Inherent Weakness ?

[ireload2]

I fire form cases that are oiled. I never fire full power loads even with dry cartridges in a Lee-Enfield.

Ok now we know in extreme cases the left side of the body breaks. In less extreme cases the right side of the body will break. You can quote me on that.

Did the Brits call off combat due to rain?

I would like to clarify one thing about the supposedly "weak" primary extraction of the Lee-Enfield
action. It is not weak but it is hidden. The angled cut on the front surface of the small locking lug cams against an angled face in the lower interior of the action body. This provides very strong primary extraction. Due to the significant body taper of the .303 cartridge you would have to have a pretty crappy chamber - really pitted or reamed with some severe tool marks to need a lot of primary extraction. Since all the Lee-Enfields I have owned have had decent chambers I have no idea which breaks first the extractor, the extractor screw, the bolt head or the rim. I could calculate it with the magic computer program EH thinks I have, which is nothing more than "fill in the blanks" algebra.
I know one thing jerking against the thin walled threaded (meaning notched) front end of the bolt can't be good for it if you have a stuck case. Crack the bolt nose trying to pull out a stuck case and the next round may send the bolt head whizzing past your own head.
I also have to comment about the supposed super duper steel used by the Indians in their 7.62 Nato versions. Much ado about nothing. I have never measured the action body of the Indian rifle but unless they increased the cross sections of the right and left rails by about 30% they didn't accomplish much. The 788 Remington has much more massive receiver cross sections and it too will spring under a load. The problem is the length of the rails (think long rubber bands) and the modulus of elasticity. Unfortunately the modulus of elasticity of steel changes very little with the alloy.
But you do not have to take my word for it you can go look it up in several hundred places on the internet or in Machinery's Handbook if you can still read print that small. If you want a rear locking action to be really strong make it really short and really massive. The Lee-Enfield design is neither.
It works but it is what it is. Now I realize that all this is too little too late since EH has resigned to never come back to this thread. Just imagine the damage he could do if he got a hold of a copy of my magic algebra program.