Question:

With reference to the picture below, does the end of the bolt body (the face with the number stamp) always contact the breach face?

I'm sure it does otherwise there would be the possibility of an explosion from the breach, right?

Reason for asking is, if this face does contact the breach and the firing pin extends beyond that face then dry-firing will see the pin striking the breach face and therefor potentially causing damage.

If this is the case, can the firing pin be adjusted without altering it's length?

Otherwise, is there a special round that can be used for repeated dry-firing? I've tried using a spent case but the deformation is such that it gets pretty tight and messy around the primer area.

I have been using rifles for quite a few years, granted that I havn't delt with the Anschutz before, but was always told never to dry fire a rim fire rifle for the exact reason you stated.
I have seen it mentioned in the Mannel literiture that their rifle can be dry-fired, but that rifle uses a very different locking/firing pin set-up.

Just did some searching and found that even if the pin does stop short of the chamber it still slams into the inside of the bolt and can cause the pin to break but at the very least will eventually cause wear.

With a little more searching I found something called a "Snap Cap" .

My next search is to find out how many times these snap caps can be struck before being renderred unusable.

Engineered for a long life of dry fire training and practice applications plus effective release of pressure on your on your firing pin spring which extends the life of your firearm.

Material: High Impact Polymer

Notes:
# Allows the shooter to safely practice trigger pull techniques
# Can be used to test the functioning of extractors and ejectors in short rifle only
# Allows tension to be released from hammer springs when storing guns
# Actual size is 22 Short (0.688"), but will work in 22LR for dry fire practice
# May not feed into 22LR

Here's another interesting design. This picture is obviously a center fire, but they list a 22 cal (assuming it's a rimfire).

Seldo I shot in Dry fire. But rather than to release to empty I re-use 2 or 3 times cartridge shoted.
Hey Wheelz ....you could also clean well and polish your bolt !!!!
Ciao

Massimo

Yeah, a little grubby huh?

I just use fired cases, collect your empties from the range, tap them to get rid of residue and your away. You can dry fire on them 3 or 4 times each. Easy peasy.

Anschutz have a training pin for dry firing match 54

1807T-12

http://jga.anschuetz-sport.com/index.php...1&sprache=1

Thanks Aussi,

TSNZ 2008 Pricelist has them at $94.10
Includes a spring so I would presume it is a much weaker spring... although that would give a different release pressure.

That's what I've been doing. The head gets pretty mangled after a few shots, but I guess that doesn't matter.
I was getting sick of picking them up and reloading them especially as they are now swollen, but I just found that lifting the bolt lever and recocking without ejecting the shell makes life a little easier...duh!

Wheelz, On some models you can get a dummy firing pin specially for dry firing. Its basically a normal firing pin but shortened a little at the busines end so as not to strike the end of the barrel. but for ease of use and just plain lazyness & as a cheapskate at heart I reckon Max & Bullwacka have got the right idea. Its best that you extract & eject the old case after each dry fire & if used again just make sure that it goes in so that the firing pin strikes a fresh area on the case each time.
As for the bolt clearance etc; obviously the rim of the cartrige is contained in the cutout in the end of the bolt and the loading ramp and yes it will rupture the rim if the headspace gets massively to large. I have had the firing pin pierce the rim on one occasion andyes it does grab your undivided attention, thankfully and amaisingly I did still got a 10, guess the bullet had already left the barrel by the time I got around to jumping with fright.
Excessive head space will be evidenced by bulging of the case under the rim of the spent cartrige way before there is a danger of the cartrige rupturing.

Training pin.... very expensive I think.
When You shot dry-firing use fired cases tray and,if You have Anschutz bolt, unscrew terminal part of bolt ( Where is tip red When fire pin is loaded ).
Unscrewing .... so fire pin come out less with less propulsion from bolt, the spring's pin is less compressed.

I hope You understad my very bad "english language"
ciao Pete

Massimo

Unfotunately the Match 54 action bolts do not unscrew like the later version actions, they have Bayonet type socket (the safety catch) holding the rear of the bolt together.

I could quite easily spin up dummy rounds or firing pins for training use if people were interested

Thanks Krico, but after all that I'll probably carry on using spent brass as most others have suggested.
I brought home a handful from outdoor tonight.

Hey Krico I'd be interested in a firing pin obviously depending on the time vs cost scenario.

I've been using spent cases but I would like not to have the hassels.

Wheelz

To answer your questions from my some what limited rimfire gunsmithing experience is as follows.

