn't strong enough. When attacked, a person can put a lot of stress on parts.

 

[One Day...]

Actually, CRF is very commonly misunderstood...

Yes the monster "Mauser" claw extractor is reassuring and hints at massive extraction power, but this is NOT the primary advantage anymore in most commercial actions on which the extractor is beveled at the head in order to be able to slip over the head of a cartridge push fed from the raceway, over a full magazine. As a consequence, the true extracting advantage of the original Mauser extractor is negated: if it can slip over the cartridge head when closing the bolt, it can also slip over it when opening the bolt, hence it can fail to extract a stuck case.

Conversely, the original Mauser extractor was designed so that it could NOT slip over a cartridge head under any circumstance. This virtually guaranteed extraction, but this also prevented the bolt from closing on a cartridge that was not carried into the chamber by the extractor. Legions of "gunsmiths" have failed to realize that beveling the Mauser extractor negates its primary advantage...

The primary advantage of CRF, and what the German Imperial Army wanted when they ordered the work that resulted in the Mauser 1898, was to prevents 1) inadvertent feeding; 2) double feeding; 3) extraction failure.

A push feed bolt will chamber a cartridge in the chamber and NOT EXTRACT THIS CARTRIDGE FROM THE CHAMBER IF THE BOLT HAS NOT BEEN CLOSED, i.e. if the extractor is not snapped over the cartridge head when closing the bolt. The consequence is that:
1) one can actually push a cartridge in the chamber and actually load the rifle without turning/closing the bolt, then pull the bolt back, see no cartridge ahead of the bolt, and close the bolt on a loaded chamber while believing the rifle is empty.
2) in a moment of panic, one can actually push a cartridge in the chamber, not close the bolt for whatever reason, then try to feed another cartridge that gets stuck against the first cartridge already in the chamber, and effectively jam the rifle.

Therefore, the only and true functional test of Controlled Round Feed (CRF) is: does the bolt control (i.e. carries) the round during feeding from the magazine into the chamber? The shape and location of the extractor have actually nothing to do with CRF function.

For example, here it true CRF on a non-Mauser bolt design (a Steyr Mannlicher Luxus bolt in this case). The bolt grabs the cartridge out of the magazine and controls it i.e. carries it into the chamber.

As can be seen, the bolt does not have a big Mauser-style external extractor but it is nonetheless a true CRF bolt.

There are two telltale signs in a CRF bolt design. First: does it have an opening at the bottom to allow the cartridge to slide under the extractor while coming out of the magazine? Second: does the bolt have a spring loaded ejector in the bolt face that would prevent the bolt from grabbing the cartridge as it comes out of the magazine?

Like the Mannlicher Luxus (circa 1970's) the Sako 85 IS a true CRF, even though it does not wear a "Mauser" extractor.

(Photo courtesy of dchamp)

A short and sad story...

Allow me to share a story to illustrate the true value of CRF. Three years ago in the Eastern Cape one person inadvertently loaded a gun in a discussion about cartridge length by pushing into the chamber the one cartridge that was in the magazine; forgot about it in the flow of the discussion; and handed the rifle, bolt open, to someone else who, seeing no cartridge in the magazine or the raceway, believed the rifle was empty, but in fact closed the bolt on the loaded chamber and put the rifle on the back seat of the truck. The next person who grabbed the gun from the back seat depressed the trigger while doing so, and the gun fired. One woman died. I personally know the people involved, this is a true story.
A CRF bolt would have been carrying that cartridge back out of the chamber even if the bolt had not been closed during gun manipulation. THAT is the primary benefit of a CRF on a hunting gun. Of course there were a long list of gun safety violations along the way, but CRF would likely have prevented them from resulting in a death.

Extraction?

Regarding extraction, legend and romance aside, there is very little data, if any, demonstrating that a commercial "Mauser" extractor is superior to a Sako extractor, or Remington extractor. All can slip over a cartridge head.

The original military Mauser extractor WAS superior, because it could not slip over the cartridge head, but as previously noted most modern Mauser-style rifle makers (including both Winchester and CZ by the way) have killed this wonderful function by allowing the extractor to snap over the head of a cartridge push-fed from the raceway and bypassing the cartridge being carried from the magazine to the chamber. This allows to load easily one more round over a full mag but at the price of loosing a virtually foolproof extractor.

