Restoring Pattern 14 Enfield crown

Hello,

Over the past month or so, I have been working on getting a P14 sporter back to its military configuration. I restored my great grandfather's SMLE No.1 Mk.III* sporter to its original configuration last year, and the thought of bringing these rifles back to life has got me hooked.

I made a mistake, and did something stupid. In efforts to remove the front sight block of this P14, I used a gear puller, with the end contacting the muzzle wrapped in leather in hopes not to damage the crown. I did. Below, you can see the damage done to the crown, the rifling crushed due to the angle of the gear puller.

What are my options now? Will this impact the rifles performance? Is there any way to fix this? I do not want to lop off a section of the barrel to recrown, if possible. Any suggestions for tools, and any knowledge that can help me right this wrong is greatly appreciated.

Before anyone says it. Yes, the barrel is pitted, but the rifling is very strong, and the muzzle is tight (won't accept cast lead ball of .305)

Have you done any shooting to determine if accuracy was affected?

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Originally Posted by Daan Kemp

Have you done any shooting to determine if accuracy was affected?

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The rifle came to me with a severely damaged stock, so I have not been able to shoot it and will not be able to shoot it until the rifle is complete.

I'm sure the experts on the forum will assist with the crown. Must be something an armourer would fix at base workshops if it was serious enough. Most soldiers wouldn't notice or care about it except possibly on the shooting range.

That's right. You can't magic a crown but before you worry you need to shoot it. To re-crown you need a lathe and you can simply strip the rifle to a barreled action and it goes into the headstock that way. The crown is touched on the affected area very gently, finely and lightly. Only a minor amount is removed but it will show. No need to go cutting off lengths of barrel at the muzzle. A gunsmith can affect a light re-crown.

The great thing about milsurps is they are very forgiving. One of my Mosins has a counter bored muzzle so you should be able to save yours. I recently refurbished a sporterized P14 and that was a wonderful project to behold when it was done!

You should be able to go to any real gunsmith an have him run a crown tool over that damage. It should fix it real quick. I have done it on many different rifles.

Sort of what I implied...actually said. Wonder where he went?