Thanks Andreas

I'm guessing by "the little nose at the breech of the barrels" you mean a concealed extension. Nothing wrong with a concealed extension at all, providing its fit to the action and the fit of its bolting is first class.

Major Sir Gerald Burrard Bt D.S.O wrote something like this in one of his excellent books, " In certain types of actions a top extension is advisable, and when this is the case the best extension is either a plain doll's head or else a well-fitting cross-bolt" (Major Burrard's emphasis on well-fitting)

I just prefer the Greener style cross-bolt. IMHO it allows a some-what slimmer lighter rifle without sacrificing strength. Compared to an action without any sort of top extension, the action with a well designed and well fitting top extension doesn't need as much bulk (ie width and or depth) to be just as strong.

The doll's head is excellent, but I find it more time consuming to fit.

But with any of these top extensions, the concealed, the doll's head or the cross-bolt, the most important thing is they all must be correctly fitted. Provided this is the case, each will well do the job it is intended to do. If they are poorly fitted they could not be concidered benificial in regards to the action's strength at all. In fact IMHO, if they are poorly fitted they are just extra weight that might as well have gone into the width or depth of the action in the first place.

Sorry, that got a little long winded.

Regards

Alex

alexbeer.com