New member saying hello, and some questions...

[Rusty_Old_F250]

*Stands up from chair, faces group, sheepishly mutters* "I'm Sam and I'm here because I've been addicted to surplus rifles for 2 years."

Now that that's out of the way, the first surplus rifle I acquired is a sporterized p14 enfield, nothing too special, someone milled the ears off and installed redfield sights, but it was done very cleanly. Definitely not a backyard hack.



I've fallen in love with it, the action is smooth and rock solid but I'm not so fond of the rimmed cartridge. Now for the oddball question: Could I have the barrel and reciever reamed to chamber and fire 8mm Mauser? I like the loads available for it, and it's dimensionally larger than the .303. Would it shoot worth a hoot? The twist rate is 1-9.45 for the mauser and 1-10 for the enfield.

Another option is 45-70 but that's still a rimmed cartridge and would require a new barrel.

The dream conversion involves a rebarrel it to .375 H&H, but unless I get into reloading, I'd never shoot it. The mauser is available cheap enough to be a non issue.

Sam

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Welcome to the forum... I think you should study the drawings of the cartridges first, look at the bullet diameter for the 8mm vs the .303. You're going to have to rebarrel. Then the bolt face will be too big. Then too, the mag box likely won't work right...

7.92×57mm Mauser - Wikipedia

.303 British - Wikipedia

[Salt Flat]

Rusty, Welcome --Now---- what is wrong with rimmed cartridges? If the bore is OK and the rifle shoots fine then leave it alone. As BAR has stated there are many reasons to not convert it. Trust us you will have to spend lots of money with very little ballistic improvement. Check the bore carefully though as many P14s have eroded throats and rough bores-they have been rode hard and put away wet. Salt Flat

[Rusty_Old_F250]

Hello gents, thanks for the welcome! This seems to be a much friendlier forum than some of the others out there, I like it.

This rifle exists mainly as a plinking gun, but I do have friends in Alaska and I'd like to take it with me, mostly for piece of mind against our friend mister bear. Problem is it likes to rimlock. I replaced the magazine box, spring and follower, and it dramatically improved, but it will still cause issues if I don't stack the rounds in just right. Now if I could make it foolproof and have the cartridges stack themselves in the right order, like the lee-enfields, i wouldn't mind.

And as far as the financial viability of a caliber conversion, I'm not too worried about it. If I were, I'd go and buy a brand new CZ in whatever caliber I liked, or maybe an M1917 enfield and call it a day! My father and I had the same discussion 8 years ago about my 73 ford pickup, yes it would be better to buy a newer truck, or even a 73 ford in better shape, but I like this one. In the end it's worked out because I've learned a ton about auto repair. That's kinda what I plan to do with this rifle.

Sam

[browningautorifle]

stack the rounds in just right

It's that easy. As for conversion, you'll need a different bolt, barrel, magazine follower and adjust the feed lips...and then maybe...

[Salt Flat]

Rusty, Here is a link to an interesting thread on the rimlock issue--
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=61298&page=1

Salt Flat

[Rusty_Old_F250]

Hmm... A new barrel is a bit further than I'd like to go. But after reading the thread Salt Flat mentioned, it's given me a few ideas. Since bullet length tends to vary, and I'm not setup for handloading (yet...) I've been looking closer at the feed rails, there may be some room for improvement.

Sam

[browningautorifle]

Not just barrel, the bolt face is wrong for the cartridge base, the extractor likely won't extract either. You'd need a bolt for an M1917. The feed lips are designed for a rimmed cartridge so there'll be issues there also...

[fjruple]

Unless you are going to spend the money, it's not worth converting to another caliber. I would leave it as is if the barrel is OK. Someone did spend money on the Redfield rear sight. Is it an Redfield Olympic or International? Additionally be careful about switching parts out on the Pattern 1914. There are parts compatibility issues between the three manufacturers.

--fjruple

[browningautorifle]

There are parts compatibility issues between the three manufacturers.

Forgot to mention that...another thing...