There's a chance that everybody knows this but me in which case I'm making a bit of a fool of myself but just in case it saves someone the problem I had, here goes....

I had a bad experience on Saturday. I was on the range with my Lee Speed in 375 X 2½ and was giving a young member a chance to fire it. He worked the bolt and didn't quite close it fully. When he pulled the trigger there was a click and nothing else. I told him to put the gun down and let me sort it out. I tapped the bolt fully down with the heel of my palm without cocking it first and the gun fired. It wasn't supported in anyway and so it recoiled backwards off the bench and hit the floor. Fortunately we'd done everything else right so the bullet went down range quite safely but the fall broke a piece clear off the toe of the stock and bent the steel butt plate.

As you can imagine I was mortified, I'd embarrassed myself, scared the crap out of a new member and damaged a valuable gun. I took the rifle to a gunsmith yesterday. He has a good reputation and has done a minor job for me before. I carefully explained what had happened and I'd had the foresight to take some fired cases with me so I could demonstrate. He confirmed, if you don't fully seat the bolt and the striker drops, tapping the bolt into place with your palm will fire the gun as the Lee Speed action leaves the firing pin forward, resting against the primer, under these circumstances.

Fortunately the gun can be repaired but I wish I'd have known about this before I made the mistake.