Rubber Band Snap Cap!

I was doing a little work on my Savage 93R17 the other day and decided to check the trigger pull.  My trigger pull scale consists of an old milk jug and some string that I hang off the trigger with the action out of the stock.  You simply add or subtract water out of the jug until it just barely breaks the trigger.  Then I weigh the jug of water on my wife's kitchen scale that is accurate to an ounce.  With the trigger adjusted as light as it would go it broke at 3.25 pounds.

Not bad, but what does this have to do with snap caps you ask?  Well, during testing I threw a fired case in the chamber just to make sure nothing bad happened to the firing pin or chamber.  As I was testing, my super-human observation skills noticed the cocking piece on the bolt slamming forward!  Holy cow!  Who would have ever thought?  But, hey, that gave me an idea.  Instead of beating the crap out of an old case with every pin strike, I wrapped a rubber band around the back of the bolt.  When the cocking piece or whatever you call it slams forward it's cushioned by the rubber band.  See the picture below.

The beauty is this can be used on many bolt actions, not just Savages.  Even better, I must have a hundred of these snap caps in my desk drawer!

Keep your stick on the ice.