Strength Of Lee Enfield Action

[ROCK]

There are a lot of photos on the internet showing action failures of various rifles. I have yet to see a Lee Enfield receiver failure. I have seen front locking, bolt action receiver rings blown apart on Mausers and Springfields. That makes me appreciate the rear locking Enfield action that has no locking recessess in the receiver ring where escaped gas can do damage.

I started thinking about this when I started to see photos of various bolt actions with the receiver rings blown apart. Two of the surprising ones were a Swedish Mauser and a Mosin Nagant. It made me realize that receiver rings that provide locking recesses have a built in vulnerability when large amounts of gas escape for whatever reason. I thought about the Lee Enfield design and realized that it was immune from this type of damage along with any other design without receiver ring locking.

It then became apparent to me that I have never even heard of a Lee Enfield failure. I know that they are not capable of handling high pressure cartridges but all you ever hear of is stretching and flexing. I have read that Enfield receivers bend downward at the locking recesses when overloaded but I have never read about one blowing apart. I would have to say that the Lee Enfield action is pretty safe for the shooter when the worst happens.
Does anyone have knowledge about any catastropic failures of Lee Enfield receivers and bolts from overpressure rounds or reloading errors?

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.

[jmoore]

See this thread (click on link below):

Gallery of Dramas. Broken Enfield Parts!

Some photos of a failed bolt and action on Post #65 with discussion carrying on for several pages. (enlargements on Post #85)

But the rifle at last update was returned to firing status!

Apparently no one's broken anything lately...

[muffett.2008]

Let's just hope that SAVAGESHOOTER doesn't get on to this thread, sparks would surely fly.

[Amatikulu]

You don't have to worry about SAVAGESHOOTER, he was known as Alfred on this site and was unable to follow our rules, so won't be back. He also goes by the name Gunnersam, Multigunner and GunNut on different forums.

[Bear43]

Let's just hope that SAVAGESHOOTER doesn't get on to this thread, sparks would surely fly.

When I saw the topic this was my very first thought... Then I remembered where I was and figured I was safe

[Thunderbox]

I've never heard of any sort of Enfield failure that didn't involve the word "hand load"......

[bigduke6]

I've never heard of any sort of Enfield failure that didn't involve the word "hand load"......

I,ll second that, Think hand load involves most or all failures in any rifle, or an obstruction in the barrel, which was noted at a last club meeting on a local range, one of the lads had just finished his ten rounds, the last shot was not recorded on the target, he decided to clean the rifle behind the point and found the last bullet lodged in the barrel, very lucky and only by chance he decided to clean it.
(rifle was a No4 .303, and was using hand loads !! )

[Ridolpho]

Having seen some amazing "rants" on this and other forums I can appreciate the moderators difficulties but as a new Lee Enfield collector who plans to shoot his rifles I find threads like this extremely valuable. You have to integrate all your sources of info and weight the info according to apparent veracity of source but at the end of the day I'm developing an impression that right back to the first SMLE's (and maybe MLM/MLE) there have been no significant design or metallurgy issues that one needs to consider when deciding if a particular rifle is safe to shoot. All the comments would indicate that it boils down to wear and tear on the individual rifle and use of "normal" ammo. This is, in fact, quite a compliment to the original designers and, later, the Empires ability to maintain consistancy and quality in widely separated factories. Thanks again to all the experts that take the time to respond with details to these threads.

Ridolpho

[No4Mk1(T)]

Useful stuff
Having seen some amazing "rants" on this and other forums I can appreciate the moderators difficulties but as a new Lee Enfield collector who plans to shoot his rifles I find threads like this extremely valuable. You have to integrate all your sources of info and weight the info according to apparent veracity of source but at the end of the day I'm developing an impression that right back to the first SMLE's (and maybe MLM/MLE) there have been no significant design or metallurgy issues that one needs to consider when deciding if a particular rifle is safe to shoot. All the comments would indicate that it boils down to wear and tear on the individual rifle and use of "normal" ammo. This is, in fact, quite a compliment to the original designers and, later, the Empires ability to maintain consistancy and quality in widely separated factories. Thanks again to all the experts that take the time to respond with details to these threads.

Ridolpho

Well I can’t disagree with your point in this case and I think you’ve summed it up quite nicely. A lot of this information can be useful. It can also end up being contradicting and therefor confusing to new Enfield owners and forum members. In the end the bickering and un-supported cut & past posts in past threads are what got under my skin to the point where it seriously undermined my desire to be a mod here. Thankfully this isn’t the case anymore.
Maybe I should work on a sticky post entitled “Before you make an Enfield Action Strength post read these relevant threads” where I can post links to all these threads for newbies.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

I've never heard of any sort of Enfield failure that didn't involve the word "hand load"......

As a novice I place my trust in my local gunsmith to once over my new acquisitions to check headspace etc..
As to hand loading I have not done any in many years but am considering getting back into the hobby as my collection grows and ammo prices spiral out of sight. I have watched several videos recently (youtube etc..)that show some pretty poor practices that could cause double charging a case. Example (loading a full tray of primed cases without transfering the loaded cases to a new tray or seating the projectile after charging. Reloading requires a great deal of orginazation and concentration to do safely. Saftey first!