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

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[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.

[Thunderbox]

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

[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.

[Peter Laidler]

I agree 1000% with T/box. In all my time working with them, I never saw a catastrophic failure with one. The two big ones were easily explained but even then, weren't catastrophic. Certainly one of them could (and I think, it was...) rebuilt following the Board of Enquiry

[Badger]

Here's another related thread on this subject from a few years ago ...

Combining a DP Enfield, a Shooter and a Gunsmith ended up with catastrophic failure!

Regards,
Doug

[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

[BubbaTheKid]

Here's another related thread on this subject from a few years ago ...

Combining a DP Enfield, a Shooter and a Gunsmith ended up with catastrophic failure!

I just read thru that thread. "Ouch". Did anyone ever generate a check list thread for newbies? I just purchased my first Enfield. A 1916 or 1918 No.1 MK.III*, it has a silver/white 2" wide brush painted stripe around the fore stock which has my attention. I haven't found a DP stamp or ZF stamp, BER stamp anywhere on it. I have Skennerton's book on the way. I plan to take alot of photos and put it up on here in its own thread for all to enjoy before I even think to take it to the range. I purchased it from a friend who bought it from aguy who was given it by a neghbor some years ago. It is full of dust and grease. The bore was clogged with grease but cleaned up to look like a mirror. There's grease on the barrel under the top rear hand guard behind the site. The bolt, receiver,rear sight, barrel, forestock and nose cap are all the same serial number. I'm hoping it was one of those rare items that was dunked in a tub of boiling cosmoline, sold in the USA in the 50's and was forgotten and not a DP rifle, or ZF, BER etc... So far nothing jumps out as suspect other than the silver/white painted stripe. Like I said, I will got thru it with Skennerton and post it up here before I shoot it.

[Lee Enfield]

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?

The one I examined some years ago blew the extractor and bolt head side out, and bent the rear of the action down so the bolt could not be withdrawn, and the bolt body was "dolphined" above it's "race". The post mortem indicated that the previous bullet had not left the barrel IIRC.

As to "handling gas" better than a mauser, I disagree. Within @ the last 5 years I've seen 2 people shooting No4 rifles have their glasses broken when the striker struck the lens after punching a hole into a primer. Luckily no eye damage occurred.