Quote Originally Posted by rcathey View Post
Rob,
I think at first blush I would have felt the same way about it as you. But putting on my engineer cap (my business card folds into one), I find it helpful to think of the path of least resistance. If one were to strap the action right at the barrel threads to the theoretical immovable object, then yes, it probably would deconstruct itself as you suggest.
But as a shooter, we’re not doing that. We’re placing the butt on our shoulder. So what seems more likely, the forged steel stretching or your shoulder moving and absorbing the shock?
Path of least resistance.
Now maybe I’m missing something too but that’s how I see it.
Think about the few milliseconds after firing- the pressure in the chamber is already several thousand psi but the bullet hasn't begun to move forward and the rifle is not recoiling. As an exercise in "statics" (I can almost remember Eng. 201), with the case head bearing upon the (nicely headspaced) bolt, how can the action body not be in tension? When the Turks wanted to shoot 8X57 from the SMLE why did they weld a bar of steel onto the right body? When the Soviets developed the rear-locking SVT 40, why did they progressively thicken the two siderails of the body? According to Sovieticon documents, they found body stretch affected headspacing (call it dynamic headspacing as opposed to static). I'm probably missing something here but I went on to be a geologist as opposed to an engineer so.......................

Ridolpho