P14 303
- Thread starter ratherbefishin
- Start date
Typical with most milsurps, you want to check the head space. It's not as easy to fix in a P-14 as it is with a No1 or No4, so you want to make sure it's good to go before you take it home. I have three P-14's and the used brass is interchangeable between them, so headspace hasn't been an issue for me as they tend to be well built.
A lot of P-14's have bores in less than desirable condition. Chalk it up to two world wars and lots of corrosively primed cordite ammo. So make sure the bore is good to go, especially at the throat and muzzle. Most bores will be oversized from your typical .311 size. My smallest, a Winchester is .3115. Most are .312 to .314, so make sure you can handload for them if you can't confirm bore diameter from the seller, as most commercial ammo is .3105. The 150gr, .312 Hornady Interlocks work best in my expereince.
Also check the rear tang for cracks and proper spacing. If this is the case, the reciever lug recesses in the stock have been compressed to the point where the rear tang is taking the brunt of recoil. Easily fixed by a brass spacer to the back of the reciever lugs. The wood is 100 years old after all. Give it a few coats of BLO as well, can't hurt it.
Accuracy from a good rifle and shooter and ammo wil usually be 1 to 1.5 MOA. Reliability is good as well. The first thing to go on these rifles is the ejector. Find a good one for a few bucks from a smith, or buy a new one with a spring installed. Otherwise, they are built like a rock, but aren't overly fond of round-nosed ammo.
Hope this helps.
Tyler
A lot of P-14's have bores in less than desirable condition. Chalk it up to two world wars and lots of corrosively primed cordite ammo. So make sure the bore is good to go, especially at the throat and muzzle. Most bores will be oversized from your typical .311 size. My smallest, a Winchester is .3115. Most are .312 to .314, so make sure you can handload for them if you can't confirm bore diameter from the seller, as most commercial ammo is .3105. The 150gr, .312 Hornady Interlocks work best in my expereince.
Also check the rear tang for cracks and proper spacing. If this is the case, the reciever lug recesses in the stock have been compressed to the point where the rear tang is taking the brunt of recoil. Easily fixed by a brass spacer to the back of the reciever lugs. The wood is 100 years old after all. Give it a few coats of BLO as well, can't hurt it.
Accuracy from a good rifle and shooter and ammo wil usually be 1 to 1.5 MOA. Reliability is good as well. The first thing to go on these rifles is the ejector. Find a good one for a few bucks from a smith, or buy a new one with a spring installed. Otherwise, they are built like a rock, but aren't overly fond of round-nosed ammo.
Hope this helps.
Tyler
P-14 enfield
I am the proud owner of a Circa 1916 Remington Eddystone P-14.I've bagged moose,deer and black bear out hear in b.c. with it.I chronagraphed some of my reloads with it.174 gr.hornady interlock round nose ,42 gr of imr 4320 powder,federal 210 primers,bullet seating depth-.180"@2830fps,with no sign of excessive pressure in primer pocket.This Combination kicks butt. The only advise I have for you is to keep the firing pin well lubed.I was hunting with mine in rainy weather some years ago and cleaned it after the trip before storage.Some moisture must have penetrated into the bolt against the firing pin because the next time I went to shoot it(thankfully at a paper target)I experience a lazy firing pin.After a couple of tries it freed itself.Light oil and wd-40 has cured the problem since.Pointed soft point bullets do fly the best out of it,but the round nose interlocks are the toughest available.The only regret I have is that i didn't buy a full military version of this rifle when they were easier to find.Any ideas where to start the search from anyone would be appreciated .Yours truly,lawful newbie
I am the proud owner of a Circa 1916 Remington Eddystone P-14.I've bagged moose,deer and black bear out hear in b.c. with it.I chronagraphed some of my reloads with it.174 gr.hornady interlock round nose ,42 gr of imr 4320 powder,federal 210 primers,bullet seating depth-.180"@2830fps,with no sign of excessive pressure in primer pocket.This Combination kicks butt. The only advise I have for you is to keep the firing pin well lubed.I was hunting with mine in rainy weather some years ago and cleaned it after the trip before storage.Some moisture must have penetrated into the bolt against the firing pin because the next time I went to shoot it(thankfully at a paper target)I experience a lazy firing pin.After a couple of tries it freed itself.Light oil and wd-40 has cured the problem since.Pointed soft point bullets do fly the best out of it,but the round nose interlocks are the toughest available.The only regret I have is that i didn't buy a full military version of this rifle when they were easier to find.Any ideas where to start the search from anyone would be appreciated .Yours truly,lawful newbie
I agree with Tyler. I'm probably going to be dumped on for saying this, but I'd take a decent P14 over ANY Lee-Enfield (if all I wanted was a decent, versatile shooter). The action is stronger, the lock-up is better and more concentric, the bedding is WAY easier, and the reloading seems less finicky. In addition, once you've blown the .303 barrel, you can re-barrel with another .303, or try something new... like a .300 Winchester Magnum, 7mm Remington Magnum, .375 H&H Magnum -- or a whole host of other magnum cartridges. Try that with a Lee-Enfield action!
