Good day wise wizards!
I come to you with a tale of woe involving my first tentative foray into the world of milsurps. A little while ago, I was at a gun show and picked up what, to me, looked like a lovely example of a restored Remington-made Pattern 1914 Mk1* Enfield, with all matching metal but a newly made, reproduction stock, for an agreeable price.
Lacking any serious gunsmithing experience, but with no lack of ignorance/naivety, a quick initial look down the barrel seemed to show what to me looked like a par for the course milsurp barrel. Not shiny, but clear, well defined grooves.
Having heard about the supposedly above average accuracy of Pattern 14s, I was excited to take it to the range and see what it had to offer. Alas, consider my surprise when the rifle, shot supported from a bench, produced somewhere around Minute of Barndoor at 100 yards. A switch from 180gr Winchester .303 SP to 180gr Remington Core-Lokt lead to similar results. Unfortunately I did not have any period-correct 174gr ammo lying around to give that a try.
Can you spot all 12 rounds? Yeah, me neither.
What particularly concerned me was the little fella right by the #5 on this highly professional sight-in target. That is one heck of a mighty tumble at only 100 yards!
So I started to take a closer look at the rifle. The Upper Barrel Band is fairly loose, allowing the barrel to move almost freely about. That probably doesn't help, but nothing a quick shim can't fix. A little bit of online research seems to suggest that throat wear on P14s can sometimes lead to stability issues using boat tail projectiles. Both ammo types I shot were boat tails, so that could be the culprit as well. It is exceedingly difficult to find flat-based .303 projectiles, making this perhaps a long-term deal breaker.
But then came the kicker: Taking a closer look at the crown, the light happened to fall in just the right way for me to discover something that (to me at least) looks seriously disturbing: A series of roughly 6 gashes in the barrel, all but invisible when the bore is inspected from any regular angle. I must have inspected the barrel and crown at least a dozen times, both normally and before/after cleaning, and I had never noticed it before. It took a good bit of trickery with additional lighting and camera angle to bring you the photo below:
Could this be the culprit? I have never seen this kind of damage on a barrel before! Frankly, I'm not even sure what could have caused this. The damage extends roughly 1 1/2 inches into the barrel. Am I naive to think a simple counterbore might resolve the issue?
I'm not too worried about preserving the rifle's collectability. The stock is already a refurb, and the metal, while all matching in terms of serial number, had a large parts of the proof marks, etc, seemingly ground off at some point. The desired end-state is a well functioning, reasonably accurate range gun with milsurp legacy and appearance, not a collectors item.
Cheers, and I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say!
Wallaback
I come to you with a tale of woe involving my first tentative foray into the world of milsurps. A little while ago, I was at a gun show and picked up what, to me, looked like a lovely example of a restored Remington-made Pattern 1914 Mk1* Enfield, with all matching metal but a newly made, reproduction stock, for an agreeable price.
Lacking any serious gunsmithing experience, but with no lack of ignorance/naivety, a quick initial look down the barrel seemed to show what to me looked like a par for the course milsurp barrel. Not shiny, but clear, well defined grooves.
Having heard about the supposedly above average accuracy of Pattern 14s, I was excited to take it to the range and see what it had to offer. Alas, consider my surprise when the rifle, shot supported from a bench, produced somewhere around Minute of Barndoor at 100 yards. A switch from 180gr Winchester .303 SP to 180gr Remington Core-Lokt lead to similar results. Unfortunately I did not have any period-correct 174gr ammo lying around to give that a try.
Can you spot all 12 rounds? Yeah, me neither.
What particularly concerned me was the little fella right by the #5 on this highly professional sight-in target. That is one heck of a mighty tumble at only 100 yards!
So I started to take a closer look at the rifle. The Upper Barrel Band is fairly loose, allowing the barrel to move almost freely about. That probably doesn't help, but nothing a quick shim can't fix. A little bit of online research seems to suggest that throat wear on P14s can sometimes lead to stability issues using boat tail projectiles. Both ammo types I shot were boat tails, so that could be the culprit as well. It is exceedingly difficult to find flat-based .303 projectiles, making this perhaps a long-term deal breaker.
But then came the kicker: Taking a closer look at the crown, the light happened to fall in just the right way for me to discover something that (to me at least) looks seriously disturbing: A series of roughly 6 gashes in the barrel, all but invisible when the bore is inspected from any regular angle. I must have inspected the barrel and crown at least a dozen times, both normally and before/after cleaning, and I had never noticed it before. It took a good bit of trickery with additional lighting and camera angle to bring you the photo below:
Could this be the culprit? I have never seen this kind of damage on a barrel before! Frankly, I'm not even sure what could have caused this. The damage extends roughly 1 1/2 inches into the barrel. Am I naive to think a simple counterbore might resolve the issue?
I'm not too worried about preserving the rifle's collectability. The stock is already a refurb, and the metal, while all matching in terms of serial number, had a large parts of the proof marks, etc, seemingly ground off at some point. The desired end-state is a well functioning, reasonably accurate range gun with milsurp legacy and appearance, not a collectors item.
Cheers, and I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say!
Wallaback
