Bolt on my Enfield is sticking

[lordviperscorpin]

Greetings and salutations,

I took my Enfield to the range on Sunday for the first time. Interesting results :), I cleaned the gun up on Saturday, didn't notice anything unusual. Everything seemed to be in proper order and the barrel looked to be in good shape. so off I went.

I only shot 30 rounds at the 50 yd line. Ammo was South African surplus from cheaperthandirt.com. The bullets were hitting a foot high nd 3 inches to the right at that distance :(. I'm hoping that this is just me adjusting to peep sights and not getting the right sight picture, because I have no idea how to adjust the front site. Maybe there's a micrometer adjustable rear sigth in my future ? Groups were tighter than what I was getting with my SKS which looks promising.

Anyways, I noticed after about 15 rounds the bolt started to stick when yanking out a spent cartridge. None of the cases were ruptured and showed no signs of bulging or damage. If I let the gun cool, off, it became easier to work the bolt again. It had no problems opening and closing without ammo though. What could be causing this ? I did soak and scrub the gun in both CLP and Simple Green. leftover juice could off worked it's way into the bolt and caused trouble ? I don't know....what usually causes this ?

[REDSTAR]

If my memory serves me correctly I think I had theis problem on my #1. I don't have my rifle with me at work so I can't check this but I'll go out on a limb. Does the safety when engaged not allow you to lift the bolt handle? I can't remember but I think so.

When I was firing my #1, the safety would half engage after each shot and I would have to disengae it in order to eject the spent round after each shot. I tightened the screw on the safety and it quit doing that.

See if your safety lever is loose. It's the same safety as whats on the #1.

[NC_Rebel]

I think that usually happens to folks who use heat-activated glue as a lube. ;) Forgive me, I'm an unrepentant smartass. :p

Seriously, are you saying that when you have the bolt fully retracted, it doesn't want to slide forward again? Am I reading you right? Sure there wasn't a lot of grit/grimy residue on the bolt? I've never had this happen. Could be that the ammo shifted a bit inside the mag and because of that it wasn't feeding correctly. Now that has happened with me. If I misunderstood your description of the problem, then I apologize.

[NC_Rebel]

Ahhh... just saw REDSTAR's post. The safety switch on the No.1 might rock forward (engage) from time to time. But that locks the bolt closed. Makes a guy look stupid at the range, jerking on the handle in frustration but the bolt won't budge. LOL That shouldn't happen on a No.4 though.

[Schuetzenman]

Might be an indicator of a rough chamber.