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oomans,

We have a Winchester P14 rifle that we think is in need of an upgrade. Before we start, we'll point out that it is in no way a classical P14 deserving of some TLC and naught else: it's been converted at some stage in its past to a 7.62x51 targer rifle and shoe-horned into a badly fitting, home made, Anschutz style target stock. The sight ears have been ground off and a MkVII Parker Hale sight fitted - which has also seen better days. It doesn't feed rounds from the magazine cleanly either, though single round loading is okay. The barrel is a heavy, hammer forged target barrel.


We'd like to improve upon it.

A simple plan would be to get the magazine sorted, drop the action into a Joe West tactical stock and pop a 6x42 sight on it - we have a Lisenfeld availabubble. It would then be quite a reasonable 300 and 600 yard gun.

However, maybe there are other options. Perhaps a conversion to 7.62x54R - a new barrel would be needed for that we think. Or maybe a .45 ACP carbine a la De Lisle ? Post your suggestions here, oomans...

How about a .303? With a nice tight SAAMI chamber and a heavy stainless barrel.

We already have an original P14 in .303, so are looking for something a little different...

Or, you could up-gun it to 30-06 which seems a logical step.
ukrifleman.

What would moving to 30-06 involve?

It is the same bolt face so all you need is a new barrel. It is not very imaginative though...

Given the bolt face you have many choices, in theory you could re barrel in 7,62x39 and change the extractor however it is not something I have tried. The 7,62x51 is 12,01 head diameter and the 7,62x39 is 11,45 from memory.

If you fancy rolling your own then a 25-308 or the one I have always thought about for shorter stuff, the 308 Picra.

Hmmm, so might it be a possibility to convert the P14 to handle the 7.62x39 cartridge, but neck out the case to .338 ? That would give us a big, heavy, streamlined bullet that we might be able to fire with a subsonic load to create a modern day De Lisle....

.338 bullets are expensive unless you cast your own however if you went to .366/9,3mm you have a bit of a choice however they are invariably soft point.

Why not look at a short .366 based on a .308 case (Super simple to form) and swage your own semi jacketed bullets. A proper engineering solution and perfect for subs. You do realise you could take a standard 7,62x39 or .308 load and fire it through the rifle subject to the shoulder angle and end up with a fire formed case with one shot...

What ever happened to the 'Build it with Badger' saga that ran to a dozen pages at least?

It got put on hold, temporarily at least. The budget we had for it has been set aside in case an offer we have been made for a rather specisl rifle comes to fruition...