CVA Eclipse Question

[westbrooklawn]

I just bought a used CVA Eclipse Magnum from a neighbor. I don't have an owners manual for it or a breech plug tool. I was able to get the plug out with a large flat blade screwdriver, and cleaned everything up, lubed it and put it back together. My questions are these 1. It appears that you have to **** this rifle to insert the primer... does the bolt stay open and ****ed until you shoot it, or is there some way to close the bolt until you are ready to shoot? It appears the answer is that it stays ****ed and open, but this leaves the primer exposed... doesn't seem like the best design. 2. the safety on this rifle is located behind the trigger guard and it appears the safe position is with the safety pushed forward (green dot), and in a fire position when the safety button is pulled back (red dot). This is totally oposite of anyr rifle safety I have ever seen... instinctively you push a safety forward to place it in the "fire" position. Just want to make sure I am seeing this right.

[westbrooklawn]

When I looked at his post I realized that some words had been edited with ***'s... find it hard to believe that a gun forum would edit out the words c o c k e d and c o c k.... pretty common terms when talking about firearms...

[MountainDevil54]

lol yeah its an odd place.

forward = safety off.

It does have to stay coc ked in order to use the safety.

[cayugad]

Even though the primer is exposed.. they are pretty weather proof. I have a number of open breech rifles like your Eclipse. Does the bolt handle come up into a notch on the bolt housing where it too acts as a safety? I have the Staghorn Magnum that basically replaced your rifle.

[westbrooklawn]

Cayugad - thanks for the reassurance that the open breech design is OK. The bolt housing doesn't have a notch for the bolt handle... the bolt handle slides in a straight cutout in the bolt housing... no notch.

Montain - the safety on this is reversed... forward = safety on, back = safety off.