Advice needed ... bolt opens on firing!

[Thunderbox]

Although many/most old SMLEs do lift the bolt handle a bit upon firing, its unheard of to have one open enough to unlock the bolt.

Adding to what Son says about spring torsional compression, the two worst "bolt lifters" I have been asked to look at both had one thing in common - the owners had both been on t'internet to USA and bought "extra strength" after market firing pin springs "to reduce lock time" (funnily enough, neither of them was the sort of world-class shot who might just be able to detect "lock time" difference or make use of it in a grouping....). Replacing the springs with standard items cured the problem.

Next time you fire the rifle, try it with the bolt handle raised a fraction - so that the long locking rib is not quite touching the right receiver/bolthead track. On some rifles there seems to be a vertical transmitted shockwave through the bolthead track that jolts the long locking rib and helps lift the bolt.

Changing the bolt head and/or the firing pin spring and/or the extractor claw and/or the extractor spring are all methods I have seen dramatically reduce bolt lift. Not sure anyone really knows why - its a multi-part system where changing one thing often affects another thing.


They made over 4 million identical No1s, but they are all different...