Thread: A sad day

So Eion and day on did you get the shakes when it sunk in how lucky you were? Nice you were wearing safety glasses

Originally Posted by ishoot10s

Have a real good butchers at the first factory case you fired. Any evidence of excessive headspace? I'm thinking that the first factory round bent the bolt a tad, and on the second she let go. The LE bolt is basically free floating up at the breech end and wobbles around like R93's todger in a Kathoey... The perils of a rear locking system, unlike the Mauser style, which locks the bell-end nicely into the labia.

am I on about. Musta been the home brew...

Although descriptive your remark about my privates is inaccurate.
Mine is definitely magnum bolt face and front locking! It flops around with intent. It has never wobbled. It has even dispatched wounded animals with a single blow.


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Originally Posted by R93

It has even dispatched wounded animals with a single blow.

Crabs?

Originally Posted by ishoot10s

Crabs?

Sig Hansen sized ones

Sorry photos are a long time coming the camera puckered out so these are off my phone.

Maca49

So Eion and day on did you get the shakes when it sunk in how lucky you were? Nice you were wearing safety glasses

Yeah it was quite interesting on the drive home when it set in. Really a strange feeling.

I checked the cases and they were fine. I checked them against a square too and they looked to be straight. The only thing I noted other than the bold was the firing pin had snapped.

Originally Posted by ishoot10s

Ok, I'll put my serious hat on.

Imagine standing a length of wooden dowel upright on a hard surface like a concrete floor. It's supported only by its contact with the floor. Now hit the top of the dowel with a hammer. The dowel will likely vibrate, bend, split or fracture depending how hard you hit it. That's what a rear locking LE bolt has to tolerate on every firing because the bolt head is not locked to the breech.

Now imagine the bit of dowel still standing upright, with its base on the floor, but with its top end also held in a vice. Hit that with a hammer and there's not much going to happen except a bit of mushrooming around the top. That's a front locking bolt.

In the LE 303, if its heavily tapered case is given room to move through excessive headspace, it's like a several ton hammer smacking the unsupported top of a slim steel dowel standing on the floor.

Arrrrh, gottcha.....

Bugger, good to hear that it was indeed your lucky day bud!

IS10,
I like the way you explained it the first time even though I didn't understand it. I think I need an on online language course , my Kiwi sucks.

Originally Posted by Colorado

my Kiwi sucks.

Have you got a Kiwi bird? They arnt too bad at it aye

Golly.
Your bolt failed just behind the locking lug, which means the bolt was "locked" and it is interesting to see that the firing pin now "ends"at the point where the bolt head joins it.

I do ponder about back pressure causing the bolt to fracture.

I note your comment, " Had a good soldiers 5 and nothing I could see wrong" but ask, did you THEN check for a barrel obstruction?

Looking at that fracture position, I'd now venture a guess at uneven lug engagement. Is that bolt original to that rifle? If not, then it may not have had the lugs lapped to that action, so one lug took more load than the other which was not apparently a problem untill you used full-power loads. I think the long lug took all the strain, the bolt twisted back on the short lug side enough to snap off the rear section. I've seen pictures of bolts with the short lug sheared off, in those cases I think the short lug took all the strain.

Great that you got away with as little injury as you did.

Oh yeah, and the tip of your firing pin would have moved through quite an arc given its attached to the rear of the bolt, so it's tip got snapped off when it hit the side of its hole.

Hmmm. Odd place to break.

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Its pretty unusual but not unknown, usually it fails forward of the lugs and is contained in the receiver. I always wear safeties on my 303s....good you said re-enforces it for me....

regards

Looks to have shattered after the lugs, strange, I'll ask ppl who know more than me (not hard)....if the lugs are un-even the lug snaps off or the bolt snaps before the lugs....

Originally Posted by Kiwi Sapper

Golly.
Your bolt failed just behind the locking lug, which means the bolt was "locked" and it is interesting to see that the firing pin now "ends"at the point where the bolt head joins it.

I do ponder about back pressure causing the bolt to fracture.

I note your comment, " Had a good soldiers 5 and nothing I could see wrong" but ask, did you THEN check for a barrel obstruction?

I did check for a squib and it was fine.

How would someone say I test the evenness of the lugs?