Rifles 104: Reliability Standards
Reliability: Not Optional.
Once you have a tool, system, and technique that can place your chosen projectile exactly where you choose, you’ll want to be able to do so over and over again in any reasonable environmental conditions.
This requires:
Your action to reliably pick up a cartridge out of its magazine and propel it into the chamber.
Whether an action is “controlled-feed” or not is a technicality. Both types of actions can reliably feed. Interaction between the action and its feeding device is what’s important here. Whether the magazine is internal (blind / hinged floorplate / BDL) or external (commonly called a magazine or DBM), it must reliably lock up with your bottom metal and action in order to create an angle conducive to bulletproof feeding.
Your trigger to allow the firinig pin to fall on the cartridge ONLY when pressed and when the safety is off.
When temperatures drop, as in late season western mountain hunting, frost on components is common. A dangerous failure in many triggers occurs pursuant to frost when the bolt’s forward motion can cause the firing pin to drop without the positive engagement of the trigger. Choose a rifle whose trigger design fundamentally blocks this danger from occurring. Exceptional lightness in triggers is not mandatory, but overly heavy triggers will exacerbate flinch and reduce accuracy all things considered. Drop your rifle on its butt from chest height in a donor stock several times. Ensure the trigger does not ever fire, once adjusted to your lightest hunting weight. That is now confirmed to be a drop-safe trigger. No remington 700 triggers (including Trigger Techs) will ever be truly safe from drops or from bolt-close slam fires due to fundamental design of sear engagement, but the Geissele Super 700 comes closest.
Your extractor to grab the case out of the chamber with enough force to remove it even while hot and expanded.
Some extractor designs are stronger than others. Sako, m16, and mechanical extractors all have proven track records and known failure modes. Know yours and be prepared to fix them in the field.
Your ejector to fling the brass at a reasonable angle sideways out of the ejection port.
Some ejector designs send cartridges at angles which used to be convenient (up) but which now interfere with modern larger scope turrets. Avoid these designs and always test for reliable function in the context of your whole system. Be able to cycle through a magazine quickly without inducing malfunctions.