Quote Originally Posted by browningautorifleicon View Post
Once again I suggest that if you're that afraid of firing a rifle then you shouldn't fire it at all. All these measures don't matter if it's that shabby, so it doesn't come apart this time...maybe it will a few rounds down the road?
It's one thing to shoot a gun of relatively recent manufacture that you've bought from someone who says "Yeah, I've been hunting with it / shooting it". It's another to buy a gun of unknown provenance, particularly old military rifles even if they look good, and go shoot it without caution until it's proven to be safe to shoot. If someone has been shooting it all along, there's probably no need for special precautions. An old military rifle from a gun show or a yard sale where there's no reliable history is a different story.