Kiwi;

I recently purchased through eBay a book titled "United Statesicon Rifle Model of 1917" by C.S Ferris 2004 second printing 2008; through Collector Bookstore (Collector Bookstore - 913-651-0600). No problems posting to Australiaicon, and extremely good service. Although this 213 page soft-covered book deals principally with M.17's there is a small section relating to P.14's.

Col.Colt has provided good info extracted from Charles Stratton's book, and it may well be that this book is also available from Collector Bookstore.

Despite having a replacement Winchester rear sight on your P.14 rifle, it boils down to "so what...?". The M.17 rear sight did not go beyond 1600 yds, but you will see that on your sight, there is a mark for 1650 yds, being the correct ranging for the .303 MK VII cartridge. Some, if not all of the P.14 rear sights also had the rifle's S/N stamped on the underside of the sight, at the top. I gather that yours has a number. M.17' sights were not numbered, neither were the bolts to the rifles. I have also seen Eddystone P.14 rifles with sights numbered to the rifle with Remington, or Winchester manufactured rear sights, so if you are so inclined, just file off the non-matching number on the sight!

As a New Zealander, Andrew, you have an interesting piece of NZ history with Maori connotations, which I don't have to remind you. Don't get rid of that stock! The P.14 rifle was issued in limited numbers to certain NZ military forces, and would have had a NZ Govt. stamp on the RHS of the butt, forward of the disc. The Maori carving has removed all of these butt marks. Perhaps a call to one of the NZ Antique Collectors Clubs in NZ will give you some contact point for sourcing info & parts. Don't forget Ted Rogers (Wellington) yearly auctions coming up later this year. Ted usually has some 2,000 items, including bits similar to what you are sourcing for your P.14. It's worth a call to him to find out when his auction is coming up, as he does list all items through the internet, ref: Page Title

Hope the above info is of some help, Andrew.

Cheers,

Ray