LE No 1 blowup or how not to dissemble a Lee Enfield (Update post #97)

OP; are you sure thats a 303 cal barrel. Back in the 60's Elwood Epps and many others rebarrelled a lot of old 303's into 25-303's. Any chance that the bullet pushed back into the cartridge when it was chambered? Would a regular 303 case chamber in a 25-303 chamber?........Probably not unless the case neck was split or something.....but possible. I'd mic or slug that barrel to eliminate that possibility. Glad your still in one piece man.
 
Gatehouse said:
It was a 25-303. Ouch. :)
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I doubt if the round would chamber if the barrel were 25 calibre, and if you look at the pic of the breech end of the barrel, the neck seems to be expanded to the proper diameter. The barrel would have had to have been rechambered with a proper .303 reamer for what you're suggesting to have happened.
 
Well I have no idea what happened :confused: , but you have definitely taught me to be a little more careful with the old neglected rusty enfields I keep bringing home.... Glad your ok!!
 
I don't know how it could happen, and of course I don't know what happened, but the results look to me like it was a case full of a fast burning pistol or shotgun powder that destroyed the rifle.
In the interests of all shooters, proper professionals should examine the broken gun, to determine what caused it.
 
Willy Tincup said:
OP; are you sure thats a 303 cal barrel. Back in the 60's Elwood Epps and many others rebarrelled a lot of old 303's into 25-303's. Any chance that the bullet pushed back into the cartridge when it was chambered? Would a regular 303 case chamber in a 25-303 chamber?........Probably not unless the case neck was split or something.....but possible. I'd mic or slug that barrel to eliminate that possibility. Glad your still in one piece man.
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That would be very easy to overlook. good info.
 
H4831 said:
I don't know how it could happen, and of course I don't know what happened, but the results look to me like it was a case full of a fast burning pistol or shotgun powder that destroyed the rifle.
In the interests of all shooters, proper professionals should examine the broken gun, to determine what caused it.
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Wise as always
 
I say tac weld the barrel back on and weld the bolt to it and put it in a case with the stock and metal bits around it best thing to do since the dam thing almost killed you
 
I cant see them being able to give us a complete rundown of what actually happened only the fact that somekind of pressure spike occured, the reason for the spike may never be known be it wrong powder, too much powder or too little powder, i dont believe a crack in the receiver would be the cause of the failure but if there was one there prior, it just made the failure more distructive.
 
I have tried to blow up a 303 Brit. by using compressed Red Dot behind one of the old 220 gr KKSP bullets. Brass and smoke came out the pressure relief holes, the brass sheared off in the chamber (as did yours), and the head expanded to just larger diam. than a belted mag., but the action stayed shut and we had to beat the bolt unlocked with a big stick. The extractor was missing. Sure glad it was tied to a fence and a stick through the trigger to set it off. Later examination suggests that a person holding the firearm in the proper standing position should not have been injured. I would suggest a weakened receiver ring, perhaps in the desire to streamline the shape for re-stocking.
 
The magazine cut off lug has been ground off and that rolled over edge on the guard screw boss/lug suggests some rough treatment in the past as someone took a barrel off. Could it be that area around the extractor relief cut (half circle) got too hot during the grinding off of the cutoff lug?

Compare with an original Lee Enfield MkI receiver dated 1896.

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A chamber cast would be a good idea after the case is removed.
 
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

I sat down at my reloading bench to pull the bullets and weigh the loads and found myself staring at a container of Titegroup. I started looking around and found my can of 4895 on the shelf behind a bunch of other stuff. It looks like what I did is pour the Titegroup into almost empty hopper of the Lyman 1200 I use without even looking at it, assuming it was the 4895 that I had been using before, and merrily started loading. I don't know what the pressure is on 38 grns of Titegroup but I'm pretty sure it exceeds the maximum for a LE action.
The difference doesn't show up that well in the pictures but when its right in front of you its obvious as hell.
#### I'm stupid.
Oh well, maybe somebody else can learn from this and not blow up a perfectly good old gun.
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Wow. I'm glad you figured it out.

This is an important reminder to all of us reloaders to keep our minds focused while working. It only takes a few seconds to make a fatal mistake.

Now look on the bright side. With one gun removed from the safe you obviously need to go buy another to replace it :)
 
Thank you.
I am humbled be your honesty in this matter. Not sure if I could admit such a mistake.
There is a very important lesson here for all reloaders, new and old.
 
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