Imagine telling someone in the 20th century that a rifle in this condition would cost 500 dollars. I don’t think anyone up until ‘recently’ would have considered such weapons as more than scrap metal. (Especially shortsighted governments)
I'm 68 and I just see these as junk, I have some nice guns.Get a nice gun that you can see before you buy. I feel sick looking at that heap. I had to take another blood pressure pill.
My dads best friends gun shop my dad works at got DP rifles for 11.99 each or buy the whole crate of 10 for 9.99 each. I cant tell you how many crates of P-14 DP's they bought. They would strip them down, build magnum rifles out of the actions, toss all the parts and use the Cosmoline soaked stocks for firewood with the british crates in the winter in the wood burning stove in the shop. I remember the myth you couldn't reactivate P-14 DP's because they were dangerous and I think every small gun shop in the US proved that wrong! I kept a couple numbers matching what looked to be unfired P-14s for myself. Working with a guy on repairing the chamber.
@@bad74maverick1 I got a "Carribean drill rifle P14" from international\century arms 30 years ago. They were pretty rough on the outside but mint inside. Still have it, and a fine shooter. The action is over built and well suited for conversion.
As a dealer, I learned really quick to only buy grade A or Very-Good to New, grade rifles. The B, C grades, "shooter" grade & Fair to Poor, just weren't worth the money. Good condition is even a crap shoot, but often all you can get. Unfortunately, the days of cheap surplus are gone. So I understand the current desire to buy the lesser grades.
Yes there's plenty off them actually there are more garage A then junk out there most bye them for collecting so they sit in the closet for yrs your very smart
Ding ding ding we have a winner. The truth is that these guns were well used before they wound up in Ethiopia and then lived in a rough abrasive environment for years and probably never got cleaned and were then thrown in a warehouse for 30 or 30 years. I have no interest in wall hangers or shot out barrels and by the time you pay 1-200 for "hand select" your paying the same price for a pretty good gun from a show that hasn't been severely abused in the Ethiopian desert. Save your money and buy one from somewhere you can actually look at it first.
So I recently came into possesion of a 1916 Spanish Carbine. My buddy shot it and said it keyholed at 25 yards. He didn't have the funds to rebarrel it so he passed it on to me with a few rounds he handloaded. Did the muzzle test and it absolutely ate a round to the case neck. Broke down his reloads because he has a habit of underloading and i noticed he was using boat tail bullets. I had a box of FN Surplus 7MM Mauser lying around so I broke down a bullet and it was a flat base with the widest part of the projectile hidden under the case neck, similar to a 8MM Lebel as you stated in your RTI Lebel video. That video helped me realize he had a worn barrel, but still useable. The issue was he used the wrong projectiles and they were undersized for the bore. Shot a few FN rounds at the range and they left neat round holes. Have a perfectly servicable light carbine for hunting, only issue is I have to find specific projectiles for my handloading
My first rifle was an Eddystone P-14 I bought from Springfield Sporters in the early 1980’s for $89. It was in reasonably good condition with no missing parts. Placing a round down the muzzle like you did revealed about 1/8” of clearance to the case mouth. It had a dark bore with what appeared to be good rifling and no pitting. The crown was good too. My rifle shot horribly. My father, an excellent shot (Korean War US Marine) couldn’t hit the target consistently at 100 yards. It lived in my safe for years until one day I took it to the range. I placed a large piece of newsprint at 25 yards and took a few shots. All the hits went in sideways. Well, that answered that question. Eventually I got a new barrel from Criterion installed and now it’s one of my most accurate rifles. Don’t be surprised if yours shoots bad.
Jesus 1980s 89 was huge. That was like 3 days of pay right there. Imagine if you bought a MG or a polytech legends ak back then. You'd be a very rich man. Tec 9 mg especially was an amazing investment in hindsight. For reference the polytech legend is now worth 4-8k and initially costed maybe 250-350, making it a rare example of a gun able to compete with machine gun pricing increases
I’ve bought from HL and everything I got looked better than that! 😂 I got one Spanish Mauser with a broken stock, but it was fixed by their in-house gunsmith. Not pretty but definitely a functional fix. RTI doesn’t even fix their broken stuff before they ship it.
Oof, that is DIRTY. Between my son and I, we have purchased 5 rifles from RTI over the past year; and your P14 is the dirtiest yet. I feel for your upcoming cleaning process. I just yesterday, reassembled my M1917 from RTI, after a full teardown and cleaning. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and look forward to taking it to the range in a week or two.
That looks like a reasonable 200 dollar rifle. Track your hours restoring it. Add whatever your worth plus the price of the missing parts and see how it stacks up against that 750 doller secondary market gun when you're done!
When these first became available, years ago I bought both the P-17 and P-14 in good condition for $500. I just imagine what I could sell them for today if I still had them!
I to got both P14 & M17 at the same time but a good bit sooner $90 & $75. the M17 has big chinese wrighting branded into the left side of the stock, I always wondered what it said😊
If they get junk they can still make 3- 400 on the rifle while selling a rifle in good-excellent shape for 800-1500. Still have to factor in the shipping, import fees, taxes, and processing at RTI to sort the shipments. Still they are making a killing on some of these guns especially the lugers. Highly doubt the Ethiopians are saying we want top dollar for good shape loads when in reality they just pack pallet A and pallet B in a crate.
I have a PVC tube capped at one end that I fill with mineral spirits. It's used for projects like this. Remove all the wood and let this barreled action soak in that for a couple of hours before you start cleaning it. That will help get the initial layers of filth off. Wipe Out bore cleaner would be a good choice for attempting to clean that sewer pipe of a barrel. It's worked very well for me. Good luck on your project.
Nice, I did the same thing with PVC for cleaning cosmoline off barreled actions. I used to use mineral spirits in it but discovered hot water works even better, and I can just dump it down the drain when I am done. I got sick of capturing and filtering the mineral spirits each time, but it would work good for one that's really covered in grime and not just cosmo. I capped mine at both ends with a screw-on cap at one end so I can tilt the tube back and forth every now and then to help loosen chunks of cosmo. Wipe Out foaming bore cleaner is great stuff
@Toolness1 anything from RTI is gonna need every chemical you can throw at it lol. If he works on that bore enough with Wipe Out it will definitely improve. I've been very impressed with that stuff.
Wow, I thought the Ishapore 2A I bought back in 2006 was rough. It's a museum piece compared to that, and only like $250 at the time. The Golden Era of surplus is truly gone.
The golden age of surplus was the 1960s. Lugers were $30, Springfield '03s were $30, Enfield jungle carbines were $18, Browning FN .32cal pistols were $11 and on and on. You could mail order them with postal money orders and the mail man would deliver them. Most surplus ammo was $6 for 100 rounds. Those were the good old days. Sure wish that I had bought some. Good Luck, Rick
@@dawsonschmidt3714 The minimum wage was $1.50 per hour. A regular job like running a gas station was $2.50 per hour. A Union apprentice laborer was $5 per hour. Gas was $0.25 per gallon and cheap beer was $1 per six pack. I usually worked 80 hour weeks to have enough money for the things that I wanted and to save for college. Most Dads were working 40 to 60 hours per week. That allowed for a decent house and two cars. We lived comfortably. Once I started college, I only worked 80 hour weeks in the summer. Lots of good memories for me. Good Luck, Rick
I remember the Navy Arms, Century Arms, CDNN $149 M-1 Carbines $249 M-1 Garands, Blue Sky Imports, $250 for a reenacting "cap gun" was extremely reasonable, SKS $70! These P14 and P17 $225. And they were in nicer shape.
Pedantry aside, there was definitely a Golden Era of surplus in the post Cold War era when all the WaPa nations, then Russia, started dumping all their kit on the US. The one I really kick myself on was not picking up an SVT40 when they were like $300.
I remember going to gun shows and different surplus stores, Springfield Sporters, Kassnar imports, Navy Arms back in the 1980s and early 90s. The quality was much better and cheaper. Understandably, things are drying up, newer laws are against importing surplus arms, and so on. The quality is gonna get worse, and the prices are gonna get higher.
I live in South Africa, and guess what? When the British decided to once again challenge the Boere Republics, they had the long lee as their service rifle, along with the older lee metford. Due to this, long lees can be picked up for decent prices and aren't that rare. I bought a deactivated long lee 1902 that was shortened for cadet use in 1909 for R1500, that is around 80$. I know its not a ''long'' lee, but it still a very good price. It likely saw service close to the end of the second Anglo Boer war.
@@solinvictus39 I now realize that I have made a bad comparison. I did however forget to add that I have seen Long Lees sell on auction here for around $267.
In my experience with surplus firearms, damaged wood like this one is always the hardest to clean and restore. Many times I cleaned up the metal and just bought a nice stock separately. Not sure how hard these are to find because now the surplus market is so expensive. Best of luck. I’d like to see the end result of this.
*Overvalued - yes - bad rifle? No. That rifle is INTACT* Even if it is beat up from countless battles. Searching the history of a particular rifle, is part of the fun. And if it still shoots to the standards of THEN, well hell.... it can be a lot of fun owning a piece of history like that. I personally like a rifle that shows the genuine decades of getting the hell beat out of it by Soldiers. That rifle has probably been in all kinds of encounters, and very likely -- it has seen some battles too. The days of lying-ass old men making up myths about old firearms, is long gone as well. [I think of the "Irish Blondes" No 4 MK II's.] That was all total horseshit, to imaginarily increase the value of those rifles. Today - damn near anybody can walk into a firearms dealer, and run a simple YT search on exactly Make and Model they are looking at. There will be all kinds of videos and information about it.
Two points: 1: Of course it is an Enfield! I think the point he was trying to make that it wasn’t a Lee Enfield, which it isn’t as he is correct it uses the Mauser action, so if anything it would be a Mauser Enfield as Enfield in the name refers to the rifling. This naming convention started in this series with the Lee Metford. 2: What on earth does he mean by “stronger action”? For some weird reason it has always been assumed that the front locking Mauser action is stronger than the rear locking Lee action - if this was true, which it isn’t, where are all the pictures of Lee Enfield failures? There is only one and this was actually caused by the rifle being hit by a bullet going down the barrel. What every supporter of the Mauser action don’t like about the Lee Enfield is it is by far the quickest to cycle military bolt action rifle made in significant numbers - it has a shorter action, it’s rotation is less, it cocks on close, it has a larger magazine and the position of the bolt & trigger all allow for skilled riflemen to cycle quickly and fire.
I remember when something in this condition wouldn't even be considered. My God, i am thinking about all the P14s in pawn shops and gin shows that I passed up for around $200 that look like safe queens compared to this rifle. I enjoy your channrl my friend. I like the regular guy feel of it. Thank you
You do seem to get your fair share of project guns. That’s half the fun though brining them back. Pretty cool it has the original volley sights through. Looking forward to the follow up vid. 👍
I understand you need to create content, and I have been going to gun shows and collecting military since 1973 when I was still in High school. People need to stop buying this truly beat to hell milsurp from RTI. The condition of this item, the P-14, is a horror story worth not more than $150 in todays money, to me at least. I appreciate your love for miitary weapons, and I can look at these unboxing from you and other You Tubers as warnings to other collectors. The only weapons worth a damn from Royal Tiger were the M1 Carbines from 2 years ago. Maybe the Carcanos are OK,..but all their Mausers and Enfields seem to be crap unless you want to put in lots of work finding replacement parts.
The enfield part of the name refers to the rifling. Lee-enfields are a lee action with enfield rifling Lee-Metford is the same action on Metford rifling
Good Luck with your rifle.... jmo I would have gone for the 200 hundred bucks personally....I'm done with RTI.... Good luck finding the parts.... be well.
Have a suggestion for you....worked for a gunsmith as a kid been restoring gun ever since....the crack in the wood use Mccracken glue it flows deep into the wood...after it dries use 0000 steel wool with linseed oil and 30% turpentine mixed a rub down the wood use generously do several times to desired look and clear metal and or wood with ATF with 0000 steel wool will rid rust not finish....you will be amazed...good luck have used this method for years..with good great results. Shoe
it baffles me how in the US there is no proof bench for every single firearm imported. RTI sells dangerous guns that may blow up at the first fired round. if you would try to sell something like that in the EU you would go out of buisness and right into jail.
Having bought from RTI several times I’ve found it to be like playing the lottery, sometimes you get something fine and others you get something that’s rough. But few that I couldn’t make nice without the little bit of effort.
@@buckfizzard291 You might have dodged a bullet (pun intended). If the video represents a B-grade rifle from RTI, then imagine what C-grade is. I'll wait for an unboxing video before even spending $200.
Years ago late 80s I worked in Virginia they had these Enfield s for isale in a plastic barrel at Walmart for $55 and they all look like they were dragged behind a truck junk remember when these buyers get surplus rifles they sometimes pay by the pound not per rifle
US firearm manufacturers actually had to pay the gun maker Mauser a royalty on the P14l and P17 rifles since the design was deemed a direct patient infringement after WW1 by several countries patient courts.
As someone who grew up seeing barrels full of grab and go mid-grade surplus rifles for dirt cheap, this is almost sickening to see someone paying this much money for a trash grade surplus. Yea, the market dictates price, but goddamn.
Super interesting. Full disclosure, I'm from New Zealand and there isn't a gun culture per-se here like the U.S. Guns here are pretty much considered tools and not toys and there isn't an emotional attachment. That being said, the Lee Enfield was our weapon of choice in World War 1 and 2. War surplus rifles became the every-mans tool of choice for farmers and hunters. They were so ubiquitous that people used the term '303' instead of saying 'Rilfe'. I remember walking into a hunting shop when I was a kid and seeing a barrel of second-hand 303's (Lee Enfields) at 40 or 50 bucks a pop. To this day they are still common and the 303 round is probably the cheapest and most available ammo. I do however come from Christchurch and so there is a real disdain for such things here now, but like I said, guns are tools and not toys and if used correctly and treated with respect are a vital tool for Farmers and the tough as nails types that scratch out a living in the High Country.
Buying any old 303 British calibre rifle of the net should be treated same as getting a used car sight unseen thats been driven through many winters in the rust belt.The salt eats the barrel and the chassis just the same and the drivers/soldiers treat both them as beaters . Your just the last guy before the crusher
I got a p14 back in Febuary at a bass pro. I saw it online and drove the hour to get it. Also if you are ever on a road trip through Weat Virginia we have no tax on guns and ammo.
The p14 didn't suffer none commonality of parts like the p17, Winchester rushed the development to get the 30-06 version to the army while Remington/Eddystone took more time to guarantee commonality of parts.
First rifle I bought was a M-1917 in wonderful shape. I think I paid $500 for that, but that was years ago of course. I've never came across a P-14 for a fair price that wasn't in poor shape.
In the early 1990's I had an FFL and there were many surplus P-14 rifles on the market in mostly VG condition with nice bores. Looking at my records, I see that I sold at least six in 1991. I paid as little as $74.50 and as much as $92.00 for them with several costing me $85.00. I understand that surplus military firearms are scarce now and I don't want to rain on your parade so I'll keep my opinion of that rifle to myself.
After a refreshing stroll through 241 posts slagging you for spending your own money as you see fit, because they bought their rifles in perfect condition in a different market, I thought I offer something constructive. There is a Figure-8 fishhook Iraqi Jaish marking on the receiver. Your rifle went from USA to UK to Iraq to Ethiopia to USA in the span of 110-odd years.
I had tuned out of the milsurp market for awhile, wow. I would just give up on RTI. I had similar experiances with IMA. Just a few years ago i got a Canadian Enfield, imaculate at auction for $415
I've gotten my share of "fence posts" from RTI but the P14 I got is pretty decent. Has the volley sights, good wood and much of the bluing. Cool artwork carved in the stock as well
Years ago I bought one of these out of an advertisement in the Shotgun News. I should of known better when I read that it was counter bored. It was a REMINGTON and the wood was reasonably good with all kind of wood repairs that looked to have been made by the military. The bore was good but sure not great. You could hit a one hundred yard target but not always in the black. Unless the price is great it is always wise to see what you are getting prior to forking over money.
I'm a rare bird, but I prefer the "been there done that" look for milsurp guns. I would rather have a beat up one that saw service in the field rather than a brand new unissued firearm.
That's not a Mauser bolt. The Mauser bolt cocks the firing pin on opening and the P-14 bolt, which other than caliber is the same as a M-1917, cocks the firing pin on closing the bolt. The Mauser bolt has the safety at the rear of the bolt and Enfield has a safety on the right side of the receiver
Dennis from Empire had a pretty nice P14 at the Tulsa show for about 650 and I regret not grabbing it. I found it just before we left on Sunday and I had already bought 3 rifles so I was weary of spending more....looking back I should have grabbed it. It did have a cracked handguard but that would have been an easy fix.
Criterion barrels makes P-14 replacement barrels. You may need to get on a waiting list, but they are worth it… Your P14 escaped the Wheedon Repair Facility. I obtained one of these many years ago, and it similarly had the front and rear volley sights as well as the fat bellied stock. It shot keyholes at 25 yards. I actually had a barrel made by a company in Oregon called PAC-NOR. A trip to the gunsmith, some replacement parts and some costly hot-bluing, and I resurrected the rifle to be a tack driver. I caught the Pattern 14 bug, and resolved to restore both a Winchester and a Remington model as well. Then I discovered that Criterion Barrels was offering P-14 barrels (both in the white and Parkerized) and I leaped at the chance to get a few more barrels. I ran across another Winchester receiver that was DP’d and after finding a company that made repro scope mounts for the P14, I took the plunge and made a repro sniper with a Weaver K40B scope.
What happens to these rifles are they found buried in the ground most soldiers are taught to look after their rifles , where do they find them it’s beyond me .
They did not have a "sell", they had a sale.. Please understand the difference. So many times I see people saying and posting that they have something for sell.....no, it's for sale, not for sell. How on earth do you get the two confused?
Hell, my Remington P-14 is damn near mint with and excellent bore and missing nothing(Owned it since 1991) though was never fixed with volley sights. I've decided to sell it since I've not seen any .303 ammo the past 3 years. I've taken it to a couple gun shows locally and only the dealers were interested and best offer was $300, some were as low as $225. Yet all the P-14s and 17s I saw STARTED at $600 and up.
So I get that these have been held in storage for a long time; but did they store these in a mud pit?! Why are these always so dirty? To think I thought cosmoline was rough to get out.
I tried to buy an Enfield a few years ago, but couldn't figure out how to send my FFL or even begin the purchase. I emailed them and they never responded. That was like 2019-2020.
I bought a sporterized P-14 converted to 7mm magnum 30 years ago. It was the worst piece of crap that I've ever owned. Fire it one time and you couldn't eject the shell casing. You'd have to beat the bolt hammer with a hammer or against a tree to get the bolt to extract a round. I traded it for a 12 guage Remington 870 years ago. Don't buy one their nothing but a nightmare.
Imagine telling someone in the 20th century that a rifle in this condition would cost 500 dollars. I don’t think anyone up until ‘recently’ would have considered such weapons as more than scrap metal. (Especially shortsighted governments)
I'm 68 and I just see these as junk, I have some nice guns.Get a nice gun that you can see before you buy. I feel sick looking at that heap. I had to take another blood pressure pill.
sucker bait....
That thing is a pos
RTI REALLY needs to adjust their pricing. Drop everything down at LEAST 20% and then it would be worth looking at
Agree 💯
I have never bought anything from RTI
Not sure they'd make any momey that way
Then how would they make money selling people garbage rods?
More like 30%
A gun like that used to be a Century "U-Fix-Em" $15 special. No joke.
My dads best friends gun shop my dad works at got DP rifles for 11.99 each or buy the whole crate of 10 for 9.99 each. I cant tell you how many crates of P-14 DP's they bought. They would strip them down, build magnum rifles out of the actions, toss all the parts and use the Cosmoline soaked stocks for firewood with the british crates in the winter in the wood burning stove in the shop. I remember the myth you couldn't reactivate P-14 DP's because they were dangerous and I think every small gun shop in the US proved that wrong! I kept a couple numbers matching what looked to be unfired P-14s for myself. Working with a guy on repairing the chamber.
@@bad74maverick1 And here I am years later trying to track down an original British stock set to throw on my P14….
@@bad74maverick1 I got a "Carribean drill rifle P14" from international\century arms 30 years ago. They were pretty rough on the outside but mint inside. Still have it, and a fine shooter. The action is over built and well suited for conversion.
@@icky_mack I watched dad and paul make many magnum rifles out of DP rifles. My favorites were 458 win mag and 460 A square
@@icky_mack you can find DP rifles and stocks that are decent still and at a decent price. Just takes some looking and some careful time.
As a dealer, I learned really quick to only buy grade A or Very-Good to New, grade rifles. The B, C grades, "shooter" grade & Fair to Poor, just weren't worth the money. Good condition is even a crap shoot, but often all you can get.
Unfortunately, the days of cheap surplus are gone. So I understand the current desire to buy the lesser grades.
Yes there's plenty off them actually there are more garage A then junk out there most bye them for collecting so they sit in the closet for yrs your very smart
Ding ding ding we have a winner. The truth is that these guns were well used before they wound up in Ethiopia and then lived in a rough abrasive environment for years and probably never got cleaned and were then thrown in a warehouse for 30 or 30 years. I have no interest in wall hangers or shot out barrels and by the time you pay 1-200 for "hand select" your paying the same price for a pretty good gun from a show that hasn't been severely abused in the Ethiopian desert. Save your money and buy one from somewhere you can actually look at it first.
@@jackbarnes9728Amen brother
So I recently came into possesion of a 1916 Spanish Carbine. My buddy shot it and said it keyholed at 25 yards. He didn't have the funds to rebarrel it so he passed it on to me with a few rounds he handloaded. Did the muzzle test and it absolutely ate a round to the case neck. Broke down his reloads because he has a habit of underloading and i noticed he was using boat tail bullets. I had a box of FN Surplus 7MM Mauser lying around so I broke down a bullet and it was a flat base with the widest part of the projectile hidden under the case neck, similar to a 8MM Lebel as you stated in your RTI Lebel video. That video helped me realize he had a worn barrel, but still useable. The issue was he used the wrong projectiles and they were undersized for the bore. Shot a few FN rounds at the range and they left neat round holes. Have a perfectly servicable light carbine for hunting, only issue is I have to find specific projectiles for my handloading
My first rifle was an Eddystone P-14 I bought from Springfield Sporters in the early 1980’s for $89. It was in reasonably good condition with no missing parts. Placing a round down the muzzle like you did revealed about 1/8” of clearance to the case mouth. It had a dark bore with what appeared to be good rifling and no pitting. The crown was good too. My rifle shot horribly. My father, an excellent shot (Korean War US Marine) couldn’t hit the target consistently at 100 yards. It lived in my safe for years until one day I took it to the range. I placed a large piece of newsprint at 25 yards and took a few shots. All the hits went in sideways. Well, that answered that question. Eventually I got a new barrel from Criterion installed and now it’s one of my most accurate rifles.
Don’t be surprised if yours shoots bad.
Jesus 1980s 89 was huge. That was like 3 days of pay right there.
Imagine if you bought a MG or a polytech legends ak back then. You'd be a very rich man. Tec 9 mg especially was an amazing investment in hindsight.
For reference the polytech legend is now worth 4-8k and initially costed maybe 250-350, making it a rare example of a gun able to compete with machine gun pricing increases
It'd be a pass for me. They could move em at 299. That ther is Hunter's Lodge-ish...
I’ve bought from HL and everything I got looked better than that! 😂
I got one Spanish Mauser with a broken stock, but it was fixed by their in-house gunsmith. Not pretty but definitely a functional fix. RTI doesn’t even fix their broken stuff before they ship it.
Oof, that is DIRTY. Between my son and I, we have purchased 5 rifles from RTI over the past year; and your P14 is the dirtiest yet. I feel for your upcoming cleaning process.
I just yesterday, reassembled my M1917 from RTI, after a full teardown and cleaning. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and look forward to taking it to the range in a week or two.
That looks like a reasonable 200 dollar rifle. Track your hours restoring it. Add whatever your worth plus the price of the missing parts and see how it stacks up against that 750 doller secondary market gun when you're done!
Lol 500 for his shit rifle and another 500 to get new parts for it
When these first became available, years ago I bought both the P-17 and P-14 in good condition for $500. I just imagine what I could sell them for today if I still had them!
I to got both P14 & M17 at the same time but a good bit sooner $90 & $75. the M17 has big chinese wrighting branded into the left side of the stock, I always wondered what it said😊
Sad part is Royal Tigers doesn't have $75 in that piece of crap
If they get junk they can still make 3- 400 on the rifle while selling a rifle in good-excellent shape for 800-1500. Still have to factor in the shipping, import fees, taxes, and processing at RTI to sort the shipments. Still they are making a killing on some of these guns especially the lugers. Highly doubt the Ethiopians are saying we want top dollar for good shape loads when in reality they just pack pallet A and pallet B in a crate.
I have a PVC tube capped at one end that I fill with mineral spirits. It's used for projects like this. Remove all the wood and let this barreled action soak in that for a couple of hours before you start cleaning it. That will help get the initial layers of filth off. Wipe Out bore cleaner would be a good choice for attempting to clean that sewer pipe of a barrel. It's worked very well for me. Good luck on your project.
something like that i d let soak in zep tolite bowl acid for several days
Nice, I did the same thing with PVC for cleaning cosmoline off barreled actions. I used to use mineral spirits in it but discovered hot water works even better, and I can just dump it down the drain when I am done. I got sick of capturing and filtering the mineral spirits each time, but it would work good for one that's really covered in grime and not just cosmo.
I capped mine at both ends with a screw-on cap at one end so I can tilt the tube back and forth every now and then to help loosen chunks of cosmo.
Wipe Out foaming bore cleaner is great stuff
@@rickreeve1246 Wouldn't that eat away all the remaining bluing?
@Toolness1 anything from RTI is gonna need every chemical you can throw at it lol. If he works on that bore enough with Wipe Out it will definitely improve. I've been very impressed with that stuff.
Wow, I thought the Ishapore 2A I bought back in 2006 was rough. It's a museum piece compared to that, and only like $250 at the time.
The Golden Era of surplus is truly gone.
The golden age of surplus was the 1960s. Lugers were $30, Springfield '03s were $30, Enfield jungle carbines were $18, Browning FN .32cal pistols were $11 and on and on. You could mail order them with postal money orders and the mail man would deliver them. Most surplus ammo was $6 for 100 rounds. Those were the good old days. Sure wish that I had bought some. Good Luck, Rick
What was an average weekly paycheck in the 60's?
@@dawsonschmidt3714 The minimum wage was $1.50 per hour. A regular job like running a gas station was $2.50 per hour. A Union apprentice laborer was $5 per hour. Gas was $0.25 per gallon and cheap beer was $1 per six pack. I usually worked 80 hour weeks to have enough money for the things that I wanted and to save for college. Most Dads were working 40 to 60 hours per week. That allowed for a decent house and two cars. We lived comfortably. Once I started college, I only worked 80 hour weeks in the summer. Lots of good memories for me. Good Luck, Rick
I remember the Navy Arms, Century Arms, CDNN $149 M-1 Carbines $249 M-1 Garands, Blue Sky Imports, $250 for a reenacting "cap gun" was extremely reasonable, SKS $70! These P14 and P17 $225. And they were in nicer shape.
Pedantry aside, there was definitely a Golden Era of surplus in the post Cold War era when all the WaPa nations, then Russia, started dumping all their kit on the US. The one I really kick myself on was not picking up an SVT40 when they were like $300.
I remember going to gun shows and different surplus stores, Springfield Sporters, Kassnar imports, Navy Arms back in the 1980s and early 90s. The quality was much better and cheaper. Understandably, things are drying up, newer laws are against importing surplus arms, and so on. The quality is gonna get worse, and the prices are gonna get higher.
I live in South Africa, and guess what? When the British decided to once again challenge the Boere Republics, they had the long lee as their service rifle, along with the older lee metford. Due to this, long lees can be picked up for decent prices and aren't that rare. I bought a deactivated long lee 1902 that was shortened for cadet use in 1909 for R1500, that is around 80$. I know its not a ''long'' lee, but it still a very good price. It likely saw service close to the end of the second Anglo Boer war.
To once again challenge lol u mean to defeat them
But its "deactivated". An impotent, wall hanger. I wouldn't pay much for a non-shooter.
@@solinvictus39 I now realize that I have made a bad comparison. I did however forget to add that I have seen Long Lees sell on auction here for around $267.
@@josuawilkins6744DAH OOOOOGANDAH PEEPAHL!!! AFRAHK0N KOHNEE LEEDAH! YES KOHNEE LEEDAH!!! ADRAHK0N PEEPAHL OF DAH OOOOGANDA TRIEB WARDEEEAH!!! EEEEEEEBBBBOOOOOOLLLLLAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! OOO-KLANG-KLANG-PEEPAHL!!!
@@MrTangolizardthe boers Lost South Africa long ago 😂
I bought an antique rifle from RTI. It was a $500 worthless wreck. I'll NEVER buy a gun unseen ever again.
In my experience with surplus firearms, damaged wood like this one is always the hardest to clean and restore. Many times I cleaned up the metal and just bought a nice stock separately. Not sure how hard these are to find because now the surplus market is so expensive. Best of luck. I’d like to see the end result of this.
*Overvalued - yes - bad rifle? No. That rifle is INTACT* Even if it is beat up from countless battles. Searching the history of a particular rifle, is part of the fun. And if it still shoots to the standards of THEN, well hell.... it can be a lot of fun owning a piece of history like that.
I personally like a rifle that shows the genuine decades of getting the hell beat out of it by Soldiers. That rifle has probably been in all kinds of encounters, and very likely -- it has seen some battles too.
The days of lying-ass old men making up myths about old firearms, is long gone as well. [I think of the "Irish Blondes" No 4 MK II's.] That was all total horseshit, to imaginarily increase the value of those rifles. Today - damn near anybody can walk into a firearms dealer, and run a simple YT search on exactly Make and Model they are looking at. There will be all kinds of videos and information about it.
The fact that ANY surplus firearms are imported at all is amazing.
More like Royal Tired Imports. That gun looks like it’s been rode hard and put away wet. Good luck with rehabbing it.
Two points:
1: Of course it is an Enfield! I think the point he was trying to make that it wasn’t a Lee Enfield, which it isn’t as he is correct it uses the Mauser action, so if anything it would be a Mauser Enfield as Enfield in the name refers to the rifling. This naming convention started in this series with the Lee Metford.
2: What on earth does he mean by “stronger action”? For some weird reason it has always been assumed that the front locking Mauser action is stronger than the rear locking Lee action - if this was true, which it isn’t, where are all the pictures of Lee Enfield failures? There is only one and this was actually caused by the rifle being hit by a bullet going down the barrel. What every supporter of the Mauser action don’t like about the Lee Enfield is it is by far the quickest to cycle military bolt action rifle made in significant numbers - it has a shorter action, it’s rotation is less, it cocks on close, it has a larger magazine and the position of the bolt & trigger all allow for skilled riflemen to cycle quickly and fire.
I remember when something in this condition wouldn't even be considered. My God, i am thinking about all the P14s in pawn shops and gin shows that I passed up for around $200 that look like safe queens compared to this rifle. I enjoy your channrl my friend. I like the regular guy feel of it. Thank you
If I saw that at a show, I would just walk on by.
Like Mrs. Paul says "Throw it back"!
You do seem to get your fair share of project guns. That’s half the fun though brining them back. Pretty cool it has the original volley sights through. Looking forward to the follow up vid. 👍
Depends how much und under the woodline. I'd spend the $750 on another. Nice project though.
I understand you need to create content, and I have been going to gun shows and collecting military since 1973 when I was still in High school. People need to stop buying this truly beat to hell milsurp from RTI. The condition of this item, the P-14, is a horror story worth not more than $150 in todays money, to me at least. I appreciate your love for miitary weapons, and I can look at these unboxing from you and other You Tubers as warnings to other collectors. The only weapons worth a damn from Royal Tiger were the M1 Carbines from 2 years ago. Maybe the Carcanos are OK,..but all their Mausers and Enfields seem to be crap unless you want to put in lots of work finding replacement parts.
Yeah, I am hoping they bring back the m1 carbines to the same prices as before. I missed out a lot on it and regret completely.
The enfield part of the name refers to the rifling. Lee-enfields are a lee action with enfield rifling Lee-Metford is the same action on Metford rifling
Good Luck with your rifle.... jmo I would have gone for the 200 hundred bucks personally....I'm done with RTI.... Good luck finding the parts.... be well.
Have a suggestion for you....worked for a gunsmith as a kid been restoring gun ever since....the crack in the wood use Mccracken glue it flows deep into the wood...after it dries use 0000 steel wool with linseed oil and 30% turpentine mixed a rub down the wood use generously do several times to desired look and clear metal and or wood with ATF with 0000 steel wool will rid rust not finish....you will be amazed...good luck have used this method for years..with good great results. Shoe
it baffles me how in the US there is no proof bench for every single firearm imported. RTI sells dangerous guns that may blow up at the first fired round. if you would try to sell something like that in the EU you would go out of buisness and right into jail.
I feel like for that much(maybe a bit more) you could have bought one on proxibid if you were patient and lucky.
How do like proxibid?
Nice review. I’m glad you can work with a damaged riffle. Blessings 🙏🏼👍🏼
I'd love to clean that up and I'm sure it will be nice when done
Just ordered a c grade no1 mk3 from them yesterday so fingers crossed lol
Absolutely the worst people I’ve ever dealt with in my entire adult life @ RTI.
I have learned over the years...Buy the best item you can. Don't buy junk, you end up with junk and parts that will never be used.
Alright let's see the tear down and cleaning on this bad boy
Hey, you got the unicorn part that I've been looking many years for the auxiliary front sight.
I was sorely tempted to get one of those from rti. Ended up getting a beautiful eddystone example privately for about the same spend
Having bought from RTI several times I’ve found it to be like playing the lottery, sometimes you get something fine and others you get something that’s rough. But few that I couldn’t make nice without the little bit of effort.
Definitely NOT "B" Grade. Sorry for your luck but thank you for the video! Best of luck next time
RTI now has C grade No 1 Mk III rifles for $200.
Thanks and now they gone
@@buckfizzard291 You might have dodged a bullet (pun intended). If the video represents a B-grade rifle from RTI, then imagine what C-grade is. I'll wait for an unboxing video before even spending $200.
I recently bought a Winchester M 1917 that has been modernized with a different stock and unfortunately they tapped it for a scope. Wonderful rifle
Years ago late 80s I worked in Virginia they had these Enfield s for isale in a plastic barrel at Walmart for $55 and they all look like they were dragged behind a truck junk remember when these buyers get surplus rifles they sometimes pay by the pound not per rifle
Hi from South Africa, i recently bought a P14 for $200, it has a brand new Musgrave barrel and Parker Hale Bisley sights, it shoots perfectly.cheers
At least its all there, should clean up pretty good. My local smith has done a few rifles of mine that were in similar shape, turned out pretty good.
US firearm manufacturers actually had to pay the gun maker Mauser a royalty on the P14l and P17 rifles since the design was deemed a direct patient infringement after WW1 by several countries patient courts.
B grade = cmp rack grade
A grade = cmp rack grade
C grade = missing components
D grade = receivers with some pieces of wood remaining.
RTI is selling a mismatched VOPO Luger for $2400. I bought my mismatched VOPO Luger with MINT BORE from AIM for $400. Of course that was 20 years ago.
I got a p17 20 yrs ago paid 300 almost mint condition made in 1918
Wow, it looks like they used that rifle to beat on trees. I'd be reluctant to part with even half the price if I knew that would be the result.
That baby went though some rough hand to hand combat ... Lol
Are you going to make a follow up shooting video for the walther p38
Looking forward to seeing how the rifle looks after you have worked your magic on it. Keep up the great work with the videos. 👍👍👍
$500 for that condition? Ouch!
As someone who grew up seeing barrels full of grab and go mid-grade surplus rifles for dirt cheap, this is almost sickening to see someone paying this much money for a trash grade surplus. Yea, the market dictates price, but goddamn.
Super interesting. Full disclosure, I'm from New Zealand and there isn't a gun culture per-se here like the U.S. Guns here are pretty much considered tools and not toys and there isn't an emotional attachment. That being said, the Lee Enfield was our weapon of choice in World War 1 and 2. War surplus rifles became the every-mans tool of choice for farmers and hunters. They were so ubiquitous that people used the term '303' instead of saying 'Rilfe'. I remember walking into a hunting shop when I was a kid and seeing a barrel of second-hand 303's (Lee Enfields) at 40 or 50 bucks a pop. To this day they are still common and the 303 round is probably the cheapest and most available ammo. I do however come from Christchurch and so there is a real disdain for such things here now, but like I said, guns are tools and not toys and if used correctly and treated with respect are a vital tool for Farmers and the tough as nails types that scratch out a living in the High Country.
LOL. Most of what RTI sells is junk. The days of sellers like Springfield Sporters is long over.
The best things to come out of RTI was the surplus M2 Ball in spam cans. Besides that, they’re overpriced and peddling crap.
Buying any old 303 British calibre rifle of the net should be treated same as getting a used car sight unseen thats been driven through many winters in the rust belt.The salt eats the barrel and the chassis just the same and the drivers/soldiers treat both them as beaters . Your just the last guy before the crusher
I remember when these things were available in much better condition and most guys I knew wouldnt touch them. I wouldnt pay 300 for this example.
I got a p14 back in Febuary at a bass pro. I saw it online and drove the hour to get it. Also if you are ever on a road trip through Weat Virginia we have no tax on guns and ammo.
The p14 didn't suffer none commonality of parts like the p17, Winchester rushed the development to get the 30-06 version to the army while Remington/Eddystone took more time to guarantee commonality of parts.
Looking forward to seeing your video on fixing/cleaning up the rifle!
First rifle I bought was a M-1917 in wonderful shape. I think I paid $500 for that, but that was years ago of course. I've never came across a P-14 for a fair price that wasn't in poor shape.
Cabela's with probably give you $20 for that gun
The bolt is serial numbered on the bottom side of the bolt handle. If you're lucky, it will match the receiver and barrel serial numbers.
Well worth it. RTI is amazing
I bought an Eddiestone in 30-06 For $1000. Much best rifle I’ve ever had.
You can find the volley sight parts from ds solutions militaria in the uk.
$500.00 is a rip off!
In the early 1990's I had an FFL and there were many surplus P-14 rifles on the market in mostly VG condition with nice bores. Looking at my records, I see that I sold at least six in 1991. I paid as little as $74.50 and as much as $92.00 for them with several costing me $85.00. I understand that surplus military firearms are scarce now and I don't want to rain on your parade so I'll keep my opinion of that rifle to myself.
Are you going to do vid on repair of the stock? Fair buy.
I can smell that rifle from here.
After a refreshing stroll through 241 posts slagging you for spending your own money as you see fit, because they bought their rifles in perfect condition in a different market, I thought I offer something constructive. There is a Figure-8 fishhook Iraqi Jaish marking on the receiver. Your rifle went from USA to UK to Iraq to Ethiopia to USA in the span of 110-odd years.
Wow..... looks like you've been ripped big time!
I had tuned out of the milsurp market for awhile, wow. I would just give up on RTI. I had similar experiances with IMA. Just a few years ago i got a Canadian Enfield, imaculate at auction for $415
I've gotten my share of "fence posts" from RTI but the P14 I got is pretty decent. Has the volley sights, good wood and much of the bluing. Cool artwork carved in the stock as well
Years ago I bought one of these out of an advertisement in the Shotgun News. I should of known better when I read that it was counter bored. It was a REMINGTON and the wood was reasonably good with all kind of wood repairs that looked to have been made by the military. The bore was good but sure not great. You could hit a one hundred yard target but not always in the black. Unless the price is great it is always wise to see what you are getting prior to forking over money.
Love to see the before and after restoration video.P14s can be sweet shooters. From South Africa.
I bought one gun from RTI, and I wish I could get a refund... and that thing was a professional James River refurb...
I'm a rare bird, but I prefer the "been there done that" look for milsurp guns. I would rather have a beat up one that saw service in the field rather than a brand new unissued firearm.
That's not a Mauser bolt. The Mauser bolt cocks the firing pin on opening and the P-14 bolt, which other than caliber is the same as a M-1917, cocks the firing pin on closing the bolt. The Mauser bolt has the safety at the rear of the bolt and Enfield has a safety on the right side of the receiver
Clean it up and it will shoot just fine. Volley sights are cool
I think with a good cleaning, tape over any surviving arsenal marks and lots of steam you will have a better view of any cracks/ damage. Best of luck.
If it doesn’t shoot well you could always see if Douglas barrels can make one. I know they make M1917 barrels.
Dennis from Empire had a pretty nice P14 at the Tulsa show for about 650 and I regret not grabbing it. I found it just before we left on Sunday and I had already bought 3 rifles so I was weary of spending more....looking back I should have grabbed it. It did have a cracked handguard but that would have been an easy fix.
Criterion barrels makes P-14 replacement barrels. You may need to get on a waiting list, but they are worth it…
Your P14 escaped the Wheedon Repair Facility. I obtained one of these many years ago, and it similarly had the front and rear volley sights as well as the fat bellied stock. It shot keyholes at 25 yards. I actually had a barrel made by a company in Oregon called PAC-NOR. A trip to the gunsmith, some replacement parts and some costly hot-bluing, and I resurrected the rifle to be a tack driver.
I caught the Pattern 14 bug, and resolved to restore both a Winchester and a Remington model as well. Then I discovered that Criterion Barrels was offering P-14 barrels (both in the white and Parkerized) and I leaped at the chance to get a few more barrels. I ran across another Winchester receiver that was DP’d and after finding a company that made repro scope mounts for the P14, I took the plunge and made a repro sniper with a Weaver K40B scope.
Nowadays, everybody has a smartphone with decent to excellent photo capability. Always ask for pictures before buying a gun. No excuses.
I found out long ago to get hand select option if possable. I've ordered 2 of the same mod one in hand select one not. There was a big difference. 😊
Nice! I can't wait to see how that cleans up.
What happens to these rifles are they found buried in the ground most soldiers are taught to look after their rifles , where do they find them it’s beyond me .
They did not have a "sell", they had a sale.. Please understand the difference. So many times I see people saying and posting that they have something for sell.....no, it's for sale, not for sell. How on earth do you get the two confused?
Hell, my Remington P-14 is damn near mint with and excellent bore and missing nothing(Owned it since 1991) though was never fixed with volley sights. I've decided to sell it since I've not seen any .303 ammo the past 3 years. I've taken it to a couple gun shows locally and only the dealers were interested and best offer was $300, some were as low as $225. Yet all the P-14s and 17s I saw STARTED at $600 and up.
So I get that these have been held in storage for a long time; but did they store these in a mud pit?! Why are these always so dirty? To think I thought cosmoline was rough to get out.
Couple hundred more will get you a good shooter off gunbroker. RTI is bending people over and they keep going back. 😂😂😂
My brother has an Eddie Brock M1917 with all matching parts
I tried to buy an Enfield a few years ago, but couldn't figure out how to send my FFL or even begin the purchase. I emailed them and they never responded. That was like 2019-2020.
enjoyed your videos, keep up the good collection 😊
I bought a sporterized P-14 converted to 7mm magnum 30 years ago. It was the worst piece of crap that I've ever owned. Fire it one time and you couldn't eject the shell casing. You'd have to beat the bolt hammer with a hammer or against a tree to get the bolt to extract a round. I traded it for a 12 guage Remington 870 years ago. Don't buy one their nothing but a nightmare.
That's a $200 wall hanger.