Drill and tap RECIEVER?

Bigbore 35

Bigbore 35

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Mont Nebo. SASK.
I am looking for any info on where to buy drill bits for tapping a receiver. I have a mouser action 303 BRITTISH and can't find any hard enough drill bits to drill the metal. My tap worked well on the exciting hole but the bits I bought on line will not drill a hole at all.

IS THERE ANYONE WILLING TO HELP, PLEASE.
 
Go to Thomas Skinner and Sons in Edmonton. Buy some carbide drills.

Be prepared to pay.

Learn about spot annealing.

Cheers
Trev
 
You probably don't have a Mauser action. You probably have a P14 Enfield action. There were 3 makers of that action. Remington and Winchester were excellent, the Eddystone (the worst of the 3) was extremely hard, almost brittle. You will probably need the skills of someone who has done these before. They aren't a do it yourself job for 99% of the guys attempting it...

If it is so hard you need carbide drills, the taps will simply break.

Post a picture of your action for clarification.
 
I know you are going have a hard time with this but this rifle is stamped ERA (p-17) and it is chambered in 303 BRITT. I have never seen this before and everyone who I tell thinks it is a p-14 but it is clearly stamped p-17. I sure would like to show it to someone who would know for sure what I have.The serial numbers match on the receiver and the barrel but the bolt does not. I have tapped the hole at the rear of the receiver that was there already and it went well but the drill bits I bought on line will not drill at all. If you have any info you could share with me I would be very happy. Thanks
guntech said:
You probably don't have a Mauser action. You probably have a P14 Enfield action. There were 3 makers of that action. Remington and Winchester were excellent, the Eddystone (the worst of the 3) was extremely hard, almost brittle. You will probably need the skills of someone who has done these before. They aren't a do it yourself job for 99% of the guys attempting it...

If it is so hard you need carbide drills, the taps will simply break.

Post a picture of your action for clarification.
Click to expand...
 
With the apparent gap between the desire to do the work and the skills and info required to do a decent job of it, maybe a little (lot) of remedial reading and research is in order.

Easier to know when you are over your head, than to try to fix it after.

There is a huge amount of info missing. Sizes of drills required, what tap size you are planning on using, etc. And what equipment you plan on using to drill the holes, as carbide in particular, is unforgiving as heck if you thought you could do so with a hand held drill.

The type of drill bit you are looking for is called a Hi-Roc, or High Rockwell bit, and is made for drilling hardened steel. If the part is through hardened, rather than case hardened, it'll eat taps. Have spares on hand.

Pictures. Load them to a photo hosting site (photobucket is one of many) and copy and paste the "IMG" code link in to your post to put them here.

Cheers
Trev
 
Cobalt bits and lots of cutting oil. Personally I use a product called boelube that works really good, then I run a slower drilling speed with brand new splitpoint CO bits.
 
Bigbore 35 said:
I know you are going have a hard time with this but this rifle is stamped ERA (p-17) and it is chambered in 303 BRITT. I have never seen this before and everyone who I tell thinks it is a p-14 but it is clearly stamped p-17. I sure would like to show it to someone who would know for sure what I have.The serial numbers match on the receiver and the barrel but the bolt does not. I have tapped the hole at the rear of the receiver that was there already and it went well but the drill bits I bought on line will not drill at all. If you have any info you could share with me I would be very happy. Thanks
Click to expand...

P17's were chambered in 30-06 and had a different bolt face and magazine than the P14's..

Possibly someone re-barreled the P17 and changed the magazine and bolt for a 303...

As mentioned earlier you will need to learn how to spot anneal, drill with #31 bits and tap for 6 x 48 threads. You will need starter and plug taps, probably several... and learn how to burn a HS broken tap out of a hole with oxy/acetylene. The whole process is useless if you don't get the bases located on the top and square with the barrel.... and altered to be the correct height.

ERA is Eddystone and if it were mine it would be a boat anchor. You couldn't give me one.
 
guntech said:
P17's were chambered in 30-06 and had a different bolt face and magazine than the P14's..

Possibly someone re-barreled the P17 and changed the magazine and bolt for a 303...

