ANYTHING is not foolproof. Fools are very ingenious at times. If we accept the above scenario, this could happen to almost ANY bolt action magazine fed rifle.
The scenario above IS possible, but would have to have the extractor spring broken or the extractor broken or plugged by crap. The shooter SHOULD know if the rifle has been fired by the recoil, but in the heat of battle might not.
The above would have been an isolated incident, and not a common one. I believe the OP's question regarded sustained fire so while it might happen once or so, it was not a common occurance. If we accept this, it could also occur with almost ANY bolt action rifle.
Tube magazine rifles are designed for flat or round nosed bullets. A pointed bullet in a tube magazine rests on the primer of the round in front of it IN MOST CASES (Remington pump guns excepted due to a spiral magazine tube.) When fired, the rifle recoils but inertia keeps the cartridges from moving back immediately with the rifle, so they compress the spring. Then the recoil stops, and the magazine spring propells the cartridges forward until they hit the loading platform stop. In such cases, it is quite possible to have the tip of a cartridge ignite the cartridge in front of it, and explode most of the rest in the magazine if there are more in front of the one that goes off.
Also, to quote the OP, "He said to me that the Enfield no1 mkIII had a ''factory'' problem with the bolt." The above scenarios would not be a FACTORY PROBLEM but rather an unusual one, initiated by the shooter. With over 6 million No. 1 Mk. III rifles made, you would have thought that this would have come to light over the last 100 years of use but this is the first time I have heard of it, and I went through a Canadian Armourers Course.
There is also another factor here. Under normal circumstances, the round when pushed forward, does not really enter the CENTER of the chamber where a primer on a chambered cartridge would be. The round is stripped off the magazine onto the feed guide and the nose of the cartridge rides upwards toward the BOTTOM of the chamber, guided by the feed lips on the magazine. When it gets into the chamber, it centers itself. Therefore the pointed nose of the bullet is entering the chamber well below the primer of a loaded round, and would jam up on the base of the loaded round below the primer. The pointed nose of the cartridge is actually inside the chamber BEFORE the base and rim pop up out of the magazine.
This has all the earmarks of the Ross Rifle legends and myths. After all, they both shoot .303 ammo, both were military rifles, so both gotta be the same .....right?
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