NO....the end of the bolt face AND the extractors should NEVER touch the breach of the barrel!!

The end of the bolt, as your picture depicts where the last three numbers of the action serial number is stamped, should have several thousandths clearance from the rear of the barrel.Also the extractors should "fit nicely" into the extractor slots that are milled into the rear of the barrel also. There is a very "delicate dance" going on there every time you load and shoot the rifle.

You can check this clearance by first determining the Headspace of your rifle with a set of gauges. Let us say that your rifle is headspaced at a snug .041, you should be happy.Now take a caliper and measure the depth of the "relief" that is milled into your bolt. Take this measurement from the face of the bolt to the bottom of the relief with the caliper.Do this several times and get a good average of your readings. So lets say you got a reading of .038 for the relief cut on your bolt. The clearance of your bolt face to your barrel is thus .003, which is great.
If you sit back and digest what I have just explained, you will quickly come to the stark conclusion that you hope that the day that Franz milled the relief in the bolt in your rifle was NOT a Monday or Friday but a day when he was just awarded a pay raise!!You do not want this relief to be too deep or you will never be able to achieve proper headspace without the bolt contacting the back of the barrel
Headspace is critical to the performance of your rifle.The factories are constrained by production decisions and thus give you a "generic" headspace that is a good median.The Walther and Anschutz "pinch barrel actions" are revolutionary in this respect as they allow for easy headspace changes to suit the type of ammo to be employed.
You can very well be saying to yourself"WAIT a minute there Texas cowboy..I think you are full of cow poo". Let me give you a short but poignant story. I had a friend that was consumed with rimfire accuracy and built his own 50yd testing tunnel with all kinds of sensing instruments in the tunnel. He spent about 5 years testing hundreds of rifles and ideas and expended tens of thousands of rounds of ammo in his quest to explain why some some gun/ammo combinations shoot well and some do not. He never did find the answer he was looking for BUT the one true FACT that he could speak to with data to prove his point is that headspace is critical to the performance of your rifle when matched to the ammo.His results are another story for another day. If you care to know I will post some of his findings as they relate to my 2013 and my 1913.And yes, the headspace of the Match 54 action(1813 and 1913) with a pinned in barrel can have the headspace changed!!

Finally, NEVER dry fire a gun without a spent case or snap cap installed. Over time, it will damage the firing pin and "stake" the the chamber in the barrel...sometimes to the point where cartridge insertion and extraction are hampered.The Anschutz dry fire pin is simply a shortened pin to keep it from hitting the end of the barrel.

This was probably a lot more than you wanted to know, so excuse the length of this post.

Roy

Hell no!
That was great. I have always been causious about dry firing to the point where I just wouldn't do it with an empty chamber and not knowing the firing pin clearance (if any).
Some state that if you use a shorter pin or your rifle was built with pin-chamber clearance then it's ok to dry fire empty, however, I've also read on other sites that this situation just allows the pin to slam the inside of the bolt and can break, but will definitely wear over time.
Your thoughts on this?
As snap caps are not currently available in NZ and not very durable anyway, I'll continue to use spent cases.

Thanks for your "big picture" Roy and given the description I'm going to quantify the headspace on my own set.

Cheers,
Pete

Well Wheelz, no one has told me to quash my Tall Texas Tales,thus I feel compelled to continue with my diatribe on Headspace.

My good friend had done extensive testing on rimfire ammo and was in fact hired on as a consultant to Lapua to test lots of Midas ammo during the primer mix change.He had at his disposal an unlimited return to battery rimfire benchrest gun, the first that I had ever seen,that was a custom hand built work of art. It was simply stunning!! He also had several conventional benchrest guns in rimfire that had been customized so that headspace could be altered.
I mentioned to him that I had recently purchased a 2013 and it was one of the first 2013 in the country. My friend went nuts and immediately began to insist that I deliver the Annie to him so he could play with the headspace in the new "pinch barrel action". I dropped the gun off so he could play with it while I went on to a long range match. I also left a brick of ELEY 10X for him to test .

His methodology for testing in his tunnel was to test at night so the heat waves in the tunnel did not cause any conditions and he shot 5 groups of 10 shots per group. he would then agg the 5 groups and record the agg. measurement. He would then set the headspace .0005 less, using the headspace gauges that i had made up and left with him, and shoot 5 more 10 shot groups.
He did this exercise from .043 down to .038 if I recall correctly.Nonetheless you get the idea of his testing criteria.

