This is the source of your problem. The firing pin should not be protruding from the bolt face!

 

Either you have something broken, or incorrectly assembled, or the cocking piece at the rear of the bolt is in the wrong notch of the bolt body.

 

Correct assembly of the bolt & cocking piece has the cocking piece's lug in the rearmost of the 2 possible positions with the cocking piece itself vertical in relation to the action, like this:

 

If this is the problem you can correct the issue by pulling the cocking piece to the rear & turning it to the correct orientation. However I don't think the rifle will actually fire if its assembled incorrectly!

 

 

 

I'm guessing something is reassembled incorrectly after the tear down & cleaning, but its a slow process figuring out what exactly. Can you post some pics of the bolt, cocking piece & action both cocked & uncocked, so we can see the problem maybe?

 

"the pin doesnt retract until you feel resistance from the spring in the action and your pushing the bolt down and to the right ."

The only time the pin should protrude  is with the bolt fully closed & locked & the trigger pulled. Guessing here, but it sounds like the pin is damaged, the bolt cam burred, or the firing pin assembled with not enough of the screw in the cocking piece threads. Is there a locking screw at the rear, overlapping the back end of the pin & preventing it from turning (unscrewing)?

 

Did you unscrew the firing pin when cleaning? That would possibly change the protrusion amount.

Is this the exact same bolt head as before?

Look at the bottom inside surface of the cocking piece, right where it engages the "W"-shaped slot in the bolt body. How does the lug look? How about the slot's camming surfaces?

 

Here's how the sequence should work & a couple of tests to help determine the exact problem (maybe).

 

 

Starting with the bolt closed & locked after firing (trigger pulled):

 

As you raise the bolt handle the pin on the bottom of the cocking piece is slid over the cam under the bolt body, retracting the firing pin. (You should see the cocking piece move slightly rearwards as you lift the handle.)

 

As the bolt is pulled to the rear the fired case is extracted & ejected. (at this point the cocking piece should be extended about 1/8" rearwards from the bolt bodie's rear face.)

 

As the bolt is pushed forward the bottom of the bolt body catches the top of the next round sitting in the feed lips of the magazine. (The bolt face should have no firing pin protrusion at this point.)

 

Continuing forward the round is stripped from the magazine & slid into the feed ramp.

 

Riding up the ramp the bullet tip enters the chamber, guiding the rest of the round into the breech.

When the bolt is about 1" short of closing the rim slides upwards under the extractor claw. (It should be 95% raised & well past the firing pin hole at this point.)

 

The cocking piece's extension (under the bolt body) should contact the sear (the flat "lever" in the square cut at the bottom of the bolt tunnel in the receiver) of the trigger mechanism at this point & you should feel the first resistance to spring tension as it is held from going any further foreward. (Cock on closing is happening.)

 

Spring resistance continues as the bolt is slid home the last 1" & rotated down to lock the action in firing position.

 

You should have about 1"of the rear of the striker showing at the rear of the bolt body.

 

As you apply the safety lever the cocking piece should go back a further small distance (1/8" or so) as the safety catch (hidden inside the receiver) pushes the striker & cocking piece out of engagment with the sear.

 

Applying the safety should lock the bolt, disengage the sear & trigger & isolate the striker from the trigger mechanism. Pulling the trigger (after double checking for safe operatiion & no live round anywhere near the gun) should do absolutely nothing at all. Releasing the safety after pulling the trigger should NOT allow the cocking piece/striker to "fire"

 

Disengaging the safety should allow the cocking piece to slide forward the same 1/8" or so that engaging it did.

 

Pulling the trigger with the safety off should let the striker & cocking piece slam forward, normally firing the round. This is the only point at which the firing pin should be protruding from the bolt face, & you shouldn't see iot as the action is closed & locked!

 

Now we're right back where we started the cycle.

 

Try this. Do the cycle (you don't even need a round except to check the chambering) step-by-step, comparing it with the steps above & let us know how it is matching, or differing, in your gun at each step.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a drawing of the bolt & its components. its much better for showing the relationship of the parts than my picture is. Where several part numbers are listed it's because there are multiple versions of the part, such as different numbered (length) bolt heads. Where different drawings show the same part those are versions of the part.

