Yesterday's Weapons Forums

From the G L & J P Herter book on professional loading and reloading.

1917 Enfield Rifles

Receiver and Bolt:
Made of nickel steel specificed in US Army Pamphlet no. 3098.
This steel could be made by the acid process, or the basic process, both were accepted.

Acid Process:
Carbon .30% to .40%
Manganese .50% to .70%
Nickel 3.00% to 3.75%
Phosphorus under .05%
Sulphur under .035%

Basic Process:
Carbon .35% to .45%
Manganese .50% to .70%
Nickel 3.25% to 3.75%
Silicon .10% to .20%
Phoshorus under .05%

Barrel Steel specified in US Army Pamphlet no.3098:
Carbon .45% to .55%
Manganese 1.10% to 1.35%
Silicon .20% to .30%
Phosphorus under .06%
Sulphur under .06%

IIRC from my reading on these , they were prised by the sporter crowd for their robust aspects , allowing for conversions to some of the wildcat cartriges being developed at the time , they were considered far better for these conversions than the M1903 type and the german mausers of the era ,

No doubt due to the high Nickel content of the steel.
I've read some amazing stuff about the strength and durability of high nickel steels.

The P-14 bolt face is generally a little tighter than you'd want for the belted magnum case heads but it's still much easier to open it up a hair for those cartridges than the Mauser or Springfield bolt face.

The Remington model 30 was a bit under rated in its day, and that fine rifle is basically an M1917 action without the rear sight ears.
The availability of cheap surplus M1917 rifles that could be easily modified to mimic the model 30 is probably one reason that rifle didn't sell better than it did.

There have been many fine sporters built on the M1917 and P-14 actions.
I wish I'd picked up one of the stripped actions advertised in Shotgun news years ago.
Some of those were P-14 receivers with M1917 bolts fitted so the rifles could be rebored or re barreled to 8mm Mauser.
Some actions were sans barrel while others still had a shot out or corroded 8mm barrel in place.

I guess they crack a few receivers while taking off the old barrels and figured they should leave that work up to the buyer.

Apparently the P-14 and M1917 barrels can be pretty hard to get off at times. Some recommend cutting the old barrel out of the receiver.