Steel parameters of the 1940s
Ireload2,
I was pleased to see that someone has made an effort to calculate what the compression in an Enfield bolt might be. Even if your calculations cannot be exact, I also reckon that an approximate calculation is still a lot better than none.
As you are obviously aware, the mechanical parameters of steel can vary enormously, depending on steel composition, hardening techniques, cooling/tempering profile etc etc etc - including any forging or forming process. So "typical" values for modern steels may be misleading, as the "state of the art" has surely moved on over the last 65 years.
I am not a metallurgist, but I do have a book on the heat treatment of steel from 1944. If you know the composition of the steel used for the Enfield bolts (and once again, an approximation is better than nothing) and the heat treatment appliied, then I could dig through the book and see if there are any close matches. At least they would be typical values from the right period!
Patrick