Each to his own? Opinions, professional and amateur, all over the place.
Personally, I ease the lever back into position. This may be a backlash from a personal incident years ago when I loaned a trap gun to a friend. He never got to fire the gun because the first time he opened and closed it for familiarization, he slammed it closed so hard he couldn't open it again. Handed it back with some mealy-mouthed comments. I don't loan guns anymore.
Really, it doesn't make sense that the bolt on a well built gun should need a running start to show up for work.
All that aside, it is interesting to note that Winchester was skittish enough about bolts slamming home that they incorporated a stop-bolt to prevent over agressive engagement. Somewhere in one of these discussions a few months ago I said I thought it was a silly idea to even consider putting the issue of depth-of-engagement in the hands of the man on the street. Let's be honest. Not everyone reads the directions, and not everyone can change a lightbulb (which doesn't mean they can't buy a gun). Anyway, I got hammered for my cheeky remark, so there must be a contingent out there that are v concerned about bolt wear and I doubt they are slammers.
