P14 restoration(s)

So I have a line on two Drill Purpose P14's, ones a Remington and the others a Winchester, both have the holes drilled thru the chanmber and the red and white stripes around the stocks but other wise look repairable.
I can get new barrels in the original .303 caliber from Criterion, a rear replacement handguard and a repair the half moon divits in the stock and I should have a serviceable, shoot able rifle. I mean other than the hole drilled thru the chamber there wasnt anything else done to de-activate them was there?
Thanks for the help.

n most cases, a new barrel, and firing pin, and your in business.

Chuckindenver mentioned replacing the firing pin. I am assuming he meant replacing the P14 pin with a 1917 pin which is larger diameter which is what I do because the 1917 is the standard (circa .060" diameter) used in US Rifles. Of course you open the firing pin hole in the bolt face to accomplish this.

This is a desirable mod as the Brit design is notorious for punching holes in our primers which can leak hot gases in your face/eyes.

I have rebuilt a number of these and I recommend chucking the barreled action up in a lathe and cutting a slot IN THE BARREL with a parting tool or grooving tool. A number of these actions have their barrels torqued on extremely tight and a number of receivers have been cracked trying to remove them. If you cut the parting groove (.about 1/8" deep) the actions are easily screwed off.

BE VERY CAREFUL here as there is a reduced section on the front of the receiver that appears to be the barrel/receiver contact point and I have seen several of these actions improperly cut and the actions were ruined and half the barrel thread section of the action was cut off.

One has to keep in mind these rifles were designed for battle useage and were not designed for reloaded ammunition to be used so the chambers were huge, brass expanded and stretched to the limit and as well had Berdan Primers making it extremely difficult to reload.

If you plan on shooting these rifles a lot and don't have access to lots of 303 Brit surplus ammo there is another way you can go and you want something you can pass down to your kids...............

Heres how:
You can order a Douglas barrel blanks 1.250" on the back end in 30 Cal (.300X.308 internal dimensions) instead of the Brit .303X.311 diameter. I order all my 30 cal barrels in 12 twist.

Contact Manson Precision Reamers and tell them you want a 303 Brit reamer with 30.06 throat dimensions. Note: I also had mine made with reduced base dimension and reduced neck dimension to reduce the chamber size.

This does several things for you:

1.It allows the use of 30 cal surplus bullets which are much cheaper than 303 bullets. As well your choice of hunting bullets is magnified 20 or more times.

2.It will lengthen your case life considerably as I seriously doubt there will be any further imports of cheap 303 ammo. You will also have considerably longer barrel life as the massive freefore of the 303 Brit chamber is gone.

3. Accuracy will be increased dramatically with good 30 cal hunting/target bullets.

Almost forgot RCBS had this idea many years ago and they make a 303 FL size die that sizes the neck down for 30 cal bullets. I got one of these dies about 30 years ago so I took it a step further and had a chamber reamer made to go with the die (about ten years ago) so now I have a 30/303 for lack of a better description.

You don't have to worry about someone chambering a full up 303 Brit factory round as the the 30.06 neck/throat won't allow a 303 Brit military round to be chambered.

As well if someone steals your rifle they can't use it.

You then have two options, you can make the rifle look original and shoot much better or you can barrel it up with a heavier barrel making for a very accurate long range hunting or target rifle. I have done these both ways.

There is yet another way to save money. If you order a no 5A contour barrel you can shoot your 30/303 say 2500 rounds, remove barrel and cut off the threads. Rethread it and rechamber it and put it back on and you will have new rifling at the case mouth. You can then use a barrel for perhaps 10,000 rounds and keep it shooting a inch or less the whole time with the right load. A 5A starts with a 26" tube and cut it off several times you will still have a 24" range barrel.

You can PM me for more info. Be glad to help anyone.:)

no , the firing pin is ground off on the tip.. use the correct pin..if you try the old pin....it will never fire.
Criterian makes a barrel, already threaded, already has an extractor cut, already has a front sight key cut,. and comes parked or in the white.
189.00 rent the finish reamer from rent a reamer .com screws in easy, line the witness marks up, finish ream , test fire...pretty simple.
most guys dont have or have access to a lathe...if you have an action wrench... put the reciever in the wrench.. put the handle in a big vise, and remove the old barrel with a long pipe wrench....i have a 36" that i picked up at Haurbor Freight for less then 20.00 pulls those barrels out pretty easy.
if you grind on or modifiy the firing pin. you chance loosing the heat treatment on the tip,, it may break, or bend easy..