Incident

[Steve H. in N.Y.]

I was lurking on Son's favorite forum and came across a thread about a fairly serious incident involving an SMLE (actually a 2A1). It's a bit confusing but what I gather is that upon firing, the bolt flew back and only stopped when the extractor housing hit the receiver and broke. There was questionable cartridge reloading involved and that seems to be the focus of the discussion over there. I'm wondering though, is this what can happen if the rifle fires with the bolt not completely closed due to damaged safety lugs at the rear of the bolt and/or on the cocking piece. With a moderator's permission here is a link for anyone who may be interested.

Surplusrifle Forum View topic - stuck case

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[CINDERS]

Something is very amiss with the whole set up I mean " I brought some reloading gear and powder at a garage sale" good grief someone may have tried duplex loading and put trail boss in there just plain stupid and very rightly said by another that he was not looking at the wall hanger from 6' under.
I would not use that rifle again weld it up so it can never be sold/used ever again who knows what pressures were involved, needless to say from what I can gather if the bolt is not fully closed on an Lee Enfield and the trigger lets the weapon fire then it will drop the sear into the half cock on the cocking piece locking the bolt and the trigger until it is re-cocked by pulling the cocking piece fully rearward.
Nope the chap was a fool of the highest order no mater what their qualifications in life and if they are going to shoot it again who knows when it might fail he was lucky the bolt only broke his shooting glasses without taking half his face with it people have no respect for the forces they are dealing with 6" in front of their beak......

I will put it in simplified terms say a Holden Commodore weighs 2 tonnes roughly therefore that equates to 4480lbs (1 tonne = 2240lbs) so if we place 9 Commodores on top of each other we have a combined weight of 40,320 lbs now Lees operate roughly at around 42,000 lb/sq imaging having that 40,320lbs pressing on a 1 inch square of your skin how do you reckon you would go. There is no margin for error when dealing with these rifles and putting it in a vice with a string to the trigger what type of serviceability test is that....Good grief!!!!!!!!!

[Brian Dick]

I'm amazed we haven't heard or read many more stories like this one. I've lost count of how many RFI 2A and 2A1 rifles that have been sent here so I could check them out and make sure they're in specification. I've used a good portion of my nos long SMLE bolt heads to get them back into specification too over the years because many have been way out of spec. The 2A/2A1 is an interesting collector's piece and part of Lee Enfield history but I would NEVER make one of them my favorite 7.62 caliber range rifle. The big importers dumped them on the market in the late 1980's and early 90's by the tens of thousands and here in the USA where there are no proof laws, it's really a crap shoot what you're getting and they should be thoroughly checked out before you even think about firing one. You've all heard me refer to them as "Barney Fife" rifles, made for carrying, not shooting too much and keep your bullet in your pocket! If you want a Lee Enfield in 7.62 caliber, save up and get one built on the much stronger No.4 action. I've got my steel helmet handy for the incoming.

[CINDERS]

Well said Brian but as you know intelligence is in the hand of the end user and in this case the user was lacking the intelligence to understand and respect what they were dealing with. If the incident happened on a range then there would be an investigation for sure as the person not only put themselves at risk but also other shooters if it handgrenaded. Nope this person missed the Darwin theory completely and has the brain capacity of a dried amoeba......not really fussed if I wrangle their feathers with my summation of the facts as presented in the link.

[muffett.2008]

Yep, that's the flat earth society

[Peter Laidler]

I call it 'natural selection'

[Son]

At least the old turki isn't involved in this one... He doesn't have time for the forum scene since he opened his new business, "the Company BSA" also known as the "British Sword Academy, Historical European Martial Arts" ...I think it's a school for the infamous brit ninjas.. Or is it a rebirth of Ecky Thump!

[tiriaq]

Had to struggle to figure out what happened. Sounds as if laddie made up handloads with mixed rifle and pistol powder, which caused a catastrophic case failure. The case failure resulted in the lug being broken off the bolthead. Laddie was sprayed with fragments, had his glasses broken. He talked about being struck by the bolt, but then reported that he had to use a hammer to get the bolt open. The amount of ignorance in the thread is remarkable, not only in the description of what happened, but in some of the advice that was given.

[mrclark303]

I was trying to fathom what sort of failure could make a Lee Enfield bolt fail and blow back, considering the two lugs make this just about impossible. The only one I could think of is if perhaps the cocking piece failed and allowed the firing pin to protrude forward, coupled with aggressive closing of the bolt might just possibly might allow a breech explosion without the bolt being locked ??

Otherwise surely the action body would need to fracture and fail in a quite spectacular way to allow the bolt to let go on a Lee, or am I wrong gents?

[Peter Laidler]

If this happened to one of our rifles there's be a properly conducted forensic examination of the rifle, the ammo, the user and the supervision. Without those points it's all speculation. But if the bolt was partially open and the safety stud on the cocking piece were sheared off, then the rifle could fire. With this result