My great Uncle's Rifle - Winchester P-14 made in 1917?

[drache]

Interesting, that's the first time I've heard someone suggest that Winchester had anything over Remington Illion. Remington Eddystone was a different matter of course.

OP, your rifle is an early one that probably saw service in some capacity in WWI. The pitting makes it not worth restoring IMO, but if the barrel is good you have a fine quality rifle with bags of history, superb accuracy and a stock that is one of the best military stock designs ever fielded IMO.

And if the barrel is shot, you still have an action that is worth re-using. The stock has some exception grain and would be well worth revamping with some nice checkering etc.

Barrel is very nice. And I don't want to restore it, just put it back to how it should have been.

 

[RRCo.]

I read that the Winchester P-14's were top of the line for accuracy of all the P-14 makers. Is this true? Something how only Winchester P-14's were made into "sniper" rifles?

10,000 Winchester made rifles were set aside by the British after WWI for future possible conversion to sniper rifles. Unfortunately they neglected to set aside the scopes as well, so when 1940 rolled around they were up Schmidt Creek without a paddle where sniper rifles were concerned, and asked Canada to provide scoped Ross rifles. How's that for irony?

Maybe Winchesters really did shoot better, but I suspect the name had something to do with it. After all the A.E.F. said "send no more Winchester M17's" in 1918 due to non-interchangeable parts.

Barrel is very nice. And I don't want to restore it, just put it back to how it should have been.

As you wish. And excellent barrel and matching bolt outweighs some pitting in my book.

 

[drache]

10,000 Winchester made rifles were set aside by the British after WWI for future possible conversion to sniper rifles. Unfortunately they neglected to set aside the scopes as well, so when 1940 rolled around they were up Schmidt Creek without a paddle where sniper rifles were concerned, and asked Canada to provide scoped Ross rifles. How's that for irony?

Yes but there was P-14 sniper rifles that were scoped, 2080 from my research. There is one in a museum somewhere in the UK. I remember seeing pictures of it. There is another in a museum in Halifax as well. Two in near mint condition with matching scopes sold on gunbroker for $10,000 USD a piece.

Wonder if I could make a clone... granted the scope mounts would be impossible to find

 

[RRCo.]

Yes but there was P-14 sniper rifles that were scoped, 2080 from my research. There is one in a museum somewhere in the UK. I remember seeing pictures of it. There is another in a museum in Halifax as well. Two in near mint condition with matching scopes sold on gunbroker for $10,000 USD a piece.

Wonder if I could make a clone... granted the scope mounts would be impossible to find

The P14 sniper rifles were scattered all over the Empire and Dominions. Not nearly enough in reserve, if any. That's why you see photos of trainee snipers in 1940/41 using regular SMLEs and P14s, with the luckly blokes getting a Parker Hale target backsight.

Actually, the mounts are very rare, but you never know what turns up: a set of them were sold on eBay a few months back by someone in Ontario. Reproductions and not very accurate ones cosmetically, are sold on eBay regularly.

The scope would be the hard part. Much easier to find a correct WWI scope for a SMLE