[Palladin8]

I will post some pics this evening when I get home from the office. I was just curious about the No.4 MKI bolt heads as the pics appear to be close. I wasn't sure if someone just threw one on the gun to sell it or what. I am new to the Enfields and maybe I should've done a little more research prior to buying. Now i'm a little gun shy about buying surplus guns. And the bad thing is there is a really nice looking Yugo mauser at a local shop for what I thought was a fairly good price.

[Alan De Enfield]

1) Dont panic, dont get nervous - lets have a look at the pics and ensure you've got the right 'bits'.

2) Get a no-go 0.074" gauge and well see what that shows.

You'll find pretty much every Enfield leaves a 'ring' around the cartridge (about 1/4" up from the rim). Enfield chambers were designed 'big' so that they could still operate with cartridges covered in mud, blood, slime and snow.
Ideally you should keep the cartridges from each Enfield seperate (no problem if you have just the one) and neck size only. This minimises the stretch / stresses as it is already fireformed to that chamber.

Look at the pic (courtesy of 'Parashooter') and watch the primer move, the cartridge rim move and the cartridge 'thin down' 1.4" forward of the rim. Click the link.

Next step to resolving punctured primers :
a) Is the firing pin tip 'rounded' or pointy/sharp ? (It should be a rounded tip)
b) is the firing pin projection correct ?

[Palladin8]

Alan here are a few pics of the bolt head reciever and the brass.

[Alan De Enfield]

Well - no problems there - you have a No1 bolt body and a No1 bolt head.
The only question now is the headspace.

Try this trick (see pic) It will give you an idea of how much bigger you need the new bolt head (if indeed it fails the 0.074" gauge)

Get a fired cartridge and measure the rim thickness (should be around 0.060"-0.062")
Put the fired cartridge into the chamber.
Push the bolt as far forward as possible and insert a feeler gauge into the gap - as shown. (I know the pic is a No4 but its the same principle)

Lets say you can get a .015" feeler gauge into the gap then the headspace is 0.060"(cartridge rim) + 0.015" ie 0.075" (fail) so you need a new bolt head about 0.008" - 0.010" longer.
This is only very approximate and should be confirmed by proper gauges.

If you can only get (say) a 0.005" feeler gauge in then the headspace is approximately 0.060"(cartridge rim) + 0.005" = 0.065" - Perfect.

[Palladin8]

Thanks Alan I will give that a try. I have been looking around online to no avail for bolt heads. It seems there are the No.4 bolt heads but the No.1s are out of stock and no plans on getting new ones.

[Alan De Enfield]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Palladin8

Thanks Alan I will give that a try. I have been looking around online to no avail for bolt heads. It seems there are the No.4 bolt heads but the No.1s are out of stock and no plans on getting new ones.

There is a guy who is always selling on ebay (but wont you know it not at the moment) - cannot remember his name. He sells in 1s, 2, 3s and even groups of 4 (all different sizes) he does auctions and buy-it-now.
Set up a search on Ebay for 'Enfield' and keep checking.

1st stage tho' (before wasting money on bolt heads) is the 0.074" gauge.
It could be that you dont need a new bolt head and then we need to start on a different tack.

[Palladin8]

yes I agree. Process of elimination and first thing first is finding out if in fact the headspace is out. I ordered the field guage from brownells so it will be here sometime next week.

[Alan De Enfield]

Palladin - check your private messages

[Palladin8]

checked them and sent off the mail to the guy

thanks again

[Palladin8]

ok the Field guage arrived today and I checked it this evening. No where in the documentation did it state the measurements of the guage and it's only marked with .303 br Field. It's the Forster guage. I measured the "rim" of the guage and it measures at approx. .072 in 4 different measurements.
When I chambered it and closed the bolt at first it didn't want to close until I got it past the ejector then it closed with little effort.

[Alan De Enfield]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Palladin8

ok the Field guage arrived today and I checked it this evening. No where in the documentation did it state the measurements of the guage and it's only marked with .303 br Field. It's the Forster guage. I measured the "rim" of the guage and it measures at approx. .072 in 4 different measurements. When I chambered it and closed the bolt at first it didn't want to close until I got it past the ejector then it closed with little effort.

Oh dear - having a 72thou gauge doesnt really help.
Its not one of those 'coin' type is it ?

Remove the extractor (its not the ejector - the ejector is the screw that goes thru' the receiver wall on the left hand side underneath the loading bridge)

Do your test again.

The definition of 'not closing' on the gauge is difficult to define but is basically "one thumb" pressure DO NOT push down with all your might using the plam of your hand.

Did you get those bolt heads ?

[Palladin8]

The guage isn't the coin style. I thought it would be the right one due to the fact that it was the field guage and from what I was reading about the field guage it was in fact the .074. Really does me no good at this point other than knowing that the headspace is borderline if not out of spec.

