[LVSteve]

I bought a set of bolt heads for my #4 and #5 a while ago and tonight I decided to see how they fit and affected the headspace. For reasons I cannot determine, the #3 size bolt head will not fit in two of my bolt bodies and the #1 baulks at one, too. The #2 bolt head will fit wherever I try it. I examined the threads and found that the #3 head appears to have the threads poorly cut and there is some damage at the end. Maybe I should also get the wire brush out and see how much rust is in the bottom of the threads.

Has anybody else had this happen to them with spare bolt heads? Are the thread specs sloppy enough that a bolt head and a bolt body may not screw together if the tolerances are just wrong.

Final question: what is the thread specification for the bolt head? Maybe I can find a die that I can run down the offending bolt heads to tidy them.

 

[Edward Horton]

Had the same problem with the set I bought also, a light cleaning and wire brushing cured all but one of them, I used a worn out bolt and worked the bolt head back and forth and lightly stoned the high spots and it works fine now.

Note: the threads were dinged in storage or shipment and only need a little work.

 

[GunnerSam]

Could be that some no.3 replacement boltheads are a hair thicker at the shaft to compensate for wear to the bolt body.
Before I replaced my bolt body the no.3 bolthead I'd obtained fit the old worn bolt body much more tightly than the old bolthead.

 

[LVSteve]

Had the same problem with the set I bought also, a light cleaning and wire brushing cured all but one of them, I used a worn out bolt and worked the bolt head back and forth and lightly stoned the high spots and it works fine now.

Note: the threads were dinged in storage or shipment and only need a little work.

Now I look more closely, I wonder if the #3 head was rusted into a bolt and left some thread behind when it was removed. The damage is rather more than storage and shipping dings. I shall ask one of the nice workshop guys at work to take a look.

 

[LVSteve]

My buddy at work took a look at the bolt heads and determined that they just needed the threads tidying. A 7/16 20 TPI split die was used to carefully clean or reshape the threads as necessary. My buddy took his time and only closed up the die enough to get a good fit in the bolt body I took along for test fitting. Over the holidays I shall tune up a couple of my Enfields and see if it makes any difference at the range.