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 Swedishicon 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?
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