Lee Enfield chamber reaming in the Great war?

[mike1967]

.303 Mil . I asked him how they ad. If they could get them,yes. But the number they needed was not always available out in the field. 95% of the time the bolt body was shortened[/QUOTE]

Surely not, the threads still remain in the same place, and what about overturn.

Information

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[Bindi2]

My understanding is the bolt head face is ground/stoned to give the correct head space not the bolt body.

[Son]

.303 Mil . I asked him how they ad. If they could get them,yes. But the number they needed was not always available out in the field. 95% of the time the bolt body was shortened

Surely not, the threads still remain in the same place, and what about overturn.[/QUOTE]

I argued that (among other points) at the time, and got howled down. They could not get it through their heads that all you were doing was removing the load bearing surface and making the threads take the pressure of firing transferred through to the locking lugs. It does not matter what you do to the face of the bolt body, unless you remove enough for the head to go on another turn, it will always be in the same place once it is in the boltway.
That was one part of the hand fitting the No1 rifle needed to be set up.... selecting a bolt head that either provided the correct headspace, or was long enough to stone down the face to get the correct headspace. The No4 rifle used "sized" bolt heads to give a selection but as has been proven, these were more just an indicator rather than a true size range.
Of interest on this point, when the Aust Army re introduced the No1 MkIII* HT sniper rifle into service as an interim measure in the 1970's, the parts list included a selection of measured bolt heads to provide a quick and easy fix for headspace.

Attachment 69509

[Sentryduty]

Of interest on this point, when the Aust Army re introduced the No1 MkIII* HT sniper rifle into service as an interim measure in the 1970's, the parts list included a selection of measured bolt heads to provide a quick and easy fix for headspace.

I found this chart quite valuable so I took the liberty of quickly transcribing it and reposting as a crisp document format for all to keep.

Interesting there is no number "8" 0.638" bolt head in the selection.