Sear/bolt trouble, need some help

[ralfus]

I recently acquired a No4 mk1 that had a loose sear spring when I bought it. I am just now digging into the rifle to see what it needs before ordering parts to restore it (handguards, bands etc).

The bolt will not close completely and cock. It comes to a stop about 3/8" from closing. If I hold the trigger back while closing the bolt it will close completely (as expected and uncocked)

If I remove the bolt and manually cock it, then reinstall the bolt, everything works fine and "fires" but will not cock again if the bolt is cycled.

When the bolt is closed I can manually retract and cock the cocking piece.

No parts appear to be broken or missing in the action. The cocking piece is S Savage stamped.


Any idea what is wrong?? Are there pictures of anything that I should include??

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Edward Horton]

I normally don’t do psychic Enfield repairs, BUT I’m going to take a wild A$$ guess, wait I’m getting more information from my Quija board and the Psychic Hot Line.

The broken sear spring is causing the problem, the sear is not contacting the cocking piece bent as it normally would with a functioning sear spring on bolt closing.



Your problem is the sear is engaging the half cock notch in the cocking piece as you close the bolt. (The spring is not pushing the sear all the way up)



Remove your fore stock and check the operation of the trigger and let let me know if my psychic abilities and Quija board were correct.

If I’m wrong let me know I have one more thing that I can check for answers.

[Parashooter]

The symptoms described may indicate the sear is passing below the cocking piece nose and entering the half-bent notch instead. Possible causes include a weak/deformed/mis-installed sear spring, bent/worn/misshaped sear, or (most likely?) the bottom of the cocking piece nose has been ground off to alter the two-stage pull.

Compare yours to the unmodified cocking piece in this photo, noting how the bottom edge of the nose here is on the same plane as the main lower surface of the cocking piece.



Oh, I see Mr. Horton is quicker than I am today - maybe "righter", too!

[Peter Laidler]

You have a broken cocking piece. It's snapped across the half bent and you haven't noticed it.

[ralfus]

I found the problem. None of the above, but thank you.

I had bought a small package of various parts recently that including a needed rear sight and it came with some sears.

My original sear is fine.

Cocking piece is fine.

The previously mentioned loose sear spring was physically loose in the action when purchased. I reinstalled it without incident.

The actual problem was a large burr in the horseshoe shaped channel milled into the bolt body for the cocking piece lug. Displaced metal from the center of the horseshoe was preventing the cocking piece from moving rearward. With the bolt closed the cocking piece could move to and fro fine if manually pulled backward, but in the lifted, open position, the burr prevented the bolt from going forward while the cocking piece remained stationary against the sear.

I removed the burr enough to allow smooth movement and everything appears fine now. Should I be concerned about where the burr came from?? Is this normal wear?

[Peter Laidler]

My experience with these rifles is not great, but all is not well with that bolt. It looks from here that the stud of the cocking piece (or something else....) has damaged the safety stud of your bolt. That is the stud to the rear of the short and long cam groove. It shows signs of extensive damage and burring on the face that faces the short/long cam groove

Is this damage what you refer to as 'the horseshoe' shaped lug'?

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Ralfus,

Mr. Laidler is spot on: The safety stud on your bolt has been seriously damaged.

How it got that way may indicate more "issues".

The stud on the bolt closely interacts with the similar looking stud on the cocking piece. Having the correct shape is essential to correct safety function. My suspicion is that your action has been "jammed" shut at some time and been opened by less than subtle means, a large hammer springs to mind.

The cocking pieces are differentially hardened and there can be a wide variation in the degree of this hardening.

Someone may have tried to open the action when things were not lined up sor some unknown reason. Instead of pulling the cocking piece fully to the rear, they applied brute force.

I suggest you carefully inspect the cocking piece and the rest of the bolt body for other damage.

On a similar note, I was shown a sporter built on a Mk1* LE the other day. The clown who had owned it could not get the action open one day, so he swung it like a club and belted the bolt handle on a fence post until........... it snapped the hardened rear of the bolt away from the main body and twisted the receiver. Not sure if it is recoverable yet.

[ralfus]

Thanks for the info. Everything else on the bolt appears fine. The cocking piece is a Savage and is in perfect mechanical shape which tells me that it was replaced prior to my purchasing it, probably by whoever beat on it. I'll be refurbishing the rifle and may consider replacing the bolt itself in the process.

[RJW NZ]

Springfield Sporters, new bolt assembly - $35, worst case, not bad

SS = http://www.ssporters.com/parts/enfield4.htm