Pattern 14 subject to cracked barrels??

[Littlejohn]

On another forum, someone had posted photos of his modified P14. He made some statements about P14s that I hadn't heard before.

1. "this one is a Winchester I rebarreled to make it a car gun and walking gun since the barrels on all of them are subject to cracking."

2."I removed the original striker (small sharp point) and replaced it with a M1917 striker and opened the hole in bolt face for the bigger striker."

3."These rifles can be expensive to rebarrel as they require a special order blank. "

I would be interested in hearing this group's thoughts on those statements.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[browningautorifle]

The barrels don't crack, it's the barrel ring because of poor wrench handling while stripping them...or assembling... Never heard of a problem with the bolt face either. A barrel blank is just that...you cut the shank custom. You can use any blank that meets outside diameter of the threads...

As for making a car gun, there's lots around. Just take one as is...more sporters than full wood types.

[Daan Kemp]

The start of a brand new myth, destined to be repeated as gospel by many generations of myth retellers. Kill it on that forum quickly, the same as for the special blank and replacement striker.

Sounds like a troll...

[Woodsy]

I have seen a few P14's with the barrel split from muzzle to breech reinforce after being fired with muzzle obstructions. The barrels appear to be a smidge on the hard side with the original heat-treating which would make them slightly brittle. Eddystone rifles seem to be worse than Winchester. I have never seen a P14 give any problems with normal loads and a clear barrel. The barrel blanks are slightly more expensive as they have to be made from larger diameter steel to accommodate the large reinforce, and some gunsmiths charge more to cut the square threads.

[browningautorifle]

I have seen a few P14's with the barrel split from muzzle to breech reinforce after being fired with muzzle obstructions.

To be expected, I've seen those as well and more than just that rifle.

some gunsmiths charge more to cut the square threads.

They'd need to make a special thread cutting bit that's different from most...by hand...

[Woodsy]

[QUOTE=browningautorifle;427970They'd need to make a special thread cutting bit that's different from most...by hand...[/QUOTE]

All of 10 minutes on a bench grinder from a piece of 3/8" hi-speed tool steel, then they have it for life. I have made about 6 of them over the years in different sizes (for P14's, M17's, Savage 99, Garand, etc).

[browningautorifle]

All of 10 minutes on a bench grinder from a piece of 3/8" hi-speed tool steel,

Agreed, I do them too.

[RC20]

1. "this one is a Winchester I rebarreled to make it a car gun and walking gun since the barrels on all of them are subject to cracking."

The best term I can come up with for the so called reasoning of the guy is gratuitous nonsense. Why people manufacture weird stuff like that is pretty odd.

It amazing some people manage to feed themselves.

Sort of I stubbed my toe on a rock, it began to rain, therefore what I just did caused it to rain

We are genetically oriented to pattern recognition/analysis. Somewhere along the line for some, the analysis part of the gene gets left out. Then its nothing more than superstition.

If you buy a Savage on sale at Cabellas, you can get one for under $300. I wonder how much that barrel cost him?

[Daan Kemp]

Of course, 100 years old firearms should need due diligence when shooting them.

[Cosine26]

I have not re-barreled a rifle in many years (1982), but as I remember it, the P14/M17 square threads are American standard and do not differ greatly from that of the M1903 threads. Anyone who can thread a M1903 barrel should be able to thread a P14/M17 barrel.
I used to act as the purchasing agent for my rifle club and ordered barrels at about 100 at a time from Douglas to receive a significant discount. The P14/M17 barrels require a larger shank and Douglas charged an additional $5.00 for P14/M17 barrels. I always ordered the P14/M17 barrel blanks for my Model 70 target rifles because I felt that the extra sized shank gave the barrel more support where it abutted the receiver.
FWIW