A question for Enfield experts

HandB

Well-Known Member
Hi Everyone,

I have a Parker Hale T4 7.62 rifle and I am due to shoot tomorrow at Bisley. I was getting the T4 ready and I noticed the bolt was stiff to close and so I took it out and the extractor spring dropped into the table. It looks like it has become flattened (see photo) so I guess I need a new one. Is this the case or is there some kind of spacer that is needed to keep the spring tight in the bolt head?

Thank you!
 

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Call in to Fulton's. These springs usually don't flatten but break. Certainly it should have a definite wide apart V look to the two arms not a parallel side by side II look as yours has. It may either have a crack or someone has heat treated it and made it soft?
 
Thanks - yes, I have just snapped it as I was fiddling with it. I called Fulton's and it turns out they are open on Sundays and have these springs in stock, so I will call in and get one before the shoot.
 
Hi Everyone,

I have a Parker Hale T4 7.62 rifle and I am due to shoot tomorrow at Bisley. I was getting the T4 ready and I noticed the bolt was stiff to close and so I took it out and the extractor spring dropped into the table. It looks like it has become flattened (see photo) so I guess I need a new one. Is this the case or is there some kind of spacer that is needed to keep the spring tight in the bolt head?

Thank you!
Its a Bit of luck your going to The one place that should have all the parts on the shelf .
 
Enjoy Bisley. I haven't been for maybe five or ten years. Used to go before the M25 was completed. As an HBSA member and also the Classic and Veteran Competitions for SMLE, No4 and before 1996 handguns. Wow! That took a while coming from the M1 side of the country.

Here's an old Bisley joke from the time. If they sold milk, Fulton's, it'd be £1.00 a pint! If Edna Parker (next door at A J Parker) sold milk her's would be £1.00 a pint...plus VAT.

But although they don't really ever chip or wear they sometimes do, Rarely. So maybe, perhaps, have Fulton's check that the extractor itself is OK. Again it's one of those small bits that the big "bugger" "damn"and "bother" cost of finding a quick replacement when it fails is far more than the "pain" of the cost of buying one whilst at Fulton's and keeping it safe in your gun cabinet. Then it's just a question of making sure they don't get later mislaid.

Enjoy the day at Bisley. Slot a few V bulls for me whilst you're there.
 
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Thank you - yes I will see if they can check the extractor too. It's a newly fitted scope so will zero it and hopefully then have enough travel in the cross hairs to pester some of the longer range targets!
 
I have a T4 also, but still with a 303 mag. So single loading the rounds, the extractor is doing more work that usual, as it has to climb over the rim every time.
Though the 308 base is smaller than the 303, so it possable eases the situation a little.

I had a broken extractor on my delisle (smle based), and got a new old stock one from DS Solutions. Cheap and quick. (A quick look, £8.50 for the kit, extractor, spring and screw!)
www.ds-solutions.co.uk
 
I know that some 303 No4 were merely rebarreled and others had not only a correct dedicated magazine but also, most importantly, the underside of the receiver is modified by a slight grinding away of the "webs" that are shaped to guide Mk VII Ball. I think that at one time if you bought the Sterling Conversion Kit it came with their magazine, new ejector stud, an insert to alter the charger to take 7.62mm NATO stripper clips and barrel PLUS a template drawing showing which bits of the underside web to remove. I've used both Sterling magazines and the Enfield magazines as per the L42. Either actually work well enough and both look more stylish that Ishapore's 7.62mm SMLE magazines.
 
Am back from Bisley. Some interesting updates on the topic of the T4's extractor spring. Fulton's fitted a new extractor spring first thing this morning. It worked for about 30 shots but as shooting progressed it became harder and harder to chamber a cartridge. Finally the spring exploded/vanished. So I went back to Fulton's and they very kindly went through their collection of extractor springs and tried each one until they found one that was a bit easier to close. It's still sticky though so I wonder if something is going on with the bolt head. Perhaps the aperture that holds the extractor spring is too large so it pushes the spring in a way that makes it jam. Any ideas?

But despite all that drama the T4 is pretty accurate - with a gale blowing 90 degrees left to right, it still managed a ten shot group (five shots from me and five from a friend) of about 2 moa at 600 yards, including one V bull.
 
I'm a long time out of all this Enfield stuff and thus some info I put here may be in fact incorrect. I'v just a memory of an idea that the extractor may or might be profiled slightly different? I'm not sure. Certainly on the .22LR conversions the slot in the bolt head was cut deeper and the extractor itself had the claw ground to be the same width as the rest of the extractor. But I can't remember about if the extractor was altered for the 7.62mm conversions of the No4.
 
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Thanks - there's definitely something odd about the bolt head. A new spring shouldn't have disappeared like that. I wonder if a coil spring would be a better solution.
 
My T4 has the same bolt face and extractor as the original 303. The 308 base is smaller than the 303.
So the extractor spring should have less work to do.

Do you single load or use a mag?
If you are single loading, the extractor has to ride over the case rim every time you close the bolt. If feeding from a mag, the case comes up behind the extractor as it rises. So this could be the cause of the failure.
Possibly profiling the extractor so that it rides over, may help.
I've done that on my delisle. As the 45acp base is identical dims to the 308. I found that the extractor would bit into the case, rather than smoothly ride up.
 
Thanks - the Fulton's chap checked the extractor and said it seems ok.

I have a T4 as well . The extractor is different from an original 303 chambered rifle , maybe your extractor is for a 303 ? There's something definitely wrong if it's breaking extractor springs after a few rounds . I'm a long way from home so I can't check , but if you posted a few pics I'm sure someone with a T4 / Enforcer/ Envoy could tell you if it's the right extractor . Just throwing things out there , but is the bolt head the original 7.62 proofed one ?
Nice rifle by the way , how long have you had the rifle ? Is this an older rifle you've had for a while and it just started doing this recently after you've shot it a lot ?

AB
 
Many thanks, the extractor as the D65 marking so it looks to be a genuine 7.62 extractor. Interestingly, when I cleaned the rifle I had a close look at the design of the extractor spring and its front end is actually asymmetrical as it has a more prominent upper corner (see red arrow). When the bolt is closed this means the top front end of the spring is being crushed against the breech surface when one closes the bolt. This seems likely to be bad for the smoothness of closing the bolt and ultimately likely to break even a brand new spring, as happened yesterday at Bisley. I could file down that corner of the spring - what do you reckon? Has anyone encountered this problem before?
 

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