I did not get the bolt heads as he said that none of them were that large. He said he might know of a place where they have the larger bolt heads but he has not replied back to my request.

Should I hold the trigger down while closing it? It is much easier to close that way and requires less pressure to push the bolt home.

[Alan De Enfield]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Palladin8

The guage isn't the coin style. I thought it would be the right one due to the fact that it was the field guage and from what I was reading about the field guage it was in fact the .074. Really does me no good at this point other than knowing that the headspace is borderline if not out of spec. I did not get the bolt heads as he said that none of them were that large. He said he might know of a place where they have the larger bolt heads but he has not replied back to my request. Should I hold the trigger down while closing it? It is much easier to close that way and requires less pressure to push the bolt home.

Let me give it some thought & measure what i've got - I'll get back to you

[Alan De Enfield]

Ok - where do we start :

I've checked what size No1 bolt heads I've got and the biggest is 0.631" so thats no help.

I assume then that your headspace gauges look similar to these :


If they are 303 then they wont be identical but in principal will be the same.

It is very easy to 'chip' either your extractor or the gauge so you must either remove the extractor (recommended) or 'fiddle' the gauge under the extractor. The extractor is tapered from the bottom (it doesnt look like it but believe me it is) to facilitate picking up / locking over the cartridge.

Open the bolt fully, insert the gauge at an angle (from the top - as its virtually impossible to do it from the bottom unless your fingers are 6"+ long) hook the flange of the gauge under the extractor and carefully guide the gauge into the chamber, close the bolt down using gentle 'one finger' pressure. If it closes then it fails (Ok I know it is 72 thou and should be 74 thou but we need to work with what we've got. If you feel resistance as you close the bolt down its a 'pass' and no further worries.

Assuming we have a 'fail'

Remove bolt from rifle, unscrew bolt head from bolt.
Make up some shims in varying thicknesses (say 2 thou, 5 thou and 10 thou - maybe cooking foil or similar) that will fit over the threaded part but the overall diameter stays within the O/D of the bolt head.
Put a shim onto bolt head, reassemble bolt and repeat headspace test.

Keep repeating with different shims until the bolt will not close.

Lets say you get a 'pass' with a 5 thou shim.
Bolt head length 0.636" + 0.005" = 0.641"

So you are OK to go as a 0.641 bolt head gives you a headspace of 0.072"
Ideally you want a headspace of 0.067" so in a perfect world you need a new bolt head that is 0.636" + 0.005" + 0.005" (the second 0.005" is the difference between the ideal of 0.067" and your gauge of 0.072") = 0.646"

In conclusion you are looking for a bolt head between 0.641" and 0.646"

Remove the shims, put the rifle away and do not fire it until you have the new bolt head.

The other possibility is that the bolt body has become compressed with repeated recoils.
measure the length of the bolt from the rear of the locking lug to the bolt head face. In the example used above you need to find a bolt body that is between 0.005" and 0.010" longer.

When replacing either bolt bodies or bolt heads it is very important that you do not have over or under rotation of the bolt head. Under rotation is not particularly serious as you will not be able to close the bolt, but over rotation means that the bolt head threads are taking all of the recoil impact, and will quickly become worn until the correct mating surfaces (bolt head / bolt body) come together by which time your headspace will have increased by (who knows ?) 10 thou, 15 thou ?

[Palladin8]

Thanks alot Alan.

I will give the steps a try and see what I come up with. There is a gun show this weekend so maybe I will go and see if I can't find a bolt head that will work.

[Palladin8]

Well tried the 74 thousandths guage this evening and the bolt closed. So without a doubt the headspacing is out. Now to find someone with a bolt headlarge enough to fix the problem.

[pathdoc]

I have shot a box of 180S&B fmjbt against a box of 174fmjbt Highland (PPU headstamp, possibly what you guys are calling Privi Partizan). My rifle did not like the S&B as much as the Highlands w.r.t. group size and I don't feel inclined to buy them again. The best thing about them was the plastic rack the ammo comes in.

Am using the cases for my first reloading experiment, having already read bad things about their reloadability elsewhere. That way if I screw up and have to ditch cases, I won't have lost much. Will report back.

[Palladin8]

Welcome to the site pathdoc. Do let us know how the reloads turn out.

[wunhunglo]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Palladin8

Well tried the 74 thousandths guage this evening and the bolt closed. So without a doubt the headspacing is out. Now to find someone with a bolt headlarge enough to fix the problem.

I got mine from Tennessee gun parts, I believe they can sell you a whole set of bolt heads. www.tngunparts.com 901 475 0901, tngunguy@aol.com

[Palladin8]

wun how long ago did you buy your set of bolt heads? I looked on their website and saw nothing pertaining to the Enfield rifles

Edit: I did find bolt heads for the No4 MkI, just not for the No.1 MKIII

Thanks for the site though