2A1 Ishapore terrible accuracy + other problems

[Lee Enfield]

...snip...Roger,

I have a bolt head on my desk that came from an L42A1 that a guy blew up trying to shoot M118LR, (full house loads w/175 SMK pill), duplication handloads. A very harsh lesson and he was lucky not to be hurt. It's all the proof I need that sticking to the ammo and pressures these rifles were designed for is imperative. I also have to admmit that they never cease to amaze as the rifle body itself was undamaged even though the bolt head came apart and the bolt bod cracked for almost it's entire length. I was lucky to have a few 19T bolt bodies and heads and built him a new bolt assembly, test fired it and it was fine.

Brian

That's impressive, I've seen a number of No4's which were over pressured and they were not fireable afterwards.

In 3 cases, I've seen the front of the bolt "dolphined" out of the action - i suppose the bolt body stayed straight, while the action bent down.

Unknown what loadings were being used but the 1 fellow claimed Canadian 7.62 ball (it was a modified DCRA 7.62).

I wonder if the scope helped in this (L42) case?