Controlled Feed vs. Push Feed?

D

dentodoc

New member
I am rather new to gun forums and I would like for someone to explain to me what is the difference between controlled feed and push feed in a bolt action rifle, and more importantly to me, which one is better, and why?

Thanks!
 
Most all bolt guns are push feed. The pre 64 and post 64 "Classic" line of Winchesters are control feed. There may be other gun manufactures I don't know of? The pre 64s and post 64 Classics use a mauser type bolt. With a control feed you can hold the gun upside down and the cartridge will remain in the reciver when you work the bolt to feed a cartridge in the chamber. The bolt face holds the cartridge and will not fall away.

With a push feed the bolt just pushes the cartridge into the chamber area. The mag holds the cartridge. The bolt has to strip the cartridge from the mag. The cartridge is all ready part way in the chamber area before the cartridge pops loose from the mag.

Most all of the old military bolt guns are control feed. Like my Springfeild 03 which has a bolt that looks like a mauser bolt :) and the 1917.

For hunting whitetail any one of the two actions will work just fine. Some people go ape S**t crazy over control feed guns. There is more work involved in making a control type bolt. I have both. Like both. It don't matter to me ether way which type action I hunt with.
 
Folks who hunt dangerous game prefer the controlled feed to the push feed. If you're dodging something with claws and teeth or big feet--all coupled with a Bad Attitude--you want the utmost in reliability in reloading whille you're stumbling around.

For the most common North American hunting, "Hit don't make no nevermind, nohow."

As a separate matter, the push-feed action more completely encloses the head of the cartridge case. For a reloader, this is a safety feature in case of too much enthusiasm as to how max is a maximum powder charge.

Art
 
Accuracy vs. Ultimate Reliability

I was led to believe from reading gun magazines that the push feed designed rifles are generally built with more inherent accuracy while the controlled feed rifles have a general tendancy toward being more reliable. I know Remingtons are push feed rifles, aren't Savages too? I've read about their easier to adjust headspacing method of production, could this be somehow related to their rifles being push feeds? They certainly have become popularly known as the most accurate affordable rifles out of the box as Remingtons were previously regarded. Aren't Rugers also a type of a controlled round feeding rifle that aren't really well known for having outstanding accuracy? :D
 
arcticap, IMO there are just too many variables for it to be that simple. I've had three Rugers that were/are tack drivers.

FWIW, Art
 
All in all, I prefer the push feed. You can throw a shell on top of the magazine floor plate and push it into the chamber, with the extractor claw sliding over the rim as it chambers. A controlled round type won't let you do that, it has to have the cartridge in the magazine and pick it up first.

I never had anything that made me think I wouldn't trust my life with a push feed rifle.
 
Control feed need

308 LAW--To answer yr question, YOU DO, if you just shot and annoyed a Cape Buffalo, and began backing up, and tripped and fell over an ant nest, just as the CB locates you and decides that you need squashing.

The people who hunt dangerous game call it that for a reason. They also like to be able to chamber rounds upside down, for a reason.
 
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Since I dont hunt in Africa I dought I will ever need one for that reason. The push feed's seem to be more accurate and bench work single shot is much easier with a push feed. I own both types and generally prefer push feeds, however I do realize that you rarely see Remingtons in Africa for this reason.
 
I've shot push and controlled rifles, and I can't discern a difference in accuracy between them. I hesitate to believe that a push rifle will be more "inherently" accurate than a controlled rifle. There may be a discernable difference to a very highly skilled shooter who regularly shoots competition benchrest, but that ain't me.

Likewise, comparing the reliability of the two types of rifles, the push rifles I've shot have been just as reliable as the controlled rifles.
 
Anyone that truly worried about making sure that there is a second cartridge in the chamber ready to fire in the most reliable and foolproof way possible is using a double rifle.

I find it amusing that people tout the controlled round feeding on a Model 70 and overlook the damnable three position safety as being less than user friendly in situations where minor mistakes can be catastrophic. I had an older gentleman tell me of his brother who, upon coming face to face with a grizzly bear, flipped the safety halfway ( the position where the action can be cycled, chambering and ejecting cartridges, but unable to fire), and controlled round cycled all of his .375 shells out on the ground before he figured out why he wasn't hearing a bang. The bear grew bored and departed, so it was a good ending for all.
 
Lucky for bear? Lucky for the guy?

Well, Artsmom, as our friend Rudyard Kipling once said,

"...If you can keep your head, when all about you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you..."
 
BR guys will not even consider the Winchester action for competition. Push feed or control feed! Maybe with the Remington action if the action is sleeved. The BR guys really like three lug bolt guns. The Cooper action is a three lug action! The actions that the BR guys talk about. Are actions I have never heard of before!
 
I think we all know what kind of bolt action rifles most, if not all of the police sharpshooters and the military snipers use. ;)
 
Artsmom said:
I find it amusing that people tout the controlled round feeding on a Model 70 and overlook the damnable three position safety as being less than user friendly in situations where minor mistakes can be catastrophic.
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Hmmm, you may have a point there. Not to mention all those damnable long action guns. I repeatedly hear about hunters short stroking the .375 H&H. Probably a bad cartridge choice....couldn't be anything else. Could it? ;)

Moving to another issue that's been brought up here, it never ceases to amaze me that otherwise knowledgeable shooters insist the same gun for benchrest or snipercraft should be just fine for dangerous game. (They then add insult to injury by assuming optics are equally interchangeable in these pursuits.)

I'm not gonna weigh in on my personal preferences for dangerous game (which I **have** actually hunted). I'll simply point out that a 2 MOA gun is no less "accurate" than a 1/4 MOA gun from field positions.....unless, of course, that result is being described on the internet.

If field accuracy is not available in your rifle, push-feed or controlled, sell it or turn it into a tomato stake. Then, field accuracy of your rifles being a given, pick the one that offers the greatest **reliability** when you go after stuff that's willing to trample, drag or eat you....and one other thing: learn how to work the safety, cycle and operate it; that's always a plus.:rolleyes:

Rich
 
Art Eatman

As a separate matter, the push-feed action more completely encloses the head of the cartridge case. For a reloader, this is a safety feature in case of too much enthusiasm as to how max is a maximum powder charge.

Been there, done that, had to replace extractor and ejector. :eek:
 
I enjoy tweaking on a rifle and playing with handloads to get a package with which I can shoot inside one MOA. Fun to do. But it has little to do with my needs in deer hunting.

All I know about dangerous game is from reading. From what I read, though, it would appear that most shots are taken inside 50 yards. Tales of ten to twenty yards seem common.

At fifty yards, a three-MOA group is 1.5" in diameter. I'd think it would be difficult to miss a kill zone, and few rifles DON'T do better.

Which says that designing for reliability is the primary requirement. With today's capabilities in machining, field accuracy is hard to avoid.

But it's still the "loose nut behind the wheel" that controls the outcome.

:), Art
 
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