Early P-14

gerard488

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I got a couple of pics of a p-14 with a 4 digit serial number, now I'm wondering what year it was made. It looks kinda rough, homemade stock. Just wondering if it is too bad to restore. Barrel is not cut, bore is said to be good but I haven't seen it yet.



 
IMHO, the only thing interesting about that rifle is the serial number. It is in pretty rough shape as far as finish goes and by the time you find all of the parts you need to put it back to original spec it will likely cost you more than the rifle will be worth when you are finished. I had a couple of P14s that were re finished by the Remington Arms factory for a Legion Hall to shoot salutes with blanks and use on parades. They languished in a Legion closet for over 30 years before I found out about them. When I went to look at them, the stocks had been finished with a very loving applied Tung Oil finish on sanded wood. Remington had used their factory stamps to christen the old girls and to identify their contribution. The metal had all been polished to a high luster and beautifully blued to the same standard as their commercial rifles at the time.

They were absolutely beautiful and they shot like dreams come true. Whoever fit the stocks to them knew what they were doing and it showed. Lovely 4 pound on the mark two stage triggers many milsurp shooters would die to have and unusually the bolts which were blued as well were smooth as oiled glass.

I got $500 each for them. There was at least that much or more dollar value just in the work to get them to that point. Problem was, they were no longer original. The component parts were all real but the finish wasn't. No collector value at all. They did shoot very well though.

This is up to you, but if you are looking to source the parts and build up the rifle for the experience then by all means do it. It isn't worth putting it together to make any money on. Likely you will lose money in the end or it will languish as another unfinished project in the safe because of lack of parts or just complacency. Maybe I'm wrong and you will finish the rifle. Thing is, it will never have an original finish and it will be obvious to anyone that knows what they are looking at.

Another bit of information, that rifle would require a "Fat Boy" stock which is inletted and formed to allow for the use of volley sights. You have the rear sight but the dial sight haflway up the fore end would have to be sourced. Originals are hard come by in decent shape but I think someone is making reproductions.
 
Next question, If it is not really worth restoring, are the parts worth anything? It has the rear volley sight but that too looks rough on the pica.
 
Next question, If it is not really worth restoring, are the parts worth anything? It has the rear volley sight but that too looks rough on the pica.

If the bore is good, it's a shooter/hunting rifle.

Because of the rusty appearance any of the parts would be really poor donors for a build. There are two outfits in the US that ship to Canada who sell both New old stock and used parts that are in much better condition and relatively cheap.

If the rifle is yours or if you are thinking of purchasing it, I wouldn't pay more than $100 for it.
 
I was just reading some of a book called "Hatchers Notebook" and it says that the Eddystone plant was built to have a capacity of 6000 rifles per day. Might that mean that this rifle was built during the first day of full production?
 
If the bore is good, it's a shooter/hunting rifle.

Because of the rusty appearance any of the parts would be really poor donors for a build. There are two outfits in the US that ship to Canada who sell both New old stock and used parts that are in much better condition and relatively cheap.

If the rifle is yours or if you are thinking of purchasing it, I wouldn't pay more than $100 for it.

Numrich and e-sarcoinc?
 
I was just reading some of a book called "Hatchers Notebook" and it says that the Eddystone plant was built to have a capacity of 6000 rifles per day. Might that mean that this rifle was built during the first day of full production?

They didn't just start producing 6000 rifles on the first day. Likely took them a month or so to work the worst bugs out of their tooling and assembly system. Very good possibility it is from the first couple of months production though. Another possibility is that the receiver was made up and assembled into a complete rifle much later.
 
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