I‘ve never heard that the barrel would unscrew with left hand rifling, did the P-14 have left hand rifling?
The only unanswered question I have at this time is what to do about that aluminum buttplate. The Pacific buttplate was fitted much later with the other modifications and I dislike it. I will say whoever did the work did a good job and it fits nicely. I see two choices, one install a period Silvers pad or possibly have the buttplate anodized a dark blue-black. I know nothing about anodizing, anyone done this?
Michael, both the P14 and M1917 Enfields originally had left-hand twist rifling and this is the source of one of the problems with these rifles. In order to guard against the barrels unscrewing, the barrels were assembled to their receivers with two opposing chucks under power; this occasionally resulted in the receiver cracking if it was slightly too brittle. Eddystone rifles are supposedly more prone to this than those made at either of the other 2 locations. The quick-&-dirty check for this is the use of gasoline as a sort of dye penetrant, supposedly the gas will indicate the cracks but I have a lot more faith in MagnaFlux. The cracks typically occur along the front face of the receiver ring and are short or at least the ones I've seen were short and there were usually several of them.
Interesting side note: rifling throws the bullet off to the side at long ranges and the direction depends upon the direction of the twist. I had done some long-range shooting with my 1917 as a high-schooler but had never fired a 1903 at long range until I got to Trinidad; in my teenage ignorance my usual 1-foot horizontal allowance for the twist immediately turned into a 2-foot miss!
Anodizing will work perfectly as will some sorts of black chrome plating, but please choose your plater carefully. I have no suggestions, sorry.
Regards, Joe
