A lovely looking rifle. But question - how is the barrel actually attached to the fore-end and the latching mechanism? Is there a lug on the underside the barrel to which this is all secured. And will the barrel be free floating, or fully bedded.

With a normal barrel into the action, the barrel is screwed really very tightly - as in barrel held in a barrel vice and action turned with long leavers, whereas in a takedown it looks as this will simply hand tightened and loosened. I suppose that given the latching mechanism, there is no chance of the barrel loosening in every day use, whereas with a "normal" rifle it is only the tighness that prevents the barrel from loosening. It would be interesting to see one of these rifles in parts so see how it all works, or even the original patent drawings.

I suppose there is nothing to stop the rifle from firing before the barrel is fully tightened - I assume that the bolt lugs bed into the Mauser action, rather than the barrel. You would be getting very long headspace. Given that it is a Mauser action, the case will be held against the bolt face by the extractor, so the cartridge would fire, case would expand and grip chamber, bullet would go down the barrel and the case would lengthen or even split. In the latter case the design of the Mauser action would direct all the gases well away. Probably soiled underpants, and accuracy a bit off but no lasting damage.