Last Round jamming, feed lip adjustment

[Beerhunter]

No offence taken Ricky but you are making a mountain out of a molehill here. It really is a simple 2 minute fix. You are being told of palliatives and the cure is staring you in the face.

I could not agree more Peter. I put up with an unreliable last round feed from my No.4 for years - due to being bone idle.

One day I sat down (as advised above and on umpteen other threads) and watched it carefully. The last round was getting hung up on the lip under the breech due to magazine not seating correctly. That fault was easily fixed because it was caused by a magazine lip not allowing the magazine go go home fully. Having fixed that, the tiniest of lip tweaks got the rifle feeding reliably - which it has done ever since.

The lessons learned: 1. Try feeding a drill round and WATCH CAREFULLY what actually happens. 2. Only remove the magazine for cleaning, those lips aren't made to suffer the wear and tear of being changed like a modern rifle or left unprotected out of the magazine well.

[Seaspriter]

Here are some photos of the Lee Enfield jamming. Nose up on the last round

RickV100
Thanks for the pics on the last round jamming. I took a look at three No.4's that I have in my collection that feed perfectly. From what I can see, your feedlips are far too wide spread. The photo below will show you how mine are set (others please chime in if yours are substantially different -- I'm not the real expert here)

Here's what happens as you close the bolt:

First, the bullet nose begins to move under the feed lip, holding the nose down. As it does, the feed lip directs the bullet nose into the funneling slide at the bottom entrance to the chamber.
(Rick, from what I can see, your feed lips, being too spread apart, are releasing the nose far too early, causing the cocking of the bullet into the side-wall and jamming.)

Second, the bolt moves the cartridge forward and the neck of the cartridge (~.335" diameter) escapes through the feed lips (~.345-.350" apart). At this stage the point of the bullet has already contacted the funneling slide and is being guided to enter the chamber. (I checked another mag and the feed lips were .40" apart. The last round fed ok using a quick, snappy motion. But if I slow-motioned ramming the bolt home, it cocked just like yours.)

Third, the taper of the cartridge then rides UP on TOP of the feed lips as it enters the chamber. The nose of the bullet should already be inside the chamber at this point. The bolt then finishes driving the cartridge home.

Notice, (see photo) the right and left feed lips on my mags were not diametrically the same height -- the right feed lip is lower than the left. (I don't know if this is a coincidence or by design, but all the mags I tested exhibited this trait.)

Hope this helps, Robert
Please PM me if you need to talk this out.

[Peter Laidler]

With the greatest respect Seaspriter and with the best will in the world you are complicating and making a mountain out of a molehill for what is a very simple 2 minute issue that the average most junior Armourer would be taking in his stride every day of the week. This subject has already been aired in some depth many, many times over the years on the forum. Every magazine and rifle has its own traits and vagaries. It's the nature of the beast and the very reason why the magazine was numbered to the rifle

Anyone, please feel to send in the mortars - but it really is just a simple case of the feed lips directing the projectile while the cartridge is in what we call the twilight zone. And we've gone past 4 pages and into page 5 already for want of adjusting ONE feed lip!

[GeeRam]

Sorry to bump this thread, but it was the one I found searching to solve my misfeeding issues on my No.5, usually on the 1st, 3rd or 7th round, but thanks to Peter L's explanations and I think I've solved it now with a bit of mag tab tweeking.