Thread: bolt failure P14

Originally Posted by gundoc

A full inspection of all the bits is needed to come to any conclusion, however I wouldn't mind betting it was an Eddystone action. They are notorious for being as hard as the hobs of hell and a bit on the brittle side. They were perfectly fine with .303 loads at around 45,000 psi but the .264 and similar magnums run up 60,000 psi. At those operating pressures it does not take much to get a case head failure which is what I suspect has happened, putting high pressure gas into the bolt body through the firing pin hole. The black carbon in the hole is a good clue, and the gas pressure would have forced the firing pin backwards opening the passage for the gas which has then put the strain at the rear of the lugs inside the bolt body. There is some faint evidence of a previous crack that could have totally given way. What saved you from massive trauma was the bolt design that makes the root of the bolt handle the safety lug. The Winchester actions are the preferred choice for magnum conversions. BSA used the old P14 and M17 actions for their post-war sporting rifles and removed the original markings during construction.

your right on the money @gundoc it is a eddystone, its a bsa sportered rifle, i was running around that 58,000psi mark. im more then happy to send you the bits to analyze. the firing pin was forced back and was about 1/8th of a turn from releasing. as you pointed out you can see previous cracking, probably going to get all my bolts xrayed for cracks as i have a 30-06ai and a 6.5-06 both in P17 Actions.