The sights are not windage-adjustable (unless you drift the front), and that is a pain. In my experience, they're normally regulated for the 174-grain bullet, so 150s shoot a couple of minutes to the side and a bit high. These rifles generally fare best with a scope for this reason, and mounting a scope normally requires that the "ears" on the receiver be ground down before the receiver is drilled and tapped. That does take some extra gunsmithing work, but it is a necessity, in my opinion.
Because these rifles have been kicking around for 100 years, many of them have already been ground, drilled and tapped decades ago and are still being sold for cheap.
How are they for accuracy? Here's a story from last weekend. I have a REAL ugly one. Seriously, this rifle is so shockingly ugly that I'm too embarrassed to post pics. I bought it for parts about ten years ago at a gun show (as a barrelled receiver stuck in a bubba'd stock). I went one step further with the bubbaing of the stock because I thought "What the heck?" and I improvised an M-16 style pistol grip using a bolt covered with foam rubber and duct tape. Just try to imagine how hideous this looks. It's actually worse. Almost all of the bluing is gone.
I had purchased a bolt and other parts separately, including (here's the clincher) a Central Sight and mount for it, which I had installed by my gunsmith. I use a Central on my competition rifle, so I thought I'd keep this as a spare.
Over the years, I had bedded this rifle using epoxy and sawdust in the standard receiver areas, plus under the barrel at the forend. Nothing fancy. Just straightforward.
It's an Eddystone. The barrel is not perfect, but I've seen worse. I keep it clean.
I took it to the range last Saturday. Using FN surplus ammunition from the '80s (pushing a 174-grain .314 bullet [as miked] over the chronograph at about 2,370), I was able to fire shots that touched at 100 metres. I had taken my scoped Remington 700 .30-06 with me that day, and this rifle actually outshot it (with the exception of one load in the .30-06), with iron sights, to boot.
When I set the sights 2 minutes high, I was able to hammer the gong at 200 metres so consistently that I stopped wasting ammo, and there were guys in benches beside me who were having trouble hitting it with their scope-sighted .300 mags.
What's not to love about a P14? Beauty is as beauty does. Only accurate rifles are interesting.
The sights are not windage-adjustable (unless you drift the front), and that is a pain. In my experience, they're normally regulated for the 174-grain bullet, so 150s shoot a couple of minutes to the side and a bit high. These rifles generally fare best with a scope for this reason, and mounting a scope normally requires that the "ears" on the receiver be ground down before the receiver is drilled and tapped. That does take some extra gunsmithing work, but it is a necessity, in my opinion.
Because these rifles have been kicking around for 100 years, many of them have already been ground, drilled and tapped decades ago and are still being sold for cheap.
How are they for accuracy? Here's a story from last weekend. I have a REAL ugly one. Seriously, this rifle is so shockingly ugly that I'm too embarrassed to post pics. I bought it for parts about ten years ago at a gun show (as a barrelled receiver stuck in a bubba'd stock). I went one step further with the bubbaing of the stock because I thought "What the heck?" and I improvised an M-16 style pistol grip using a bolt covered with foam rubber and duct tape. Just try to imagine how hideous this looks. It's actually worse. Almost all of the bluing is gone.
I had purchased a bolt and other parts separately, including (here's the clincher) a Central Sight and mount for it, which I had installed by my gunsmith. I use a Central on my competition rifle, so I thought I'd keep this as a spare.
Over the years, I had bedded this rifle using epoxy and sawdust in the standard receiver areas, plus under the barrel at the forend. Nothing fancy. Just straightforward.
It's an Eddystone. The barrel is not perfect, but I've seen worse. I keep it clean.
I took it to the range last Saturday. Using FN surplus ammunition from the '80s (pushing a 174-grain .314 bullet [as miked] over the chronograph at about 2,370), I was able to fire shots that touched at 100 metres. I had taken my scoped Remington 700 .30-06 with me that day, and this rifle actually outshot it (with the exception of one load in the .30-06), with iron sights, to boot.
When I set the sights 2 minutes high, I was able to hammer the gong at 200 metres so consistently that I stopped wasting ammo, and there were guys in benches beside me who were having trouble hitting it with their scope-sighted .300 mags.
What's not to love about a P14? Beauty is as beauty does. Only accurate rifles are interesting.
Did you disassemble the bolt?
