-
Quick question about reduced bolt lug on a No1Mk3
I did bump into something that got me wondering, and I thought I should ask about it.
A No1Mk3* came to my place recently. Close inspection, revealed that - from what I can understand - for some reason someone took one of the locking lugs to the grinding stone. I noticed this because it wasn't showing the same rounded profile than what I'm used to see.
The bottom / left side lug of the bolt is slighlty less tall than others I compared it with; I didn't precisely measure it, but it looks like maybe 1/32nd or 1/16th of an inch was removed.
I am not sure what that was done, but more importantely can it weaken the whole assembly, since technically, there is less metal contacting the action and transfering the force when a shot is fired?
Thanks for any tip,
Lou
Information
|
Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current. |
|
-
-
10-13-2009 05:36 PM
# ADS
Friends and Sponsors
-
Legacy Member
The only reason to grind the lug is to prevent it snagging the sear lever as the bolt is closed.
There is always a measure of vertical play when the bolt is open---closing the bolt normally puts downward pressure on the bolt body, pushing the bottom lug lower in the track. If an action body is worn, or sprung, the bottom lug will smack the sear lever as the bolt is pushed forward, giving out an audible click.
Stick an unmodified bolt in it and see if it clicks.
-----krinko
Please change "The only reason..." to "A main reason..."
Last edited by krinko; 10-13-2009 at 08:30 PM.
Reason: Exclusionism
-
-
-
Banned
The left lug of some drill rifles imported from egypt are ground down abit. These rifles have the left locking recess partly filled with a welded in rod to prevent use of a bolt not modified for the purpose.
The bolt heads were welded but the barrels and chambers were left unplugged.
-
Legacy Member
-
The Following 2 Members Say Thank You to SpikeDD For This Useful Post:
-
Banned
Very good photos, and a good idea making these available.
I have suspected that an out of spec Lithgow action I have may be a reactivated Drill rifle of some sort. Its a Lithgow and all the Egyptian Drill Rifles with these modifications I've seen adverted are also Lithgows. They seem to be all pre WW2 though, while mine is late WW2 manufacture.
Some altered Drill rifles were sold here years ago for $25 to be stripped for usable parts. Could be some of the altered bolts have ended up being sold as replacement parts.
-
Banned
-
You've all hit the nail on the head in some way or another. This was a little known modification, allowed, certainly in the L42 project, to permit the use of slightly worn bodies. If the sear was able to rise sufficient to touch the left (the small) locking lug, then the body was slightly chiseled as shown in Ed's drawing. However, if the body had already been swaged once in its life, then in order to save an otherwise perfectly serviceable body, then the bottom surface of the left hand bolt lug could be reduced in height sufficient to allow the bolt free travel fore and aft.
I don't remember the exact measurement but I believe that it could be flattened so that the flat was a maximum of 5mm or so width acress the radiussed surface. This is a feature that many people don't know about on their L42's.
The drawback was that these rifles usually had a longer first pull. Not that you'd probably notice
-
The Following 3 Members Say Thank You to Peter Laidler For This Useful Post:
-
Banned
Lou
The big question now is was the receiver staked to lower the sear or do you just have a ground down locking lug ala bubba or possibly DP mods????
Note: One of my No.4s was center punched in three places to lower the sear by an Armourer.
-
I bet the bloke who used the three centre punch marks got a bit of a roasting Ed! Well, he would if he'd done it in any of my workshops..... We all had a special chisel shaped tool that we would use, pretty well similar to the one you have reproduced Ed. To be honest, we would stake the sear bridge as often as it was needed because apart from the sear coming to rest against it, it wasn't a load bearing platform in any other way. The problem would usually come to light after a full complete rebuild or new bolt/sear.
The alternative was to just try to bend the sear nose down slightly. I was only joking......... PLEASE don't try it because it hard and very brittle and will snap
Interesting thread Lou. I hope that many needy grand old Enfields can be given a new lease of life
-
-
Banned
I bet the bloke who used the three centre punch marks got a bit of a roasting Ed! Well, he would if he'd done it in any of my workshops.....
Lets keep this quite Mr. Laidler and NOT tell Amatikulu about the punch marks, it was a South African marked No.4