Refurbed Enfield P14

[louthepou]

Hi everyone,

Well this refurb is a never ending project.

First Chapter:
Started last year, from a sporterized P14. Got all the parts, refinished the wood, reassembled it all, went to te range... the bullets keyholed.

Second Chapter:
Tried oversized bullets, still same result. Went to my gunsmith, decided to try counterboring. Still no luck, so changing the barrel was the next option.

Third Chapter:
Found a replacement barrel. Sent the barreled action and the new barrel to a gunsmith; the swap went well. Got the parts back, reassembled everything, put the bolt in... and it wouldn't close all the way down. Turns out (I didn't know until a short while ago) that the P14 exists with two variations of bolt / barrel combination. In one version, the "*" one, the bolt has a lug that extends forward quite a bit from the bolt head face. This lug will turn in a grove on the rear face of the barrel when the bolt handle is turned down. The new barrel didn't have that groove (it's of the "no-star" version...). Here's the bolt head...



Fourth Chapter:
Tried to weigh my options. Find another "star" barrel, swap again... Or take this barrel off and have the grove machined... Or find a no-star bolt... All proved difficult (hard to find the part or involving too much spending). I machined a little bit of the metal off the bolt protrusion, until it didn't interfere with the closure of the bolt. I think now there's barely a thousanth of an inch between the front of that lug and the rear of the barrel, so anyone who knows if that's enough or too much feel free to comment...

Anyways, here's the finished product. Well almost finished. I have to change the rear sight retaining bolt and nut (stripped thread), and the front band is missing it's bolt. Almost there...

Lou

Information

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[Jim Tarleton]

Nice job. We have all gotten "into the well" so to speak. At some point you just bite the bullet and go with it. Yours looks worth it to me.

Jim

[andiarisaka]

Thank you! I'm building a P14 action into a target rifle using a heavy Obermeyer barrel I got off gunbroker for $10. I was wondering about this boltnose/barrelface thing as I noticed a P14 barrel for sell on gunbroker recently and it didn't have the cut for the bolt nose as illustrated in DeHass' Bolt Action Rifles book. My rifle will be chambered for the 6mm-30/40 Krag Ackley Improved. The reamer I have is very improved, case capacity should approach that of the 240 Weatherby. If yours feeds and ejects ok, I'd say it is a safe modification, as that's all it would effect.

[Calfed]

Where did you find your replacement barrel, lou?

[louthepou]

Hi Calfed,

Another Enfield / Lee Enfield Enthusiast living in Ontario had one; I think I got lucky (despite the mismatch with the bolt), doesn't seem to be many around.

Lou

[Calfed]

That is an understatement. I've got two P-14's--an Eddystone that is extremely accurate and a Winchester that is not so much. Would love to find a barrel for the Winnie.

[craig61a]

I also have a P14 that doesn't shoot quite as accurate as I'd like. Just to see how available barrels were, I did some looking, but didn't see much.

[jmoore]

To those of y'all who need to check headspace on either a p'14 or M1917 just remember that, unlike almost every other Mauser variant, the locking lugs have a very fine screw pitch (not at 90 degrees to the boreline). Therefore, the bolt must close ALL the way down to check the headspace. Most folks will assume that if the bolt will start its turn down motion on a no-go then the rifle needs help. These rifles are different!
The other Mauser w/ inclined lugs that come to mind are Japanese T38's and '99's (but not all of them weirdly enough).