Thread: .303s

In truth that's what we class as 'operationally correct' but in true military fashion that's not what was done. It's looked at from a civilian viewpoint rather than a military operational viewpoint, and for the squaddie on the dirt if he was discovered to be carting a rifle with a mismatched bolt he knew he was for it not mucking about. At section cleaning time when the bolts all needed to be pulled to clean their rifles, the only way to ensure the correct bits ended up in the correct place was via the numbers whacked into them. This was a safety requirement, and it still is unless you have certain types of firearm which each part is tolerance measured to the micron level and each part is literally interchangeable. If bolts weren't matching, the rifle was tagged possibly unsafe, set aside for amourer service inspection and the situation with the bolt numbers rectified ASAP (after the identified miscreant had his parentage, genetic flaws, poor life choices, freedom and future leave entitlement all 'sorted out'). In general use, bolts were not to be pulled from the firearm unless authorised by a senior to prevent this clusterfluck from happening - and at regiment level the rifles ran off 'Rack #' rather than serial - the serial was purely to keep the bits together.

It's only after military service that we confused this with the 'oh it's still all matching even though the numbers arent' BS.