Reminds me of another thing I forgot to add: Field strip the bolt and give it a good cleaning before firing it for the first time. It's likely that the spring is surrounded in crud and cosmolene.
you might want to look at replacing the firing pin spring with one from wolf or where ever, i found that eddystone springs are of varying quality, and you will find alot that are compressed in the middle and have very weak striking, its find for most commercial ammo but it won't set off some of the older surplus
P14
I just bought on off Dutybelt,described in ''excellent condition''so I'll see.The reviews sound good, this is a ''sporter'' but I'm no purist-all I want is a shooter.Not sure what I'll do with it yet-may restock it with a boyds laminate, or just leave it the way it is.[probably it will stay in my gun case like most of the rest of them-my wife threatens to hold a gun sale at my funeral-which she says may come sooner than I expect if I buy more guns and don't sell some]
just wondering -I'm no gunsmith-but would a 35 whelen barrel be an option for a p14 -and how dificult is it to fit?
I just bought on off Dutybelt,described in ''excellent condition''so I'll see.The reviews sound good, this is a ''sporter'' but I'm no purist-all I want is a shooter.Not sure what I'll do with it yet-may restock it with a boyds laminate, or just leave it the way it is.[probably it will stay in my gun case like most of the rest of them-my wife threatens to hold a gun sale at my funeral-which she says may come sooner than I expect if I buy more guns and don't sell some]
just wondering -I'm no gunsmith-but would a 35 whelen barrel be an option for a p14 -and how dificult is it to fit?
I've had a couple of P14's. It's true, they're strong as hell, and accurate as hell.
But, compared to a No 4 Lee Enfield, I find them awkward to handle, load and cycle. The Lee is so slick...10 rounds too instead of 5.
There has to be a reason why Canada didn't issue these rifles and did issue the Lee Enfield to the troops.
I think the P14's and P17's were used for things like prison camps, RCAF airfield duty, Home Guard in England etc.
But, compared to a No 4 Lee Enfield, I find them awkward to handle, load and cycle. The Lee is so slick...10 rounds too instead of 5.
There has to be a reason why Canada didn't issue these rifles and did issue the Lee Enfield to the troops.
I think the P14's and P17's were used for things like prison camps, RCAF airfield duty, Home Guard in England etc.
They went with the Ross, when that didn't work, they got No1's from the Brits as production picked up. The Brits went with the Lee because there wasn't enough time to develop and produce a new rifle. As I'm sure this has been discussed ad-nauseum in every P-14 thread, I won't dwell on it.
ratherbefishin said:
Being as the .35 Whelen is a necked up .30-06, you would be far better off converting a sporterized P-17/M1917, as no modifications would be required to the bolt face, extractor, etc.
If the .303 Brit barrel is unmodified and in good shape, don't molest it. Swap it off and sell it, as they aren't exactly making new ones, and good condition ones are hard to find.
no-if it can't be done easily,I'll keep it as it is,nothing wrong with a 303 if you hold them straight.I don't have any problem with 5 shells for a hunting rifle.I'm interested in this p14 peepsight-I have a Helqvist on my 9.3x57,its similar in design-ghost ring and protective ''ears''on the side
The Central sight I bought came with a mount. This mount essentially replaces the bolt release lever on the side of the action, and it acts as it's own bolt release lever.
AJ Parker used to manufacture a sight for this action, I believe. Otherwise, some creative gunsmithing will be required.
If you don't want to go the gunsmith route, at all, another option is to use a B-Square no gunsmith mount which literally goes into the ears using existing fixtures. I've never played with this unit, but I've seen that it makes the scope sit very high up. This will definitely require you to add some type of padding to raise up the comb of the stock to give your face consistent cheek support from shot to shot.
Otherwise, spend the money and have the ears ground off and the receiver drilled and tapped. That way, you can use any scope. If you still want to use peep sights, I've read that they make peep sights that will mount on a Weaver scope base.
In my experience, given the strength of this action and tightness of lockup (and since the .303 case has the same capacity as the .308), I've found that you can generally use .308 loading data when handloading for this rifle. Having said this, I've still found that IMR 4320 gives the best results at levels in between a top .303 book load and a top .308 book load.
AJ Parker used to manufacture a sight for this action, I believe. Otherwise, some creative gunsmithing will be required.
If you don't want to go the gunsmith route, at all, another option is to use a B-Square no gunsmith mount which literally goes into the ears using existing fixtures. I've never played with this unit, but I've seen that it makes the scope sit very high up. This will definitely require you to add some type of padding to raise up the comb of the stock to give your face consistent cheek support from shot to shot.
Otherwise, spend the money and have the ears ground off and the receiver drilled and tapped. That way, you can use any scope. If you still want to use peep sights, I've read that they make peep sights that will mount on a Weaver scope base.
In my experience, given the strength of this action and tightness of lockup (and since the .303 case has the same capacity as the .308), I've found that you can generally use .308 loading data when handloading for this rifle. Having said this, I've still found that IMR 4320 gives the best results at levels in between a top .303 book load and a top .308 book load.
