Quick question about reduced bolt lug on a No1Mk3

[louthepou]

Thanks guys, interesting thread indeed!

Never cease to amaze me how much extra bits of info can be shared about these wonderful rifles.

Lou

[Edward Horton]

Thanks guys, interesting thread indeed!

Never cease to amaze me how much extra bits of info can be shared about these wonderful rifles.

Lou

Lou

Some of us would like to know how the story ends…………………….

1. Was the receiver staked to lower the sear?
2. Was the bolt lug ground down as a DP mod.
3. Or was it Bubba strikes again?

Inquiring minds need to know.

(If you don’t answer these questions I will tell the forum members how many rolls of duct tape you have used so far this year working on you Enfield’s)

[Alfred]

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

I've successfully straightened a bent sear. The rifle was in sad shape when brought to me, partly stripped for parts.
From the looks of it the sear had been a hair soft and bent upwards enough that it had begun catching in the half bent notch on firing. Repeatly getting caught like this had bent it even more till the sear caught every time preventing firing.
The original bend may have been the result of someone trying to pull the trigger while the rifle was on half cock.

I heated the sear just enough to hammer it back to shape. Then I followed directions on case hardening it with Kasenit. The rifle has had no further problems.

This particular sear was not at all brittle, the opposite in fact. Small parts can sometimes slip by inspection. AIA has stated that they ran into too many out of spec replacement parts to continue using them for their rifles. They now make all their own parts, or have them made new.

[louthepou]

Lou

Some of us would like to know how the story ends…………………….

1. Was the receiver staked to lower the sear?
2. Was the bolt lug ground down as a DP mod.
3. Or was it Bubba strikes again?

Inquiring minds need to know.

(If you don’t answer these questions I will tell the forum members how many rolls of duct tape you have used so far this year working on you Enfield’s)

Well we certainly don't want that secret out, so...

I suspect it's simply a question of Bubba, because nothing else (as far as I remember) was different or modified. But a Bubba with delicate approach.

[JBS]

Mr. Laidler, what was the most common cause of warping a body ?

[Peter Laidler]

We didn't get that many warped bodies. What usually happened in my experience was that you'd get one in and it and the bolt would be just damn tight at a point along its closing length. It definately wasn't bayonet fighting/training at the recruit training depots (where they still used DP No4's until about 1969 for what was called 'arduous training.....'). But if I had to guess, then it was on the assault courses where the rifle was used in a step ladder sort of way. The L1A1 barrel suffered in the same way so No4's were used for this sort of work for many many years

But back to Lou's answer to Ed. If it was a bubba job, then it was pretty well thought out as it was a direct copy of what we'd authorised for the L42's. Maybe someone on our modification board (who oversee and approve the modifications) had seen Mr Bubba's handiwork earlier!