stress on enfield ejector?

gregc

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hey, been busy as the proverbial beaver making cast loads for my enfields over the past few weeks. took a nice #4 out to the range today and the magazine was a bit wonky, didn't want to waste range time dicking around with adjusting the mag lips so just loaded each round individually into the chamber and closed the bolt on the round. my question is; if i continue to feed the rounds individually into the chamber and then close the bolt on the round, will that eventually bugger up/wear out the extractor spring

thanks for your response.
 
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The Lee Enfield was designed to operate with single round feed. If you're using nice pointy bullets, there shouldn't be any issues with the tips hanging up or catching on the lip of the chamber on the way in.

Early Lee Enfields had "magazine cut offs" to allow the troopie to single feed his rifle until the time was appropriate to utilize the magazine feed.

The "V" spring and hinge pinned extractor system is quite robust/reliable, but broken claw lips do happen.
 
Yes, it will damage the extractor
While the original reason for the cutoff was to single load, this was soon discovered to damage extractors & was discontinued in this role & the cutoff was regulated to a safety feature, when cleaning rods & jags were replaced with the pull though the rod was redesignated as a clearing rod for the extraction of fired cases stuck in a rifle with a broken extractor
 
I bet your brass would be ruined before the extractor would be. It's extremely hard compared to the brass. While it may not be ideal for the extractor I can't see it ever hurting it. The extractor has a convexed cutout on the face of it so the brass rides on a very thing portion of the extractor when single loading. Also the spring type can be pushed to the max extractor movement without issues it's a simple v spring with limited movement.

Although I will point out 5thbatt knows more than most about lee Enfield rifles and I would not laugh of disregard anything he says. I honestly am doubting my self due to his post at this point.
 
All the target versions of the no4 shot single shot for many decades. The parts are cheap and available why worry about it.

Pretty sure the discontinuation of the mag cutoff was cost and change in doctrine
 
I bet your brass would be ruined before the extractor would be. It's extremely hard compared to the brass. While it may not be ideal for the extractor I can't see it ever hurting it. The extractor has a convexed cutout on the face of it so the brass rides on a very thing portion of the extractor when single loading. Also the spring type can be pushed to the max extractor movement without issues it's a simple v spring with limited movement.

Although I will point out 5thbatt knows more than most about lee Enfield rifles and I would not laugh of disregard anything he says. I honestly am doubting my self due to his post at this point.
I am currently looking for references but here's one on the Cleaning/Clearing rods
20250510_155007.jpg
 
I bet your brass would be ruined before the extractor would be. It's extremely hard compared to the brass. While it may not be ideal for the extractor I can't see it ever hurting it. The extractor has a convexed cutout on the face of it so the brass rides on a very thing portion of the extractor when single loading. Also the spring type can be pushed to the max extractor movement without issues it's a simple v spring with limited movement.

Although I will point out 5thbatt knows more than most about lee Enfield rifles and I would not laugh of disregard anything he says. I honestly am doubting my self due to his post at this point.
Nope, they're right, it depends on the "individual" extractor. I've seen more than one with the lip broken off.

I've never read anything about the reason given above for eliminating the magazine cut offs, other than they were a pain in the butt and when the mind set of the single shot afficionados eventually died out or were overridden by superiors, they were eliminated. Cost cutting during manufacture was also quoted as a reason for eliminating them.

I single load my No1 and No4 Mk I T clone regularly, and did it with countless other Lee Enfields of every variant I've owned without issue, but sh1t does happen, and I've replaced several of them for folks who've broken them.

I've also replace weak or broken extractor springs, but mostly just replaced them because they were lost.
 
I shoot mine as single shot regular and haven’t done any damage. The DCRA’s in 303 or 308 are used as single shot without any issues. The LE’s aren’t like the German Mausers that can and will break from single loading. LE’s are very reliable loading from mag or just dropping a round on top of the mag.
 
When Mk III production was resumed after WW1 the cutoff was again included. One would assume that meant the reasons for its presence and rules for its use hadn't changed. A few other nation's rifles also had the feature to rather late dates. When target shooting with one of my Long Lees I often single load but find it just as easy to simply stick one in the magazine as opposed to using the cutoff.

milsurpo
 
Showing people photos of these parts/prices doesn't indicate there is an issue with breakage. It only indicates they carried the spares.

I've heard stories about troopers getting warned in the field not to strip down their rifles to the minor components. I've never gone through any military's basic training program, so don't have first hand knowledge as to how far they were ever allowed to strip the bolt down, in the field or in the clean up area later.

It would be extremely easy to lose parts, such as the "V" springs, screw, and even the extractor itself under field conditions, if they were allowed to be stripped to the bone.

A newbie or even most shooters, will never attempt to strip a rifle bolt to it's component parts for cleaning and inspection.

Mostly because they don't know how, don't have the tools, or run it as is because it still works.

Mechanical things break. I've had Lee Enfield parts break in the field, because of wear, manufacturing faults, or something loose, that should have been tight.

I personally don't see any issues with single loading a Lee Enfield. I've seen hundreds of them single loaded during DCRA matches with thousands of repeats and no issues. Mind you, some of us carried spares of the components we suspected or "heard" may give us trouble, and the screw/V spring/extractor were in the tins. Mostly we carried sight components.
 
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