British .303

[Gil Martin]

I have a No.4 Mark I WWII British Enfield with an S&K Insta-Mount that does not require drilling. Merely remove the rear sight and put the base in its place. It works well. S&K offers various no drill scope mounts for a lot of military rifles. All the best...
Gil

[Murf]

The P 14 was sold to the Brit when theyhad a real shortage of rifles early in WW I. Theyare considered a quite good rifle but to sporterise one involves a lot of work. As stated many were stripped and the actions used for custom rifles chambered in some very hot for their day rimmed magnums.

One possible problem for a hunting rifle is that the .303 being a rimmed cartridge is prone to jams unless care is taken while loading to ensure the rim of each cartridge is ahead of the one below it in the mag. The army never had this problem as they used stripper clips for loading.
Also as stated above the P 17 is very similar. When the US entered WW I they also had a shortage of rifles and P 17's were developed to use the 30-06 rimless cartridge since not enough Springfields were available. Alvin York used a P 17.

Any scope system for a Lee Enfield No 1 Mk3 or No4 Mk1 will not work on a P14 as they are totally different actions.

[dakotah]

That P14 has a clip that forces the cases to be in the correct position like Murph said. If you wanted to customize and change to most other calibers, the magazine would likely have to go. Mybe a 444 Marlin would work without throwing away the mag???

If a fellow would want to make a rifle up in a caliber with a case base dimension similar or larger than the 303, I suspect that it would be feasible. Wasn't it A-Square that made up some large calibers from a P17?? Would a P14 work as well?

With a P14, it is my opinion that you could get very respectable velocities out of the 303. I tried loading them hot (308 Win velocities) and never had a case problem.

It is my intention though to keep mine military and use cast bullets. There is an active cast bullet 'military rifle' group about 45 miles from here. Maybe I will be able to get something going with this rifle.

There are too many rifles out there available in 300 Win Mag or even bigger. It seems that the option is: converting one of these almost 100 year old rifles and ending up with a custom??? rilfe and possibly not worth as much as the original (especially if I do the work) but costing more than the rifles available on the market.

I have heard a lot of good and a lot of bad regarding the SMLE. but personally I would like to have one. I think they would be a lot of fun.