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  1. #1
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    Default P14 action strength

    Is a P14 action strong enough to be used in a 500 jeffery ?

    The 500 J was originally built on a mauser 98, and these days the VZ24 action is used as well.

    How does the P14 action strebgth compare to the mauser 98 and VZ24 ?;

  2. #2
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    Default Re: P14 action strength

    The P14 action is a Mauser type action, front locking lugs ect. I know a number of large bore rifles have been made on P14 actions. I do know that there is quite a bit of smithing required to get the P14 action worked down in size so may cost more than a military Mauser action.

    The Pre64 Winchester actions were all made on the tooling that made many, many P14 (and M1917) actions. So it’s plenty strong.

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    Default Re: P14 action strength

    Quote Originally Posted by CorditeCrazy View Post
    ...

    The Pre64 Winchester actions were all made on the tooling that made many, many P14 (and M1917) actions. So it’s plenty strong.

    To be fair, the strength of an action is not determined by the tooling used to build it, but rather the materials and design.

    But the P14 is generally regarded as one of the stronger standard lenth actions.

    It is when some parts of the action are cut away to make room for longer cartridges, that it gets weakened and problems may arise if the job is not done correctly.

    I would aks the gunsmith tasked with building the 500 if he has done this job before and how feasable it may be. Maybe ask a few others with 500 Jeff experience too.

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    Default Re: P14 action strength

    I know that Holland & Holland built a number of "working" rifles in .375H&H on P14 and/or P17 actions, typically issued to rangers working for the Game dept on various African countries so one can be confident that they are capable of handing that cartridge but as pointed out already the action isn't very elegant so they had to do a lot of machining to change it from the proverbial sow's ear to silk purse.


    I'm not sure about chambering in the 500J but I guess depending on factors including but not limited to pressure & bolt face diameter, one could do the calculations & work out whether the action could handle it.

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    Default Re: P14 action strength

    There has been a problem with P17 actions, 30-06, manufactured at the Remington Eddystone factory developing a cracked receivers. Apparently the barrels were over torqued when fitting. This was identified and corrected at some point. Shooters have used these to make custom rifles only to pick expensive problems later. It only affected P17's rebarred at Eddystone. These can be identified by serial numbers and date of manufacture. There is alot a lot of info on google.

    A few years ago a friend of mine had his P17 rebarreled to 300 H&H and we researched the whole issue. Actions can also be x-rayed to exclude this,

  6. #6

    Default Re: P14 action strength

    Plenty strong. A-Square built their Hannibal rifle on these including big bore and some high pressure cartridges, like the big Weatherby's. I believe they were magnafluxed and properly heat treated. The Eddystone's do the have reputation for being too hard, and the cracking.... It takes an awful lot of work to make a p14 'pretty'

  7. #7
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    Default Re: P14 action strength

    Quote Originally Posted by kayaker View Post
    Plenty strong. A-Square built their Hannibal rifle on these including big bore and some high pressure cartridges, like the big Weatherby's. I believe they were magnafluxed and properly heat treated. The Eddystone's do the have reputation for being too hard, and the cracking.... It takes an awful lot of work to make a p14 'pretty'
    Johan Greyling manufacture a tool that he set-up in a lathe that turn the back bridge part into a semi circle/bridge ..it really then looks like a Mauser action, you then have plenty space to drill and tap for a scope mount..give him a call..he just completed a lot of these P14 actions on a lathe for Classic Arms in Witbank..it really look very good when he completed the process....

  8. #8
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    Default Re: P14 action strength

    Quote Originally Posted by kayaker View Post
    Plenty strong. A-Square built their Hannibal rifle on these including big bore and some high pressure cartridges, like the big Weatherby's. I believe they were magnafluxed and properly heat treated. The Eddystone's do the have reputation for being too hard, and the cracking.... It takes an awful lot of work to make a p14 'pretty'
    That is the problem. And the action steel is not soft enough for normal tools. Carbide tipped tools are needed.

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