Epps .303/Enfield Wildcat Conversions

Blastattack

Blastattack

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I was trawling the web a week or so back, researching the idea behind turning a butchered No4 or No5 Enfield into a big bore, short barreled repeating carbine and came across the Epps series of wildcatted .303 cartridges. The idea of having a .375 or .338 repeating carbine thoroughly intrigued me and begged the question, does Ellwood Epps, store, gunsmith and/or inventor of said cartridges still rework Enfields to feed and fire with the cartridges? Or has that boat sailed? If the knowledge and expertise are still in play, what would the cost be to convert an Enfield as well as get the supplies to reload the cartridges?

Anywho, just though i would put that out there. This certainly intrigued me, and perhaps might spark the interests of others as well. And heck, who better to contact than the Gunsmith/Store bearing the name of the Cartridge inventor?
 
I had a P14 converted to "Epps Improve" and was able to get close to 300 mag velocities/energy. It worked great and I shot the barrel out of it before selling the action. If I had another P14 I'd do it again.
 
I am pretty sure that Ellwood Epps

The gunsmith is deceased. He was however very talented. They do not make smiths like that anymore.
 
mg4201 said:
The gunsmith is deceased. He was however very talented. They do not make smiths like that anymore.
Click to expand...

That is highly unfortunate. However, it does not rule out the possibility of doing a conversion, just makes it a tad harder. The knowledge has to know be relearned as opposed to being simply passed on. Unless of course, someone at Ellwood Epps still has the knowledge and expertise to make the conversion happen.
 
They still do gunsmithing and such at epps but i dont know whether this is still available. They have a website. It would probably be worth a look/call.
 
Someone at Epps may be able to the conversion. But it is not likely they learned it from the late great Ellwood Epps. There is no connection between the two, other than by name.
 
Don't know for sure but Jim Butcher former owner of Ontario gun services in Clinton took over the place when Elwood Epps moved north. He's retired now but i head that he still does some occasional smithing might be worth looking into
 
.303 Epps

I did a Epps conversion. Its no big deal. Borrowed a .303 Epps reamer from a friend, and reamed out a bubba'd P-14. Reamed by hand, the main problem seems to be metal chips, so I reamed 5-6 turns, and blew out the chips with an air nozzle. Using Hornady's 174 gr., H-414 ,MV was 2760. Very accurate, no signs of pressure.Case life was better that the standard .303 loads. Anyone interested, I have a set of RCBS dies.
 
FWIW go to NitroExpress > Lee Speed Forum & Archive a lot of pics. and dialogue on the Lee including larger calibre conversions. I would think any smith worth his salt could do the barrel change & related modifications, and there's the rub - finding one. --- John303.
 
I sent a mail to Epps asking if they could do the .303 epps conversion and got an uber quick reply as follows.

"Our gunsmith confirms that we can certainly perform this conversion on a P.14 rifle. Please visit our website and view the listings found under the yellow tab marked GUNSMITH, located on the left-hand side of each web page.

Estimated turn-around time through our shop for completion of this project will be 3-4 weeks."
 
John rempel of JR's gunsmithing in tomslake BC reworks enfields to 45-70's, he may rebarrel to other calibers as well. You would have to call him as he doesnt have a website.
 
303 Epps Magnum

International Firearms who were located in Montreal had P14 Centurions in 300 Win. Mag for sale, a long time ago which made by Century Arms from Vermont . The rifles were actually 303 because they were Enfields P 14s that had been reamed out and reworked to fire a 300 Win Mag cartridges, however the barrel had never been changed so they still had the .303 bore with .312 gooves. I bought one and that's how I discovered this. I reload and the accuracy was not too good using .308 bullets, so I measured the bore and found it to be .303 so I started using .312 bullets on 300 Win. Mag cases and the accuracy improved greatly. It is rather easy to reload for the 303 Epp Mag. all you need is 300 Win Mag dies and and .312 diameter bullets and a an expander nipple for 303 and use 300 Win. Mag. reloading data. My brother still has the rifle and uses it for deer hunting.
Please note that theses rifles at least the one I had, had an oversized chamber, so you have to neck size only, because the brass swells to the point that full length sizing dies shave metal off the casing from about 3/8 from the belt and leaves a burr even with starting loads with any powder. I was tempted to have a Enfield P 14 rechambered to 308 Norma Mag but since I acquired one which is a 725 Remington in 30-06 that had been reworked by Ellwood Epps. The only problem I have now is I need a new stock for it because the previous owner bubbaed it by carving into it.
I hope this sheds a little light on the matter

B.C.
 
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