Enfield "P 17" action

[buffdog]

1917 Enfield Eddystone Action CRACKS

Here is a quote from the "American Rifleman" magazine, November, 1976. The article was on "The Model 1917: A fine Battle Rifle."

"Receiver rings of Model 1917 rifles should be checked carefully for hairline cracks. Cracks, particularly in the critical receiver ring area, are relatively common in receivers of Eddystone Arsenal manufacture that were rebareled.. Eddystone Arsenal apparently used a somewhat different heat treatment than that employed by the other plants."

Now I don't know about you, but I would be inclined to accept the NRAs printed version over someones opinion on the Internet who has not seen one or hearsay versions. In this case, I would say to such people "Because you have not personally perceived the occurance hardly precludes the possibility of its existance."

One thing you can do is check your barrel. See if has two groove or four groove rifling with RIGHT HAND twist. The four groove barrels were manufactured by High Standard and marked "HS". The two groove ones were made by Johnson Automatics and were marked "JA". These were used by the Ordinance department to rebarrel M1917 Enfields, the ones that are prone to cracking.

The problem is not the barrels, but the METHOD OF REMOVING THE ORIGINAL BARRELS. These 1917 barrels were really cranked on, very, very tight. They butt up against the receiver ring, and are under pressure. When taken off, there is a possibility of cracking the receiver.

However, there is a way to do it safely. You have to put the barelled action into a lathe, and using a cut off tool in the tool holder, make a fairly deep cut into the barrel about 1/16 inch in front of the receiver ring. This leaves a small ring of metal on the barrel, but allows the pressure on the receiver ring to be released. The barrel is then put in the barrel vise, and taken off with a lot less pressure and problems.

Another thing is the BOLT. Bolts on original WWI rifles have the inital of the manufacturer on the underside of the handle: ie W, E, or R. During WWII, the replacement bolts were made of low nickel-chromium steel.
.

 

[Gibbs505]

Now I don't know about you, but I would be inclined to accept the NRAs printed version over someones opinion on the Internet who has not seen one or hearsay versions. In this case, I would say to such people "Because you have not personally perceived the occurance hardly precludes the possibility of its existance."

And I checked with Bevan King who works with such action and is considered knowledgable about these actions. That being said, ALL actions should be checked out and approved before any work is done on them! That is just common sense.

 

[Mystic Precision]

BINGO, you are talking about WWI surplus rifles with an unknown history.

CHECK THEM ALL NO MATTER THE MANF!

When I was playing with these Enfields, I would magnaflux the actions and look for cracks. So far, none and I even had an Eddystone or two - hard to confirm due to mismatch of everything.

In their orig form, they were massively over built for such lightweights as the orig 30-06 and 303brit. They were strong enough so a fully plugged rifle wouldn't likely explode if a live shell was fired - smart engineers.

The subject is about putting a 30-378 monster into such an action. Lilja has some math programs to look at bolt lug stresses. Not a bad place to start. You are vastly increasing both the case head size AND operating pressures.

Can the action take the beating? I would think one in good condition would but a marginal one could lead to some real excitement.

I have built several boomers on these actions and they have worked just fine. In fact, most were built by Bevan King. I am sure he looked them over too.

Suggestion is find BSA sporterised versions. All the action remodeling has been done. The scope base screw holes are likely drilled and the rear cap filled in. Undoubtedly, someone looked the action over before working on it and the rifle has likely seen little use from that point on as a hunting rifle.

The vast majority of my rigs have been built using these BSA 'beauties' and I hope you can find some at a gunshow.

I have since quit using these actions due in large part to the dirt cheap Stevens actions. No worries about damaged actions, modern design with lots of parts, easy gunsmithing and modification, much better resale.

If you have the resources to do your own work and just want to build for the hell of it, go for it. But if you need to outsource all your work, costs are going to quickly rocket past a Stevens/Savage build with little to gain.

Also, unless you plan on using a super long barrel (ask Bevan King about the 36" pipes he made for me), there is precious little to gain from the Wby vs the RUM. The RUM offers many advantages which is why my last two boomers have been built around this case.

I have really enjoyed my time with the Enfield P family and they can make some really good shooters but for the dollars spent, there are now better more economical and likely better shooters to be had.

YMMV

Jerry