I hope this was useful and interesting

 

[CoElkHunter]

Say what you want. I wasn't going to mention it and offend your love of Sako but the rifle that failed him was a Sako. He had a gunsmith look at it. Sako was contacted and he shipped them the rifle. Sako covered his medical bills. It happened. The bolt didn't secure the round and failed by over-rotating and wouldn't close on the next round he tried. Bolt wasn't strong enough. When attacked, a person can put a lot of stress on parts.

Do you think he “short stroked” the bolt when attempting to chamber another round? My hunting buddy did this with MY Browning A Bolt .338WM when shooting a second round at a caribou. He normally hunts with his Browning BLR and doesn’t own or hunt with a bolt action.

 

[Scott CWO]

Do you think he “short stroked” the bolt when attempting to chamber another round? My hunting buddy did this with MY Browning A Bolt .338WM when shooting a second round at a caribou. He normally hunts with his Browning BLR and doesn’t own or hunt with a bolt action.

No, quite the opposite. He pulled it back so hard that it didn't grab a round and it broke. Not human error. Mechanical error.

 

[CoElkHunter]

No, quite the opposite. He pulled it back so hard that it didn't grab a round and it broke. Not human error. Mechanical error.

Wow! Thanks!

 

[scott fairchild]

Wow! Thanks!

I am also a M70 guy .
Last year I buffalo hunted and both guides carried M70 CRF in 458 win mag. There is really no need to go to 458 Lott , 458 win will do the job on most game with the current available ammo.
You can get aftermarket trigger springs if you want to change the factory trigger pull.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Actually, CRF is very commonly misunderstood...

Yes the monster "Mauser" claw extractor is reassuring and hints at massive extraction power, but this is NOT the primary advantage anymore in most commercial actions on which the extractor is beveled at the head in order to be able to slip over the head of a cartridge push fed from the raceway, over a full magazine. As a consequence, the true extracting advantage of the original Mauser extractor is negated: if it can slip over the cartridge head when closing the bolt, it can also slip over it when opening the bolt, hence it can fail to extract a stuck case.

Conversely, the original Mauser extractor was designed so that it could NOT slip over a cartridge head under any circumstance. This virtually guaranteed extraction, but this also prevented the bolt from closing on a cartridge that was not carried into the chamber by the extractor. Legions of "gunsmiths" have failed to realize that beveling the Mauser extractor negates its primary advantage...

The primary advantage of CRF, and what the German Imperial Army wanted when they ordered the work that resulted in the Mauser 1898, was to prevents 1) inadvertent feeding; 2) double feeding; 3) extraction failure.

A push feed bolt will chamber a cartridge in the chamber and NOT EXTRACT THIS CARTRIDGE FROM THE CHAMBER IF THE BOLT HAS NOT BEEN CLOSED, i.e. if the extractor is not snapped over the cartridge head when closing the bolt. The consequence is that:
1) one can actually push a cartridge in the chamber and actually load the rifle without turning/closing the bolt, then pull the bolt back, see no cartridge ahead of the bolt, and close the bolt on a loaded chamber while believing the rifle is empty.
2) in a moment of panic, one can actually push a cartridge in the chamber, not close the bolt for whatever reason, then try to feed another cartridge that gets stuck against the first cartridge already in the chamber, and effectively jam the rifle.

Therefore, the only and true functional test of Controlled Round Feed (CRF) is: does the bolt control (i.e. carries) the round during feeding from the magazine into the chamber? The shape and location of the extractor have actually nothing to do with CRF function.

For example, here it true CRF on a non-Mauser bolt design (a Steyr Mannlicher Luxus bolt in this case). The bolt grabs the cartridge out of the magazine and controls it i.e. carries it into the chamber.

As can be seen, the bolt does not have a big Mauser-style external extractor but it is nonetheless a true CRF bolt.

There are two telltale signs in a CRF bolt design. First: does it have an opening at the bottom to allow the cartridge to slide under the extractor while coming out of the magazine? Second: does the bolt have a spring loaded ejector in the bolt face that would prevent the bolt from grabbing the cartridge as it comes out of the magazine?

