Yesterday's Weapons Forums

I have never intentionally condoned or recommended shooting trainers. Don Voigt and I shot a trainer at the shoot out last spring but we use a steel test pipe that I have for such purposes. The trainer did not blow up but this is the first time it has been told as we did not want to seem to condone shooting trainers. I only tell it now to let you know you may get away with shooting a trainer once or twice but it will get you sooner or later. The one we shot was made with the chamber cone cast in with the receiver and the barrel with rear sight attached screwed into the cone. I have only owned one trainer and it was made the same way. I know that people have shot trainers and suffered no ill effects but you are risking being mained or killed by shooting one.

Trainers are easy to spot by just comparing them to a regular rifle. Most times something very different will be stamped in place of the mum. The trigger guard will be held on with two screws instead of three. The front screw will be 1/2 or more back from where it would be on a real rifle. Instead of two screws behind the trigger guard most times there will the only one and it will be mid way of the tang. If you look at the bolt handle it will not be plum shaped like a 99 or 38 but will be elongated, looks very different. The safety will usually be a little larger and more crudely made and as Bob said the stocks are most of the time one peice without the dovetail toe. If you look at the face of the bolt, the firing pin and hole for it is larger than a regular rifle.

Look at any rifle you have or buy and if any of the above characteristics are there they are suspect.

Most of us are not advanced collectors. Arasakadog is. I sold him a rifle recently and it had the wrong middle band on it for that rifle. He knew the inspection stamp that should have been on the band. Wrote me about it and I did not know one from another. He told me what the stamp looked like that should be on the band and I had a band with that stamp and sent it to him. Somebody changed the band before I got it. We all have lots to learn.

Riceone.

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