Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada P-14

1917, try a 9.3X74 then. Or do the feed and magazine work and go with the 375 H&H. Be Well, RZ.

I've built a number of rifles out of P-14 and '17 actions. They've all been memorable.

My current main competition/Palma rifle is a .308 built out of a '17 action, with the mag opening welded to make it into a single shot, and the original recoil lug removed and replaced with a Rem 700 style recoil lug. It now wears a new JC Custom barrel with a 1-11.5 twist, six groove (as per JC's recommendation). So far, it seems to be a solid 1/2 moa shooter with Sierra 155s at 2,960 out of the 30-inch barrel, which is what I use for competition.

I previously had a P-14 that I had rechambered with a .300 Win Mag reamer to create a ".303 Win Mag." It started life as a sporterized .303 that I bought at a gunshow for $40 in 1999. That rifle shot like a laser until I burned the 1914 barrel with 70+ grains of powder for each shot, and I then took the rest of it apart for parts.

I also have a Remington '17 in .300 Win Mag, which wears a Shaw #3 contour barrel. It once was one of my most used rifles, and it was the first "custom" rifle that I had a gunsmith put together in the late 1990s. I haven't fired it in a few years, but it would regularly shoot any decent .30 cal bullet into between 1/2 and 1 m.o.a. when pushed with H4831.

I recently put together a .300 Win Mag hunting rifle out of a P-14 action. I did all of the work myself on this project, except for installing the barrel and drilling and tapping the receiver. (I'm no gunsmith, but I ground the ears and contoured the receiver, opened and polished the feed rails and the internal dimensions of the receiver, cut and re-shaped portions of the receiver, polished and blued all of the metal, lapped the bolt lugs, built a sporting stock out of an old military stock by adding wood and then re-contouring it to build in a pistol grip, bedded the action, etc.) It wears a #2 contour E.R. Shaw barrel and will put five 175 Barnes LRX bullets (launched at 3,170 fps) easily into 3/4 m.o.a. at 200 metres if I don't overheat it--and this is just one of the first loads I've tried in it. The rifle fits me well, and I went out on a limb and added a screw-in Anschutz handstop so I can shoot it prone with a sling when the mood suits me. I've been able to make first shot hits on rocks out to 650 yards in the limited amount of shooting I've done with this rifle so far. It has a Timney trigger, but the original cock-on-closing striker.

I also have an ERA P-14 that I have used with iron sights. With IMR 4320 and Hornady 150-grain .303 bullets, I have been able to shoot 3-4 inch groups at 300 yards, if I read the wind correctly. This is with an original 1914 barrel and my Central No4 competition rear sight.

I think these are great actions!

They are. I only have two ERAs. I did have a rechambered Winchester P-14 in 303 Epps, but it got traded off.

friend of mine went through colorado school of gunsmithing. his project, he gave to me. parker hale custom sights on back,he smoothed action, anda custome 7.62.51 barrel.
it gloverleafs bulllets on target.

I'm fond of the P-17 and the P-14. . I have three P-17s, two of them were BSA sporters conversions and the other a Eddystone sporter. . One of the BSA is still a 30-06, the other a 358Norma long neck. The Eddystone is a 308Norma. My P-14 is a Winchester.. It's my favourite range rifle. I have a Parker Hale rear sight, and a Boyd semi inlet I finished. They all have either a Timmey trigger or a Dayton-Traister , and coil spring ejector conversions .

The P-17 usage is the official Canadian government designation for the 30-06. It was used during the WW2 for troops in Canada. We bought 100,000 from the United States. My Eddystone was one of these. The BSAs ones were likely part of the Lend-Lease to Britain.

These rifles used nickel alloy steel like the pre war Winchester M54 and M70 .

downwindtracker2;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the day is looking good for you in your part of our province and that those who matter in your world are well.

Thanks for that historical tidbit about Canadian purchases of the P17, that's news to me and very cool to know.

If you have any recommendations for reading or articles on them I'd love to hear about them. One imagines that in the early days of the war, before we got the arsenal at Long Branch really rolling that obtaining all types of arms for Canadian troops would have been a tricky proposition sometimes.

Thanks again and all the best to you folks this year sir.

Dwayne

Very nice. The BSA's should be nicely done sporters. BSA did some of the best work for sporterizing these old rifles, however they only did it for a very short time (49-51 I believe). Im also a believer in the Timney or Dayton Traister triggers and coil spring ejectors. Almost a required modification in my book. Also something guys dont know is you can use the pre 64 model 70's extractor in the m1917. I like using them because they look better and work great. One modification im on the fence about is cock on open vs. cock on close. I have both and they both work great. However, one thing that can be said about a properly tuned m1917 with cock on open conversion is they are smoother feeding than even the pre 64 model 70 that is known for being exceptional in that department.

Canadian battle rifles. Steve likely has much more information than I do. There was a web site/forum dedicated to the "Enfield", Pattern of 1914, Model of 1917, Remington model 20?? and the Remington model 720. Someone posted letter from the great C.D. Howe and Canadian army documents on it about using P-17. The history, between the wars Great Britain surplused out a lot of their stock of rifles.. So to help out GB, Canada at the beginning of the war sent them a 100,000 Ross rifles. We did a smaller lend-lease. This left us with a shortage, now. The government was offered a some P-14 from a dealer, but instead chose to buy the P-17 off the States. If GB had chosen the P-14 over the Lee-Enfield after the Great war, Canada was willing to convert the Ross factory over, but nothing came of that.

The BSA ones had their ears clipped properly, the Eddystone required the work of a fine magician/gunsmith, Greydog, to straighten out..

Had one, sold it, regret it.