Like the Mannlicher Luxus (circa 1970's) the Sako 85 IS a true CRF, even though it does not wear a "Mauser" extractor.

View attachment 291271
(Photo courtesy of dchamp)

A short and sad story...

Allow me to share a story to illustrate the true value of CRF. Three years ago in the Eastern Cape one person inadvertently loaded a gun by pushing into the chamber the one cartridge that was in the magazine; forgot about it in the flow of the discussion; and handed the rifle, bolt open, to someone else who, seeing no cartridge in the magazine, beleived the rifle was empty but in fact closed the bolt on the loaded chamber and put the rifle on the back seat of the truck. The next person who grabbed the gun from the back seat depressed the trigger while doing so, and the gun fired. One woman died. I personally know the people involved, this is a true story.
A CRF bolt would have been carrying that cartridge back out of the chamber even if the bolt had not been closed during gun manipulation. THAT is the primary benefit of a CRF on a hunting gun. Of course there were a long list of gun safety violations along the way, but CRF would likely have prevented them from resulting in a death.

Extraction?

Regarding extraction, legend and romance aside, there is very little data, if any, demonstrating that a commercial "Mauser" extractor is superior to a Sako extractor, or Remington axtractor. All can slip over a cartridge head.

The original military Mauser extractor WAS superior, because it could not slip over the cartridge head, but as previously noted most modern Mauser-style rifle makers (including both Winchester and CZ by the way) have killed this wonderful function by allowing the extractor to snap over the head of a cartridge push-fed from the raceway and bypassing the cartridge being carried from the magazine to the chamber. This allows to load easily one more round over a full mag but at the price of loosing a virtually foolproof extractor.

I hope this was useful and interesting

I really like your experienced perspective on this! But I guess I'm not completely following this because I've never owned a CRF rifle before I bought my new CZ .458WM. I loaded a factory cartridge into the chamber by hand. I pushed the bolt forward against the chambered round, but the bolt wouldn't close and lock. Not snapping over the cartridge head? A push feed style action bolt will lock on the chambered round. I'll have to try loading a cartridge from the raceway and see what happens. Anyway, I've been learning new things about this rifle. As far as your above TRAGIC story, one must always check the chamber of any firearm before they assume it is FULLY unloaded. I've seen this before with semi-auto handguns. A person attempts to unload the handgun. He/she racks the slide back expelling the round in the chamber but unknowingly puts another round from the magazine into the chamber. Then he/she pulls out the magazine thinking the firearm is unloaded, then pulls the trigger. This happened to me as a bystander and the bullet missed me by about a foot. ALWAYS check the chamber of any firearm OR someone might die, as in your example! Thanks for your information!

 

[bruce moulds]

try chambering a whole magazine full from the magazine.
sometimes no 3 or 4 might present a problem, or left or right.
with crf you don't have to close the bolt, just go backwards and forwards.
closing the bolt tests for case sizing.
what happened to you is a good thing when you could not snap the extractor over the rim.
it means that you can more likely pull a tight case out.
you just have to only chamber rounds from the mag.
where the big mauser extractor comes into its own is when extracting tight cases.
the huge surface area contacts a corresponding area of rim.
with really tight cases, small rim contact can result in a piece of rim being torn away, leaving you in big trouble.
this might be preferable to what happens to a rem action, where the soldered on bolt handle might tear off the bolt.
big extractors and bold handles forged as part of the bolt go hand in hand.
it is amazing what can happen when you hammer the bolt open with a piece of wood!
bruce.

 

[One Day...]

I really like your experienced perspective on this! But I guess I'm not completely following this because I've never owned a CRF rifle before I bought my new CZ .458WM. I loaded a factory cartridge into the chamber by hand. I pushed the bolt forward against the chambered round, but the bolt wouldn't close and lock. Not snapping over the cartridge head? A push feed style action bolt will lock on the chambered round. I'll have to try loading a cartridge from the raceway and see what happens. Anyway, I've been learning new things about this rifle. As far as your above TRAGIC story, one must always check the chamber of any firearm before they assume it is FULLY unloaded. I've seen this before with semi-auto handguns. A person attempts to unload the handgun. He/she racks the slide back expelling the round in the chamber but unknowingly puts another round from the magazine into the chamber. Then he/she pulls out the magazine thinking the firearm is unloaded, then pulls the trigger. This happened to me as a bystander and the bullet missed me by about a foot. ALWAYS check the chamber of any firearm OR someone might die, as in your example! Thanks for your information!

