Eddystone P.14 Sniper

[Promo]

Finally received the rifle I purchased quite some time ago: a heavily modified Eddystone P.14 rifle, which features scope bases I've never seen before.

The front scope base is a dovetailed part, which is obviously made in a way that the scope is first placed downwards, then slid forward into the dovetail. The rear scope base is made via a circular cutout in where the rear sight originally would have been, also dovetailed to then slide forward. The scope mount is locked in place with a spring-made "locking key".

In the position where the end on the arm of the key touches the top of the receiver, exactly the milled flat position on the key arm is inside the milled hole. This means in this position the scope can be inserted or removed. If the arm is then slid downwards into the locking position (with a small cutout in the side of the receiver, locking it in place), the scope then is locked in place. The arm seems to be made of spring steel, as it's quite moveable.

Note the additional cutout on the rear handguard, obviously made for a very deep mounted scope.

The rifle itself is an Eddystone action which is fully matching. The trigger guard is serialized to the rifle, as sometimes seen on other P.14 sniper rifles. The originally "Fatso" stock has been milled flat on the sides.

The rifle features what appears to be a modified SMLE magazine, which is detachable. The magazine as the stock on the heel is marked with a single "4". I yet have to remove the handguards, but I've been told by the previous owner they also feature the "4" inside of them. The stock is shortened, which I am unable to tell if it's original or not, but I believe rather not. The caliber is of course the original .303 British. The history itself is lost (or remains unknown), since it came from an estate.

Any suggestions to this gun? The detachable magazine reminds me of the Ainley rifle, but the Ainley rifle had the original PPCo mounts (to my knowledge). And why did they use an Eddystone action?


Edit 18.06.2023: re-uploaded pictures that were lost in forum crash.

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