Weird SMLE Problem

[jeremyro]

I took my SMLE No1Mk3* with some other guns up to Carson, NV to do some 300yrd steel shooting with some friends. One of my friends is a somewhat experienced shooter but more of a hunter and does not shoot regularly. He had not used the SMLE before but I showed him how it woks and we went about shooting. He then got two of the weirdest issues I have ever gotten with this gun and I cannot reproduce them. I should note that all in all we probably fired 80 rounds out of it and only had the two issues, both while he was shooting. He probably fired 30 rounds.

1. He somehow got the gun to go into half cock when closing the bolt and I had to manually pull the striker back to get it to open the action and, after verifying there was not a larger problem, fire.

2. maybe 10 rounds later he was shooting prone and after racking a round in the chamber he pushed lightly on the striker, no idea why, and the gun fired with no finger on the trigger.

I could not get either of these scenarios to happen on my own and I have likely shot 600 rounds through this rifle with no issues. Any ideas?

[Danodog]

Number 2 is concerning. I would do a thorough cleaning of the bolt and try to replicate the problem using a snap cap or empty case. I usually slam everything home in my bolt actions. I have see some misfeed and binding issues when people are too soft with the bolt.

[jeremyro]

I did and even when pushing really hard on the striker and moving it around and messing with it in every way I could think of it would not drop without a trigger pull.

[81turbota]

Was he holding/touching the trigger in any way while cycling the bolt?

[Bainter1212]

Was he holding/touching the trigger in any way while cycling the bolt?

This was what immediately came to mind for me.

He is holding his finger on the trigger while closing the bolt, and dropping it to half cock instead of full cock.

The easiest way to determine if this is the case, is to shoot 100 rds through it yourself (without that trigger finger habit) and see if it occurs to you. If not, you know it is his bad habit.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[jeremyro]

Was he holding/touching the trigger in any way while cycling the bolt?

That is the same thing I was thinking, he swears no, but you know how that can be. Even with my finger on the trigger (cycling with snap caps) I could not get this to happen. I will continue to test and take it out next weekend to put another 50 through it and test it. Good news was that he was pointed downrange when it fired so it was not a problem. Gun safety rules FTW.

[TRAP55]

I did and even when pushing really hard on the striker and moving it around and messing with it in every way I could think of it would not drop without a trigger pull.

Try this, cock it, apply safety, pull trigger. Release safety, push up and forward on the cocking piece.

[jeremyro]

Try this, cock it, apply safety, pull trigger. Release safety, push up and forward on the cocking piece.

Ok, I just tried that and I could not get the striker to drop. If you hold the trigger while you release the safety it fires, if you pull and release and take off the safety it acts totally normal.

I also tried to test the half cock weirdness by skipping over the sear when closing the bolt and letting it catch on the half cock. If you do that you cannot close the bolt, because it was in half cock. He had it in half cock with the bolt closed.

I cannot figure out how this happened. All I can figure out is he must have been pulling the trigger without realizing it. I have no idea how you can not know you are pulling the trigger. He must have closed it with the trigger pulled and then pulled on the striker to cock it, but only pulled to half cock.

[6mmintl]

Trigger return flat spring is collapsing