Actually I suspect that if you were exerting a little more pressure on it, the bolt would close. CZ has been trying to navigate beveling enough the extractor so that the bolt will close over a cartridge (people would likely complain that the rifle is defective if it did not, even though they would be wrong), and retaining enough strength in the extractor so that it will not slip easily over the head of a case stuck in the chamber. Should the bolt still not want to close, consider yourself lucky, that would mean CZ forgot to bevel, or did not bevel enough, your extractor (unlikely but possible) and you have a better extractor than most

In any case, the proper use of the rifle if you absolutely want 1 in the chamber and 5 in the magazine, is to insert 5 cartridges in the mag, load with the bolt 1 cartridge from the mag into the chamber, put the safety on (hopefully a bolt-mounted true safety that blocks the firing pin), point the rifle in a safe direction, put it upside down, open the magazine floor plate and insert one more cartridge in the magazine. This is admittedly cumbersome and the reason why virtually all commercial Mauser have the beveled extractor so that it can slip over a cartridge pushed into the barrel on top of a fully loaded mag.

Truth be told, with the CZ in .458 you have 5 rounds in the magazine. That ought to be plenty enough for about any hunting scenario. My advice would be to load 5 in the magazine, depress the cartridges down in the mag to close the bolt on an empty chamber, dry fire in a safe direction to be certain you have an empty chamber (do not worry about dry firing on modern center fire rifles, they can take it, and nothing is more positive than hearing a strong "click" to know the rifle is safe) and carry the rifle with an empty chamber until you are about to shoot, or you are engaged in tracking a wounded dangerous game.

Regarding safety, I always fully empty the rifle back at the truck, ask my PH to witness an empty chamber, and ask him to listen to the dry fire. On DG hunts when the PH is armed, I ask him that we cross check each other. This makes both of us very comfortable... I do the same when I hunt with my sons or with friends. Yes it may sound awkward to ask your PH or buddy to do that, but having been around firearms a long time both as an Army officer and a civilian hunter / shooter, I simply do not compromise anymore on this. I would rather be a live 'pain in the neck' than a dead 'easy to go along' guy. And, like you, I HAVE witnessed accidental discharges so I have zero patience for the blah blah anymore

 

[CoElkHunter]

Actually I suspect that if you were exerting a little more pressure on it, the bolt would close. CZ has been trying to navigate beveling enough the extractor so that the bolt will close over a cartridge (people would likely complain that the rifle is defective if it did not, even though they would be wrong), and retaining enough strength in the extractor so that it will not slip easily over the head of a case stuck in the chamber. Should the bolt still not want to close, consider yourself lucky, that would mean CZ forgot to bevel, or did not bevel enough, your extractor (unlikely but possible) and you have a better extractor than most And in any case, you cannot load accidentally,

In any case, the proper use of the rifle if you absolutely want 1 in the chamber and 5 in the magazine, is to insert 5 cartridges in the mag, load with the bolt 1 cartridge from the mag into the chamber, put the safety on (hopefully a bolt-mounted true safety that blocks the firing pin), point the rifle in a safe direction, put it upside down, open the magazine floor plate and insert one more cartridge in the magazine. This is admittedly cumbersome and the reason why virtually all commercial Mauser have the beveled extractor so that it can slip over a cartridge pushed into the barrel on top of a fully loaded mag.

Truth be told, with the CZ in .458 you have 5 rounds in the magazine. That ought to be plenty enough for about any hunting scenario. My advice would be to load 5 in the magazine, depress the cartridges down in the mag to close the bolt on an empty chamber, dry fire in a safe direction to be certain you have an empty chamber (do not worry about dry firing on modern center fire rifles, they can take it, and nothing is more positive than hearing a strong "click" to know the rifle is safe) and carry the rifle with an empty chamber until you are about to shoot, or you are engaged in tracking a wounded dangerous game.