 

2: Bolt body.

 

3 & 4: Cocking piece (2 versions)

 

5: Locking screw for striker (firing pin)

 

6: Striker spring (mainspring)

 

7: Striker/firing pin.

 

8~11: Bolt heads (come in different numbers & lengths).

 

12: Extractor claw.

 

13: Extractor spring.

 

14: Extractor spring holding screw.

 

 

 

First the good news, you've found the problem, the missing screw. Replacing it is a screw-in $2.00 part

Just be sure you get the right one as there are more than one type. Specify you want a "Striker retaining screw 0.144" Dia. X 37tpi for a No1 Mk3 rifle" You need to be this accurate because the no4 rifle used a different screw thread & if you get one for a No4 it won't fit the No3 striker's threads.

 

Now the bad news, actually not to horrible.

 

You need to screw the striker back in so that it doesn't protrude except when uncocked, & then secure it with the above screw, that's the easy part. The head of the securing screw binds up against the semi-circular cut in the back of the striker, which should end up pretty much flush with the rear of the cocking piece.

 

But the amount it sticks out when in the "fired" position is very precise a minimum of 1.02mm (0.040") & a maximum of 1.27mm (0.050"). You  should really use a special gauge to measure this, but if you don't have one you need to borrow one to measure it. You could use the depth gauge part of a caliper, but the actual gauge will be better.

 

thanks again to you all for all your help..

 

btw kina funny the first guy at the gunshop i talked to told me there isnt supposed to be a screw in the cocking piece, (which was missing from the first bolt they tried to sell me and had the same problem as mine hehe) i argued with him and he directed me to a more compotent employee

 

AHHHHHHH , the wrath bof hoadie shall be upon you , its a "CHARGER" lad ,

 

gl;ad to see this has worked out so nicely for you , i was fearfull it might be more costly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sort of, I think.  At least a year ago I adjusted the flanges of the magazine a bit.

 

The problem is intermittent it seems.  The problem is usually with the first round.  After the first round is fed (sometimes with aid of my finger), the rest seem to be okay. 

 

Usually at the range I load a single round at a time. 

 

I need to experiment some more with different bullets and lenghts.  It has been a long while since I have toyed with it.

 

Next time I am at the range I will take some photos of mis-feeds.

 

K

 

Heres a couple of pics of my magazine which feeds fine to give you a comparison.

 

 

my both Enfields would not feed round nose cartridges with the shortened hunters conversion magazines and rounds which were a bit short. I´ve purchased a new remake magazine at Midways, and my Long Branch would feed any round now properly. My Parker Hale would not work with the new magazine at all, but it feeds spitzer rounds quite well with the original, but I am still not satisfied.

Years back I had one break at the "U" bend, so I tried shooting without it & it worked perfectly! Over time I've heard many reasons for the spring, but none of them seemed really convincing to me. It won't hurt & it does make the magazine "correct" so no harm done.

 

The Enfield mag with the "tab" type front lips is pretty sensitive to bullet shape & seating depth. If you look at the "up the nose shot" of my mag from eartlier you can see that just the left (upper) round is contacting the front, the right,( lower) bullet is clear by about 1/8".

The trick is to mark the feed ramp with something that wears easily, like engineers blue, smoke smudge or sharpie dye & feed a few rounds. There should be a distinct  "^-shape" scraped out of the mark starting about 2/3 of the way down the ramp. If you have a good feeding rifle take a look at the ramp, you may actually have a shiny polished "^" to compare. Now you can (carefully ) mess with the feel lips in very small steps to get the "^" from your particular bullet configuration. Its really about presentation to the ramp, not looking the same in the magazine.

The auxiliary spring is made of spring steel & therefor eliminates these problems & if it was not important & served no purpose, it would not be there.

You can see it in the picture of the rear of the bolt he posted. it is one thread short.

Since he doesn't have the Locking Screw installed it probably unscrewed itself during firing or other operation.

Hope he figured it out in the last 10 years?

Randy.