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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (58346)	4/9/2008 9:10:50 PM
From: E. Charters	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78421

Parker Hale used the Pattern 14 and American made M1917 extensively for conversion. These rifles have the true Mauser action, which, unlike the German actions of the same name had the bolt set way back at the end barrel and bolt assembly. The Mauser of P14 or K98K pattern cocks on rotating the bolt, unlike the true Enfield which cocks upon pulling the bolt back. The Enfields had a rectangular tang at the end of the bolt which could cock the weapon. The P14 and M1917 had a smooth rod, which could be gripped only with difficulty by the thumb. (Often their safety was a tang which rotated above the bolt counterclockwise. Especially the Siamese Mauser was built this way.) The reason for the smooth bolt end is because the weapon was already cocked before the bolt was pulled back, so easing the bolt forward would have no effect on the position or lock of the firing pin anyway. Whereas it could not fire by spring action, the pin could still contact the primer. Both Enfield P14 and the Parker Hale conversions of the P14 and M1917 were of the pure Mauser action. The true Enfield, rifles I though V is of Mauser type in part, but is more properly called an Enfield action. In addition, the Enfield had wood right out to the end of the barrel, except in the Carbine versions. The P14 and M1917 of had about 6 inches of metal barrel showing. For this reason, some people think that their weapons are Parkerized when in fact they are original issue. The butt plate, and a brass plate on the cheek plate should indicate this. On the K98K, the German weapon, the bolt was slower to work, and far forward of the cheek plate. The P14 however with its crooked bolt handle, could be worked with one hand, by palm, without taking your eye off the target. So it was a very fast firing weapon. Perhaps 12 rounds a minute accurately. The true Enfields and the P14/M1917 had a free floating barrels and were very accurate. Not quite as accurate as the Ross, but superior to other weapons. As a matter of fact the Brazilian Enfields have match grade accuracy out to 400 yards. The tang and pull back to cock system of the Enfield was judged safer to use. As far as weapons go, the P14 had very low kick, and very hard hitting. In jungle carbine form it was superior to the M1 Carbine and far more accurate. Probably more 303 and 30-06 rounds fired hit and wounded enemy than any other rifle in history. The simple reason is that they were far more accurate, fast firing and less likely to cause flinch. If you work the bolt of an Enfield or K98K, you will find you have to use thumb and fingers and lower the butt of the weapon to work the bolt. It takes about 4 seconds at least. Not good. the P14 could recycle in about 1.5 seconds with eye on target. And the 303 jammed very, very rarely. The 303 has 2.22 times the muzzle energy of a 5.56 M16 bullet. While it has large cross section and will not penetrate body armour as well at short range, it will go though 3/8 of an inch of plate steel at 200 yards. Not so the .223 round. While it has been maligned by modern military theorists and it is true that the 223 is a very accurate round to 200 yards, the 303 is accurate to 1 mile and kills effectively at this distance. A person in a non armoured vehicle is in danger at this range. No soldiers who used the 303 every complained about its kick or its stopping power. What they did say often, was when you hit something it went down and tended to stay down. The rifles instilled confidence for their power, accuracy, ruggedness and high rate of fire. The only drawback was the rimmed cartridge, but in practice it was not such a bad thing. It was a morale building rifle and probably contributed in no small measure to the success of the troops who used it. If you talk to actual troops who used them, they all said the same thing. You could not hit the broad side of a barn door with a machine gun, Tommy or otherwise and you ran out of ammo and barrels in about 5 minutes. With special situations you needed high rates of fire, when surrounded by force, as in paratrooping etc.. (If you fire more than three rounds at time with an MG you are an idiot) then a MG 34 or MG 43 was the ticket. But after about 15 minutes if the battle lasted that long, everyone was using brass knuckles anyway. I finger that this an appropriate post as the market is all shot to hell anyway. EC<:-}