Bolt Release Problems Enfield No4 Mk1 Longbranch 1944

Quote:

Originally Posted by lagermat

I'm also having problems with the bolt release with my No4 Mk1* I just purchased (today) my first Enfield, After a little bit of pricing... anyway I have a Savage Manufactured No4 Mk1* which was built in 1942, and the problem I am having is that the bolt release is "releasing" itself while I am cycling the bolt (not every time, and it happens more often if I try to cycle faster) I have looked at it and it seems that years of what I would call "slamming" (maybe the wrong word for it) the bolt down during a Mad Minute type situation has caused the bolt head to become over rotated I will post a photo if I can of what seems to bee happening. I am hoping that I am some how causing this problem seeing as I have owned the rifle for less then 12 hours but If anyone could give me advice on how to solve this problem I would greatly appreciate it..Thanks all.
-Tim

From the second photo, it looks like the rear part of the bolt rail is chipped. This in itself does not necessarily cause the bolt head to rotate out of the track - many rifles work just fine with both sides of the rail chipped - but it can be a contributory factor. The cause is usually the interaction between a loose or poorly-fitting bolthead (ie where the bolt head rotates past the bolt rib by a significant amount), the play between bolt body and the bolt channel, and even the fit of the magazine and type of ammunition you are using.

The good news is that it nearly always possible to fix a rifle with this problem, by tweaking one or more of the factors mentioned above. The usual quick fix is to replace the bolthead with one that fits the bolt body well, and which is not very loose in its rotation fit. The problem is that you'd need to find someone who has bolt heads ad knows how they should fit (buying bolt heads by mail order has a very low probability of success; I have hundreds of bolt heads available to me, and I typically try 12-20 to obtain a good fit....)

If you do not have any expertise or resources available to you at this time, try the expedient of giving the bolthead slightly less slack thread rotation - some very thick none melting grease on the threads, or even a bit of PTFE tape. See if this significantly reduces the incidence of bolt head jumping out of the track.