Several days passed before I was able to return to pick up my gun and see how the testing went.

Upon arrival we sat down and he produced a graph with all of his testing data points on it and a table to describe the data that he had collected using the 2013. What it showed was absolutely astounding to say the least. With the targets as evidence, he showed that as the headspace on the 2013 was reduced by .0005, there was a corresponding reduction in grouping, at around 10% if my fuzzy memory serves me correct, down to point at which a further reduction in headspace began to INCREASE the group!!

WOW...I will give you a little time to catch your breath...there.Yes sir, the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns was applicable to the subject of rimfire headspace.

Then my friend opened a folder and produced several identical graphs showing the exact same curve with the same data points depicting headspace/group agg measurements and told me these were for his guns....not mine!!What he was trying to impress upon me was that headspace had a direct effect on the accuracy of a rimfire!Too loose was bad for accuracy and too tight was bad also.There is a very delicate balance to be achieved. We discussed what all the testing he had done meant and that there was some body of evidence or so called evidence that more or less stated that headspace was NOT that critical to accuracy, simply set it a very accepted measurement and continue on.

He also made it clear that the headspace that shot the smallest group was ONLY good for ELEY 10X and to a lesser extent, that lot of ammo. A change to Lapua or RWS or Federal would shift the optimum headspace / min grouping measurement.The optimum headspace to produce the smallest grouping is determined by the ammo that is being shot!!"Well heck cowboy", you might say.."everybody knows that you are REQUIRED to match the ammo to the gun for the best grouping...you buffoon!!" Well yes, but did my friend just stumble upon the explanation of why some ammo shoots noticeably better in some guns than other guns? Now take a very long breath and relax and think about this for a minute...or is it the barrel..because I dont know!!

What... you thought I was going to reveal the meaning of life!! I am barely able to keep my head above water when it comes to these deep issues!! On a serious note, what I am convinced of is that headspace is critical to the accuracy of your rifle.

I know by this time you are screaming "Just tell me the magic number you buffoon, I NEED that magic number so that I can cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war at the next match"! That is where this gets tricky. The optimum headspace to give maximum accuracy is predicated on the thickness of the rim of the ammo used, the consistency of the thickness of the rim of the ammo used,and the ability to reach the headspace goal, ie is the relief in the bolt cut too deep such that reaching your headspace goal would induce the bolt to be hitting the back of the barrel. I once measured a bolt in a Olympic grade rifle that had the relief depth of .041. This means that that .042 was absolute min headspace for this gun.

The headspace setting for my 2013 was .0395 for the certain lot of ELEY 10X that I supplied to be tested in the gun.This is by NO means suggesting that you should run to your gunsmith and demand that he set your headspace to this setting.This setting was derived by a very experienced shooter only after very careful testing of several hundred rounds of ammo.I will freely tell you that I adjusted the headspace to .040 for ease of mind and shot it there.The only really viable actions that the headspace can be easily adjusted is the Walther or Anschutz "pinch barrel actions".

I told my friend that I had a 1913 round action with a pinned factory barrel at home. I told him how I had devised a "sleazy" way of altering the headspace in this rifle but it was reliable. He implored me to bring it to him for a testing session to see if he could replicate his findings with this gun. I agreed to do so....but those results will be for the next post as this is already way to long.

Roy

Ps by headspace..you did not mean that round cavity in a motorcycle helmet....did you?

What model Anschutz do you have?

Yeah well, that headspace needs adjusting too.

That's very interesting info.
Can you explain what a "pinch barrel action" is?

My only real concern with getting so "finicky" is that the goal posts keep shifting. By this I mean each production run of ammo is going to have different characteristics.

I've always thought the ammo was matched to the barrel but now I see the headspace can play an equally delicate part in the accuracy/consistency of shots.

So much testing needed to find that "sweet spot" and then to be repeated again next year when that new batch of ammo comes out.

I think it's all too complicated and expensive for a shooter at my level.
When I can shoot a 100 one week and then a 96 the next week, I think the headspace above my shoulders plays a bigger part in the results, however I don't think shaving .0005" off it will have the desired effect.

On the other hand, from a technical perspective I'm fascinated by the data you've presented. I think it's great to see the path to excellence through precision being mapped out.
I'd love a job like that, where you have the resources to make experimental adjustments and record the effects.

Looking forward to your next chapter Roy.

Oh BTW, mine's a 1413 Match 54