School Me on Picking A No. 4

[leebuilder]

I know I am right BOS, I helped DP several cno7 many were new straight out of the transit chest, and yes I still have the taste of vomit in my mouth. None were DP marked, that was left to the end user to do. I have a LEC with stamped out of service and DP markings, it's still serviceable. Also have a few DP stamped no4, still sevrvicable. Many new no1 parts like nose caps and rear sight protectors stamped DP, still can be found and recycled onto restorations. My time at W6 I saw many no4, any out of spec head space was due to mismatched bolts and bolt heads, many to most failed and we're DPed because of elongated chambers and barrels worn out. These were also void of DP stamps. I can assume that the specs for DPing a rifle changed, now rods are smashed into the barrels and welded from both ends, the chamber filled so a bolt wont close on it and the bolt discarded.
That's why I check barrel condition first, mismatched bolts may be a fix, it may be a way to get rid of a rifle with no bolt. So beware.
I like p14s I have a few and always on the look out for resonably priced ones with good bores, they can be fixed up or barrels recycled for other 303's. The last 20 or so I looked at had trumpet muzzles or were just plain baked. Lots of p14s were badly bubba'ed, and are now coming out.
FTRed rifles are worth a closer look, some were fixed and then sold off, I know up here there are piles of FTR 1953 stamped no1s all I have seen have new barrels and worth a second look.
Be well

[Bigslug]

Well, I'm getting the P14 bolt dealt with. Weighed the cons of dealing with excessive headspace through various loading tricks and decided I'd rather have the gun be right. To be continued. . .

[leebuilder]

I would remove the barrel, cut one thread off and reset the headspace. There is no extractor cut on p14s, there is clearence provided on the later models but i dont think its nessesary unless you are swiming in the mud.
Be well

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The cracks found in the receiver rings of some American Enfields seems at least some of the time to be associated with the extreme force required to unscrew the barrel. But the tightness is between the barrel shoulder and the front face of the action, not the threads themselves, and there is no Mauser-style internal stop ring against which the rear of the barrel makes contact. So you can relieve the tension and unscrew it easily by making a shallow saw-cut around the barrel, as close to the receiver as you can get. Keep the far side of the saw-cut less than a tenth of an inch from the receiver, and it will vanish when you lathe-turn the new barrel shoulder.