No4 Bolt Advice

[Alan de Enfield]

So I picked up the No 5 yesterday. The bolts from both the No 5 and the No 4 work flawlessly in the No 5. When I tried them in the No 4, they both displayed resistance in the same exact place. This leads me to believe the problem lies with the receiver. Since I am not a gunsmith, I think I will probably take it to my gunsmith and see if he can find the cause.

Does your gunsmith have sufficient knowldege of the Enfields, AND, the correct gauges to check it is not twisted or stretched ?

I'd suggest you send it to Brian Dick who is one of the top Enfield smiths in the US

[CINDERS]

Good Lee Enfield gunsmiths are like a matched SMLE bl**dy difficult to find Alans on the money spend a few dollars get it to Brian who won't faff about in either saying it is fixable or its shagged. Thing is what if you on sold it and it did go south and injure a person. I am not saying the rifle is dangerous but it has an issue that needs to be understood and rectified for peace of mind then sell it if its good to go.

[browningautorifle]

spend a few dollars get it to Brian

Too, that way we can get a complete poop on what the issue was so we'll recognize it when it arises again. Info sharing...

[Singer B]

The rifle was sent to Brian today. Brian, please feel free to share any observations from it once you get a chance to diagnose it. Thanks!

[Brian Dick]

Here's the report.

The muzzle, throat, and two groove bore are well in spec. The bolt, (mismatch), locking lugs bear evenly in the body and headspace is fine. Bolt head overturn is in spec. I had to adjust the bolt correctly to get correct bolt and cocking piece lift, clean and adjust the safety assembly. I disassembled the sear, mag catch and bolthead catch assemblies, inspected, cleaned and greased everything. The sear spring was worn and funky, (gunsmith term?), so I replaced it. Reassembled and tested it and it feels much better. However, I think the rear of the body behind the right hand locking lug is distorted and binding ever so slightly. It might be my imagination and I don't trust my eyes and magnifying glass enough to make a positive ID but I think there may be hairline cracks present along the bottom in the crease of the machining. Now this is a ROF(F) rifle originally produced in 1943 so the machining isn't great and it might be me erring on the side of caution so I told Walt to get it checked at a machine shop that has proper equipment to detect cracks and he agreed. Anyhow, I hope I'm wrong. If so it's a serviceable rifle as is. If not, the body is scrap. The Turk imports from what I've seen were original finish and worn but not in bad shape internally where it counts. Brian

[Singer B]

Thanks Brian, and the services came at a great price!

[Alan de Enfield]

Top man on Enfields.

[Surpmil]

...He is more than a man, He's a shiny golden god.

Something like the last words King Herod heard.

[Singer B]

Just got the results back from the xray. I am very happy to say that no cracks were found so this No 4 is going to live and still make people happy. It still has a little bit of drag on the bolt but after Brian's work, it is noticeably smoother. The best part is we get to shoot it next weekend along with the No 5 we picked up a few weeks ago.

[CINDERS]

Awesome a range report naturally.