[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

While bird dogging a shot hole crew in Assam, India,
the Indian Army were guards over the dynamite.
Their rifles were bolt action and this was about 1996.

[oldenuff2no]

Give me a break!!!!! More than a couple folks have been killed with a bold action rifle. That 303 British bolt gun could have saved a lot of lives if the guy behind it had the balls to use it!!!!! You do not have to have a weapon firing full auto to be an effective fighter. You use what you have to neutralize the threat. Most snipers use bolt guns and they are very effective.
The next step to this argument after you make the AK so important is to assign the weapon itself the ability to kill without a human behind it pulling the trigger.

[El Gato]

While bird dogging a shot hole crew in Assam, India, the Indian Army were guards over the dynamite. Their rifles were bolt action and this was about 1996.

If they were armed with the old SMLE bolt gun in '96, they probably weren't regular Indian Army. Paramilitary, police, maybe reserve military. The regular Army had long since converted to the FN/FAL by then. Just as now they have replaced the FN/FALs and shifted those to paramilitary and police.

I think those Indian built bolt actions have been on the US surplus market at least since '97, but I haven't seen any lately.

The Spanish also did the conversion to 7.62x51 thing with Mauser action rifles, they also added a flash hider, when they converted to the near contemporary (of the AK and FN/FAL) CETME. Wish I'd bought one of those when I had the chance, although I understand the recoil is.. stiff.. in such a light rifle.