Parker Hale 1100 and 1200 Action Lenght

[Pathfinder]

For those who handled or have on in .308 Are they all made on the same action lenght (long) . I suspect they only had one lenght as they used a lot of surplus M-98's but Im double checking about the ones made in the short cartridges .

thanks.

 

[Rembo]

yes, they are all long actions...had one in 308 Winny.....it was the commercial Santa Barbara made action...

 

[Blygy]

I had a PH 1200V rerifled and rechambered to 6.5X300 Win Mag.. I believe they are all Standard length actions.. The big magnums( STWs and H&Hs ) won't fit with out some mods.. But any standard length round will.. (30-06 300 Win Mag etc).

Also I have heard rumors about these actions being "soft" due to improper heat treating... I am not sure about others but mine is very hard.. I had 8-40 base screws installed on mine and only ended up with two as the smith had never seen an action so hard and it would have cost more to do all 4.. I cheaped out and only did the front two..

 

[Eagleye]

Also I have heard rumors about these actions being "soft" due to improper heat treating... I am not sure about others but mine is very hard.. I had 8-40 base screws installed on mine and only ended up with two as the smith had never seen an action so hard and it would have cost more to do all 4.. I cheaped out and only did the front two..

Only some of the earlier PH actions were soft [4 digit serial numbers, IIRC] The later stuff is all reasonably good quality and quite hard. I have owned several, mostly chambered in 308 Norma Magnum, and never had a soft one.
My present Model 81 Classic is a very smooth permutation. [and very accurate!] Regards, Eagleye.

 

[dan belisle]

When PH went under, there was a glut of inventory sold off, including a bunch of non-heat treated actions. These were sold as "gunsmith specials" (I recall the ad in Shotgun News). Apparently some were made up without the required heat treatment, and did not perform satisfactorily. Personally I've never come across one, late or early. All the earlier ones were surplus 98's from the war, and later ones were Mauser sporter actions made in Spain. All of which were good, again IME. - dan

 

[Pathfinder]

Thanks Guys, that's what I figured. Use to have a 1200 in .270 . One of those "should of kept rifles" .

 

[Winz]

yes, they are all long actions...had one in 308 Winny.....it was the commercial Santa Barbara made action...

As already mentioned, the original Safari PHs were from surplus German K98 actions. Latter models were made from spanish Santa Barbara commercial M98 actions, including the CF C3 rifle.

 

[RR]

The actions were made at Lacadura for Parker Hale and Santa Barbera.Suposedly to different specs.

 

[dan belisle]

I've looked over quite a few samples of both, and could see no difference at all. Perhaps in the hardening spec, but (until the last samples anyway) other then that they look identical. - dan

 

[RR]

I've looked over quite a few samples of both, and could see no difference at all. Perhaps in the hardening spec, but (until the last samples anyway) other then that they look identical. - dan

It was the hardening specs or so I was told.The only difference I could see in the actions was one said Parker Hale the other said made in spain.
Dan Have you ever seen a Santa Barbera with a removable mag?

 

[tiriaq]

On a lot of the PHs I worked on, you could see where the "Made in Spain" stamp on the left side of the rear tang had been ground out.
PH may have used some German 98s early on, but I suspect that most of the converted military pattern actions were Spanish, as well as the commercial pattern actions.
As far as the commercial actions go, I have seen ones with the inner collar cut only for the extractor, inner collar cut on both sides, to ease manufacture, and no inner collar. Bolt variations as well, the last ones don't have the safety cam at the front of the firing pin. Last ones had the second rate bolt stops used on the Midland series. There are differences in the contour of the low scope bolt handles. PH .375 rifles used standard length 98 actions opened out for the much longer round. There are different opinions about how much steel can be removed from the back of the lower locking lug seat.
I do not know if PH rifles used Spanish barrels or not. The stocks are Sile, made in Italy.
Basically PH didn't make rifles in England, they assembled outsourced parts.
As far as I know, PH and commercial Santa Barbara actions were both made at LaCoruna Arsenal.

 

[dan belisle]

It was the hardening specs or so I was told.The only difference I could see in the actions was one said Parker Hale the other said made in spain.
Dan Have you ever seen a Santa Barbera with a removable mag?

No, I've built a few, but never seen one from the factory that way. I believe that it was simple economics, they were already set up for regular bottom metal, so that's what they built.

As for the German (and other nations) captured actions being used, I have personally owned three of these (still have one somewhere). You could still see the markings in some places on the actions. PH got more sophisticated as time went on, spent more time polishing them out etc. That was all done in the 40's and 50's though, then they switched to foreign manufacture. Originally Czech I've been told, although I couldn't tell, then Spanish (which you can check on the markings).

In regards to cutting the actions to make a 375 length action (D if memory serves), if you take most of the metal from the rear I see no issue in this regard. Some were done with all the metal being removed from the feed ramp end, and that will cut into the receiver ring, and compromise strength there. Also, the higher pressure magnum rounds can cause bolt lug set back quite easily on some of these rifles, which can also be a result of less then perfect heat treating. I wouldn't barrel one to a 7 STW, for example. I certainly wouldn't have a problem building a 300 H&H and keeping the velocities sane, but it's way easier to go 300 Win Mag or 308 Norma (a personal favorite) or 30-338. FWIW - dan