Regarding safety, I always fully empty the rifle back at the truck, ask my PH to witness an empty chamber, and ask him to listen to the dry fire. On DG hunts when the PH is armed, I ask him that we cross check each other. This makes both of us very comfortable... I do the same when I hunt with my sons or with friends. Yes it may sound awkward to ask your PH or buddy to do that, but having been around firearms a long time both as an Army officer and a civilian hunter / shooter, I simply do not compromise anymore on this. I would rather be a live 'pain in the neck' than a dead 'easy to go along' guy. And, like you, I HAVE witnessed accidental discharges so I have zero patience for the blah blah anymore

Thank you very much for all of this info. I will try everything you have suggested with loading the magazine full, etc.

 

[bruce moulds]

one day,
congratulations on good safety protocol.
any responsible companion of yours will only appreciate this.
bruce.

 

[CoElkHunter]

try chambering a whole magazine full from the magazine.
sometimes no 3 or 4 might present a problem, or left or right.
with crf you don't have to close the bolt, just go backwards and forwards.
closing the bolt tests for case sizing.
what happened to you is a good thing when you could not snap the extractor over the rim.
it means that you can more likely pull a tight case out.
you just have to only chamber rounds from the mag.
where the big mauser extractor comes into its own is when extracting tight cases.
the huge surface area contacts a corresponding area of rim.
with really tight cases, small rim contact can result in a piece of rim being torn away, leaving you in big trouble.
this might be preferable to what happens to a rem action, where the soldered on bolt handle might tear off the bolt.
big extractors and bold handles forged as part of the bolt go hand in hand.
it is amazing what can happen when you hammer the bolt open with a piece of wood!
bruce.

Thanks very much for the above information! I will try what you have suggested. I did seize a bolt once on my 1974 .270Winchester M70. I was pig hunting in Calif. with my brother in 1979. I handloaded 63.0 gr. of H4831 with a Sierra 130gr. Boattail (cause that's what Jack O'Connor loaded) and I guess it was a half/ or one grain too HOT. Upon firing, I saw a muzzle flash through the scope and couldn't get the bolt open. I did get the pig though, but the grass was tall and I thought I missed. Anyway, I later took it to a gunsmith and he got the bolt opened and he said there wasn't any damage to the bolt or gun. Thanks!

 

[TOBY458]

Say what you want. I wasn't going to mention it and offend your love of Sako but the rifle that failed him was a Sako. He had a gunsmith look at it. Sako was contacted and he shipped them the rifle. Sako covered his medical bills. It happened. The bolt didn't secure the round and failed by over-rotating and wouldn't close on the next round he tried. Bolt wasn't strong enough. When attacked, a person can put a lot of stress on parts.

Is there a report on this somewhere?

 

[Scott CWO]

It was in an Outdoor Life article back when it happened but not to this level of detail about the rifle. I went and visited my friend in the hospital in Juneau and we have hunted together several times since in Colorado and Alaska. I visited him in Alaska last month when I was nearby guiding bear hunts. He is coming to Colorado in November to archery hunt for Eastern Plains deer with me. I assure you that everything happened as I describe.

 

[Scott CWO]

I am also a M70 guy .
Last year I buffalo hunted and both guides carried M70 CRF in 458 win mag. There is really no need to go to 458 Lott , 458 win will do the job on most game with the current available ammo.
You can get aftermarket trigger springs if you want to change the factory trigger pull.

The Lott has become very popular in Africa with PHs. One of the best PHs I have hunted with even has it as a part of his email address.

 

[Scott CWO]

Is there a report on this somewhere?

I just checked with him. Sako Finnbear. Originally a .375 H&H but had it rebarrelled to a .416 Remington Magnum. The investigation showed that the firing pin snapped back into the fired position when he pulled the bolt backwards hard and the mechanism rotated inside the bolt shroud and wouldn’t allow him to close the bolt. He then gave up on the rifle because he was getting chewed up and used it by sticking it in the mouth of the bear. After a while, the bear stopped attacking him and walked a short distance away and sat down. My friend then got up and made a break for the beach. He called the Coast Guard on his hand held radio and then passed out. The hunter got scared when he heard the attack and ran back to the skiff, leaving my friend for dead. My friend had a badly broken foot, a chunk tore out of his thigh, a broken arm and a broken hand.

In early reports before the gunsmith and Sako investigation, he wondered if he might have short-stroked after his first charging shot but that didn’t make sense because the bolt wouldn’t close.