how long after a misfire ?

[qwikrick]

I was at the range today with my 98k and some old 8mm surpluss ammo and I had 3 misfires after about 80 rounds.
 
my ? is how long is long enough to be safe before opening the bolt ?   

[bilmac]

I've had a few hangfires. I think all of them were just a pop bang almost instantly but not quite. I usually wait maybe 30 seconds or so after a misfire. What I try to make sure to do is get the bolt open fast. Once the case is out of the chamber it doesn't have much for power.

We had a machine gunner shoot himself with his own gun in Viet Nam once. I think that was a cook off though, he had been burning through the ammo and stopped and then opened the bolt as the round went off. The case head penetrated the skin on his chest but didn't get much deeper.

[Mikey]

Qwik:  you wait at least 30 seconds before extracting the round.  After 30 seconds, you use the open palm of your hand to manipulate the bolt, rather than your fingers, because if the round decides to cook off during extraction and send the bolt back, it won't bust your thumb off when it happens.  Then, clean your rifle as lots of that old 8mm stuff used corrosive primers.  HTH.

[qwikrick]

That's good advise about the open hand on the bolt Mikey. and yes I do know about the corrosive surplus ammo learned about that the hard way.... :-(
 
thanks guys.

[Huffmanite]

Respected poster over on Surplus Rifle site commented he'd experienced up to 20-30 second delay on ammo going off after pulling trigger with his .303 Enfield surplus ammo that used cordite powder.

[Mikey]

He is not alone......