Help with Broken Bolt Damaged Receiver M1 Carbine

Hey, man, its great that you are keeping your sense of humor through this ordeal - it indicates a smart and healthy mind. Best of luck with it.

I would give it to you Jeff but that robber baron Charlie won't give it back, even after I sent back his wife's snow shovel.

Parrot,
Keep the bolt out.
Now with just the Op Slide, guide rod and spring installed, pull it slowly back and forth..... see if it feels like a smooth ride or any binding felt, or if it feels gritty... like hitting burs..... note results... we'll get back to this later.

Next:
Things to do until you see a gunsmith..
Pull the wood off.
De-grease and clean up the receiver, pull off and do the same with your Op slide.
Look , feel and measure the receivers left inner rail.... where the bolts left lug rides on. Your looking for any cracks or where the lower edge might be rolled over or under. Feel for any Burs on the same rail under the top edge, back side and on top of the bottom rail. Also look over the right side rail for burs.. on the top where your bolts right lug sits and the outer right side where your slide connects and dismounts from.
As stated in a above post... measure the outside of the receiver, looking for any bulges. Also measure the left inner rail that the bolts left lug rides on to see if its consistent. Use anything you can as a straight edge... any where you can, as I passed along in our PM.

Your Op slide: See if the Op Slide arm is straight. Next: Up by the Op handle- Look for unusual wear, nicks or burs where the inside recess hooks on to the bolts right lug..... Anything that could affect rotation, Also check the wear on the inner pad that hooks in to the receiver and the 2 rear pads at the back of the slides box well.. where these 2 pads ride in the grooves on either side of the barrel flat. Also look for any sharp edges or burs on those 2 grooves on the sides of the barrel..... you know where the slide disconnect slot is. These are not often checked, but any of the above conditions can put drag on the Op slides internal pads/rail/lugs, and can drain energy from the spring thus helping stress the bolt.
Any momentary hesitation/binding while in action can and will stress a bolt.
Oh... and While your Op Slide spring is laying around- Measure it and note it.

Address any burs with a fine honing stone or light file. Clean away any shavings.

I have more to share with you, some good, some....well we'll see.
Keep in mind most problems like yours are from burs found on the inner left rail that the bolts left lug rides in.

Good Luck on your Homework,
Charlie-Painter777

Charlie I was thinking seeing as the OP's going to go granular on the inspection of the weapons receiver do they have any dyes available in hardware stores bit like the NDT stuff you see for testing for any cracks in the metal.
The reason is the human eye is only so good and if there are microscopic cracks then the dye will show them up, I would hate for them to go unnoticed the rifle fixed only to perhaps fail later due to metal fatigue its only a suggestion but one that has validity I feel, for the OP's peace of mind as well as detecting defects.

Cinders,
Thats included in the 'Plan' but didn't want to INFO OVERLOAD him just yet.
He's probably already upset with this much homework !

Cheers
Charlie-P777

I bought a late Inland M1 hand stamp 6.9M a few years ago that had the exact same left lug damage from a bolt failure. It was the highest Inland M1 serial I had seen yet so I really wanted to keep it, but everyone I spoke to about it said it could not be safely repaired. Folks on the CMP forum thought so as well. Luckily, the seller took it back, though I hated to see it go. I'm afraid you probably have a "wall hanger" on your hands now, which is a real shame.

O.k. I will try and do my homework. It will take a few days as I have time to do it.

I cannot have this much sunk into a wall hanger! As sad as it is, I will have a new receiver and bolt installed if mine is not salvageable and my barrel is O.K.

Hate to see my Rock-Ola receiver go, but no choice if it comes to that!

BTW, anybody know specifics on .22 ammo for an old Quackenbush single shot? I am curious because I read that it only shot .22 shorts, then I read .22 LR, then I read only .22 LR black powder ammo. Anybody have a definitive answer?

Jeff

Also,

Is there anybody out there with the same receiver that could post a few close-up pictures for me of the same area where mine is damaged?

Additionally, pictures looking down from the top focusing on the left hand rail with the bolt out? I am trying to get a strong sense of what that whole left hand side of the receiver should look like.

Mine has some wavy cut outs and I don't know if that's machining or not. Here are a few more pictures of mine.

I really want to see a normal one (particularly the area where mine is damaged), to see just how bad mine is.

Thanks,
Jeff

Here are a couple more super close up pictures of the damage. The white fibers are where I wiped the grease off with a tissue.
Jeff

We can all theorize about how it happened, but nobody saw it...so we don't know. It looks to me that the way the chunk is taken out of the lower side of the left recess, the left lug had not rotated up into position fully engaged with the recess. Maybe the right lug-crack prevented full rotation as it flexed and did not fully rotate, or the case was too long. Having experienced a cracked bolt myself...I am anal about visually checking the engagement, often. Maybe your friend shoots these reloads without issue, but maybe his carbine is head-spaced to handle it. If the other guy's carbine head-spaces at 1.296 or more, he can shoot long cases....maybe yours couldn't. Just for curiosity sake, I'd have to go see him and get some measurements off his sized, trimmed cases. He might appreciate the favor B4 his blows-up in his face?