I received this all-matching, excellent, old sporter P-14 with a shiny bore awhile ago from a fellow gun-nut. The price was certainly right and it came with the spare Brit stock so I picked it up. It was, in my opinion, a great candidate for restoration to full military configuration, and with the spare stock, it was most of the way there.
The stock it came with, you can see in the picture, was also in need of restoration. It is, due to the semi-circular cuts just forward of the receiver cut-out, a stock from a demilled parade rifle. These rifles had a large pin put through the barrel so they could not chamber a round and the stocks were altered with this tapered cut. My restoration, therefore, would give a rifle AND a stock a second chance! The stock also had some other issues (cracks, pins, and a stripped buttplate screw-hole).
The process:
- One of the biggest obstacles to restoring a P14 is that the front sight carrier base needs to be removed in order to get the handguard ring and forward band on again. I suspect the previous owner gave up after finding out that the front sight on this rifle was nearly impossible to get off. In the end, I bought a new one (with the intention to heat it up to put it on) and cut the old one off with a dremel diamond cutoff wheel (this thing cuts almost any material!). I didn't end up having to heat the new one up to get it on. It was tight, but not too tight.
- The stock needed serious attention. To restore the stock to an active P14 I took my dremel and made the tapered circular cuts from the de-milling process into recangular, non-tapered cuts (using a dremel with a depth-guide). I cut some walnut to fit, glued the pieces in, and used a dremel sander bit to profile them to the shape of the stock. The repair to the toe of the buttstock was in good shape.
- I filled all the cracks with plastic wood after getting wood glue into them with a dental pick
- The stock was lightly sanded all over
- I used Minwax Ebony colored wood stain over all the wood parts which I find accurately replicates a century of dirt and grime and gives the wood a patinated appearance
- I installed the hardware off the sporter stock (which was probably original to the rifle) and installed it on the Brit fatboy stock that I just stained. I filled the stripped hole with plastic wood and re-threaded it with the screw.
- I ordered my parts from Numrich to complete the restoration
- Once the stain was thoroughly dried, I started the ongoing Boiled Linseed Oil treatment that is continuous to my rifles!
After many weeks (mostly of waiting for things to arrive) my project was finished.
The stock it came with, you can see in the picture, was also in need of restoration. It is, due to the semi-circular cuts just forward of the receiver cut-out, a stock from a demilled parade rifle. These rifles had a large pin put through the barrel so they could not chamber a round and the stocks were altered with this tapered cut. My restoration, therefore, would give a rifle AND a stock a second chance! The stock also had some other issues (cracks, pins, and a stripped buttplate screw-hole).
The process:
- One of the biggest obstacles to restoring a P14 is that the front sight carrier base needs to be removed in order to get the handguard ring and forward band on again. I suspect the previous owner gave up after finding out that the front sight on this rifle was nearly impossible to get off. In the end, I bought a new one (with the intention to heat it up to put it on) and cut the old one off with a dremel diamond cutoff wheel (this thing cuts almost any material!). I didn't end up having to heat the new one up to get it on. It was tight, but not too tight.
- The stock needed serious attention. To restore the stock to an active P14 I took my dremel and made the tapered circular cuts from the de-milling process into recangular, non-tapered cuts (using a dremel with a depth-guide). I cut some walnut to fit, glued the pieces in, and used a dremel sander bit to profile them to the shape of the stock. The repair to the toe of the buttstock was in good shape.
- I filled all the cracks with plastic wood after getting wood glue into them with a dental pick
- The stock was lightly sanded all over
- I used Minwax Ebony colored wood stain over all the wood parts which I find accurately replicates a century of dirt and grime and gives the wood a patinated appearance
- I installed the hardware off the sporter stock (which was probably original to the rifle) and installed it on the Brit fatboy stock that I just stained. I filled the stripped hole with plastic wood and re-threaded it with the screw.
- I ordered my parts from Numrich to complete the restoration
- Once the stain was thoroughly dried, I started the ongoing Boiled Linseed Oil treatment that is continuous to my rifles!
After many weeks (mostly of waiting for things to arrive) my project was finished.
front sight just popped right off.
