You Can Shoot a Bolt-Action Almost as Fast as a Semi-Auto

With all the talk about banning fast shooting semi-automatic rifles in recent weeks, this rapid-fire exercise with a bolt-action SMLE shows that virtually any gun is capable of shooting multiple rounds quickly.

Of course, in recent weeks much of the national conversation has been on the alleged dangers of semi-auto rifles. This video shows that rapid fire is achievable with even older bolt-action rifles.

This shooter fires 10 shots in 6.5 seconds from a Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE), the British Army's standard issue rifle from 1895-1957. That's some fast shooting. It's not as fast as a semi-auto, but it's fast enough to debunk the idea that only a semi-auto rifle is capable of a mass shooting.

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"The world record for a mad minute is 35 shots in 1 minute if you think mine is fast. That 35 shots includes reloading the weapon," the shooter says in the text below the video.

One commentator on the video also noted, "...at the Battle of Mons in 1914 the small but highly trained British Regular Army were up against the Germans for the first time. The firing was so rapid and accurate, the Germans thought they were under fire from some new type of slow firing machine gun."

Let's not forget one of the deadliest mass shootings in America took place at the University of Texas in 1966. The "Tower Shooter" used a bolt-action rifle, among other non-semi-auto weapons.

Even a single-shot, black powder musket is capable of rapid fire. A skilled operator in the Revolutionary War could fire three accurate shots a minute, reloading each time.

So "rapid-fire" is relative, according to the weapon and skill of the operator. Of course, semi-automatic rifles can fire more rapidly than a bolt-action or a musket. But, we need to ask ourselves one question in regards to this current debate of gun control. At what point will anti-gunners declare a "rapid-fire" gun isn't really that rapid?

If a semi-auto rifle deserves to be banned because it can fire multiple rounds very quickly, why not a lever-action or bolt-action rifle? I think we know the answer to that question. It has nothing to do with the gun, but rather the fact there are people simply don't like any guns, and would ban all of them if they had the power to do so.

Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his Facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.

NEXT: THE FIRST TRUE BLACK RIFLE HAS BENN REVEALED