How to date a P14 Rifle?

Hello all- I am not a P14/M1917 collector by any means (I am a Mauser guy!). However, I do have a P14 Rifle that I had always assumed went through Weedon repair only I cannot find the cartouche that indicates which company so I got to wondering more about the rifle itself. Apart from the marking, which may have simply worn off, I am curious of the date of manufacture. I know that Oldguns.net has a database but it seems to only be for M1917's which would be great if I still had mine. So, is there any way or database that one could use to determine when his P14 was made?

Thanks!

Look on the left side of the knox form under the handgard. If the barrel was replaced during the rebuild it won't have a mfg date instead it will have the date of the rebuild. IIRC. Strangly enough, all I've seen or owned that still had their original barrels were dated '16 and were all Eddy's.

ah! excellent thanks! I just pulled off the HG and it had what looks like a poorly stamped '27 so, a 1927 barrel on it. That's strange to me, that it has a rebarrel date during the inter-war period and so far from either conflict. Either way, I suppose that means there's not really a way to date the receiver?

Who made it?

The rifle is an Eddystone (ERA), 6 digit serial starting with a 683.

Mine's an Eddy with 6 digit ser.# 604xx. I still has it's original 1916 dated barrel. The numbers are close enough together to assume yours was made in 1916 too, but , you know what they say bout assumptions.:madsmile:

Fair enough about the assumptions but I am satisfied with 1916 or 1917, it's close enough... Unless! Your rifle has a replacement barrel on it from excessive use and is actually a bit older.... Curse a historian's curiosity!

Yeah, I thought of that too, but, it's all matching and the font is identical on all the #'s. It still has it's volley sights as well so I don't think it ever went through a rebuild. Does yours have a one or two piece handgard? Mine's a one piece and has 4 equally spaced slots bout 2 1/2'' x 1/4'' milled right down the center. I've yet to find out why they're there.

Mine is a two piece; and that is strange- Northcape's British Enfields Volume 4 by Charles Stratton makes no mention of a one piece handguard but I do not doubt the existence of one; I have seen far stranger things on Brit rifles... perhaps it is an Indian replacement?

I think we can narrow down the date a bit more.

According to Stratton:
Production began January 1916.
First deliveries May 1916.
May 1917*: close to end of production. 1.1 million P14s built. The British had over-ordered and the contracts were terminated.

Ferris give precise dates for the last rifles from the 3 manufacturers: Eddystone June 1st 1917, Winchester June 28 1917, Remington July 21 19i7. Any date markings later than these must be from rebuilding.
December 1916: approval of new bolt with longer locking lug. Rifles fitted with the new bolt have an asterick added to the designation. i.e. Mk 1*E / Mk 1*R / Mk1*W.
As the markings may be so worn as to be unidentifiable, simply measure the left locking lug (the one with the ejector slot).
On Mk 1 rifles this is 0.625" long. On Mk1* rifles it was lengthened by 0.1", so the lug is 0.725" long. These bolts also bear the * marking. It is a very good idea to check this in any case, as a first version bolt will fit in a * model, but the left lug will not be bearing - and single-lug locking is not a good idea!
Since an approved change from December 1916 will have taken some time to work through production into delivered rifles, it is a pretty good approximation to say: MK1 = 1916, Mk 1* = 1917.

Patrick
:wave: