Striker Boing ?

[armabill]

I had an odd occurrence happen the other day. When I pulled the trigger, I heard the spring go Boing and the rifle didn't fire right away.

I waited for about 3-4 seconds and then the rifle fired. Is this a sticking or broken spring? The striker end looks OK with deep primer strikers.

I only got that condition/sound once that day. I didn't have that before. Strange.

Information

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[Alan de Enfield]

I had an odd occurrence happen the other day. When I pulled the trigger, I heard the spring go Boing and the rifle didn't fire right away.

I waited for about 3-4 seconds and then the rifle fired. Is this a sticking or broken spring? The striker end looks OK with deep primer strikers.

I only got that condition/sound once that day. I didn't have that before. Strange.

Could be a 'delayed fire' / 'hang fire' of the primer/powder - what ammunition was it ?

[browningautorifle]

Alan's right. I would say hang fire. Typical of that reaction.

[armabill]

Factory ammo- .303 British Prvi Partizan.

I never had that happen before.

[Edward Horton]

Order new firing pin springs and extractor springs they are the two most used and abused springs on the Enfield.

Then dissemble, clean, reclean and inspect your bolt. (did I say make sure the bolt is clean and free of all dried petrified dirt and cosmoline)

Install new springs.

[browningautorifle]

I can't say I've had it happen with newer ammo but anything's possible. The sympton sure sounds right though.

[armabill]

That's good, I thought that my striker spring may have broken.

I fired about 35 rounds that day and I had it happen only once.

[RobD]

Hardened grease and junk in the body of the bolt can slow down the striker. Suggest unscrew the bolt head, and leave the bolt and head in a basin of petrol (gasoline) overnight, to dissolve what's stuck in there; shake out what you can; then re-oil. If the strikes seem light, then try a new spring: Part 36A MAINSPRING - NEW $3.00 from http://www.ssporters.com/parts/ENFIELD1.htm

[Peter Laidler]

Before you go to all that trouble and the expense of buying new spring and possibly a stripping tool, just test the weight of the mainspring.
Action fired, spring weights to be between 7 lbs low and 9 lbs high
Action cocked, spring weights to be between 14 lbs low and 16lbs high.

That's what we'd do................

You could rinse it out in petrol and blow it through with an air line but, in my very limited experience with these things, if it only happened with one round, I'd say it was an ammo fault

[armabill]

Yeah, it was only that one round. I heard the spring go boing and heard the striker hit. But fired later. I shot 4 rounds of the Prvi Partizan then the 5th one did it.

The other 30 rounds that I shot before the Prvi Partizan were my reloads which shot perfectly.

I had the bolt head off last night and I could wiggle the striker but I couldn't turn it by hand. I could see the striker take down slots clearly.

I already have the striker removal tool, extra striker and spring, just in case.