As mentioned earlier you will need to learn how to spot anneal, drill with #31 bits and tap for 6 x 48 threads. You will need starter and plug taps, probably several... and learn how to burn a HS broken tap out of a hole with oxy/acetylene. The whole process is useless if you don't get the bases located on the top and square with the barrel.... and altered to be the correct height.

ERA is Eddystone and if it were mine it would be a boat anchor. You couldn't give me one.
Click to expand...
I did tap the rear hole with a #8-40ns tap and it went very well, just took my time. now just need a #27 drill bit to drill the other three holes. I read that you can drill through the hard layer with a carbon router bit to get started and then drill through with the proper size bit.
 
These actions are not case hardened - rather the whole action is heat treated and hard. When BSA redid them into sporters they annealed the whole action and re-heat-treated. Best of luck!
 
Bigbore 35 said:
Well I will give it a try and see what I can do with it. I am sure that it can be don.
Click to expand...

Anything can be done... here is proof of that...;):d hopefully you do a better job than this fellow did.
bubba700-0.jpg
 
You'll need more than just the drill and correct tap. You'll need a jig to hold the thing in place too. And you're turning a $300 plus rifle into a $150 rifle.
 
sunray said:
You'll need more than just the drill and correct tap. You'll need a jig to hold the thing in place too. And you're turning a $300 plus rifle into a $150 rifle.
Click to expand...

sunray, do you have a jig? How many have you drilled and tapped?
 
sunray said:
You'll need more than just the drill and correct tap. You'll need a jig to hold the thing in place too. And you're turning a $300 plus rifle into a $150 rifle.
Click to expand...

I do have a proper jig and I was told that my rifle was only worth $80.00 bucks by Ron Hendrickson here in Edmonton(who did not really want to do the job for me) totally discouraged me for the second time so I will attempt it myself. He was going to charge me over $300 bucks to do it. I am basically forced to do it myself. I am also a sled mechanic and very fussy about my work. It will not look like crap when I am done.
 
Is it a P-17 or is it stamped as manufactured in 1917? It was the last year they were built in 303, the USA switched production over to 30-06 as they entered the war. My own P-14 is a 1917 Eddystone, I don't recall that Pattern 14 is actually stamped on it anywhere....

And it would have been marked M1917 if US issue. (If they even bothered, not sure on that) IIRC the only time it was officially referred to as P-17 was on some guns recycled to Canada for guard duties in WWII.
 
OP, something I don't see mentioned is that drilling the ROUND receiver can lead to some very real issues. Those issues are mostly related to alignment.

I just missed a good deal on a set of parallel bars that were designed specifically for drilling holes in rifle receivers. It didn't dawn on me what the gadget was until an hour later and when I went back to the table it was gone. I don't D&T a lot of receivers but once in a while, it is necessary. I made a mess of an M1 Carbine receiver that I was installing a scope and non restricted barrel on. I drilled the first two holes with ease. Not having a lot of D&T experience with these receivers I made the big mistake of ASSUMING the rest of the receiver would be just as soft. BIG MISTAKE. The wear points were surface hardened and I ended up breaking off a drill bit. I also broke off a tap. The air in the shop was extremely BLUE for quite a while. I don't often get upset about such things but now this rifle wiil always be a PERSONAL firearm only. I wouldn't sell it to anyone. I ended up making a mess of the hole with the broken off tap and ended up filling it with Titanium Putty and refinishing it smooth. Fugly. Doesn't effect the operation though.

Back in the day, when you could buy stripped Mauser/Springfield receivers cheap I taught myself how to D&T these receivers. YES, I screwed up more than one of them. Thankfully, they were basically junk. Badly pitted etc.

Tiriaq is giving you some very good but very basic advice. He is also assuming that you know and understand the proper layout procedures and set up procedures in your milling machine or drill press and that you have an adequate vice to hold the receiver.

The parallel bars I mentioned were hardened and had holes drilled in them appropriate to any of the spacing required for most bases. The other advantage of these bars was they acted as guides for the drill bits. Guides for the drill bits may not sound like a big deal but when you over apply pressure to small drill bits they have a tendency to bow and this will cause the holes to either be drilled of center or on an angle.

Way more to drilling and tapping than most people realize. It is another skill that just doesn't get enough attention and is often done very poorly. Often to the point of ruining the part or piece being d&t.
 
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