I have heard some folks complain about reliabilityproblems in A-Square Hannibal rifles, especially feeding problems. I have never experienced any trouble with mine in 577 Tyrannosaur caliber. A gunsmith also said that safety is marginal with these actions. Is there anyone out there who have an opinion on this subject or about the reliability of Ennfield P-17 actions ?
Thanks !

Hi Ulrik. Are you back from your hunt and how was it? When are you going to do the expansion test with Woodleigh 750 grain sp at 2720 f/s.?

I have always been curious about the use of a 1917 Enfield for the T-Rex. In fact I just asked BMG to send me some pictures of his bolt face. I suspect the action uses a P-14 bolt in order to have enough matal to control the cartridge feeding and ejection. The 1917 Enfield Bolts were nominally .695 and the T-Rex uses a .688 Rim so there can't be much metal left except in the EXTRACTOR hooks ( if I'm correct).
I have just finished building a 470 MBOGO on a 1917 Enfield using a P-14 bolt and it has worked out superbly. Feeding and extraction are perfect although it does take extreme attention to detail. The 1917 Enfield is not an easy action to work on and in fact would not be my first choice except when you need a really big action for a 505 Gibbs or T-Rex potentially. The advantage is that they are cheap( although it's harder to find a Winchester). The disadvantages are that they require so much work to make them reliable, the use of 10 TPI square threads and the depth of the extractor cut.
As for safety , I have not heard of any 1917 Enfields made on winchester actions failing or ever evidencing Bolt Lug setback which would be the first sign of emminent failure of the action. Opening one up for a cartridge like the T-Rex is extremely complicated to do and involves more than cursory experience with the Mill. However, if done properly there is a very little reason to worry about safety. The lower locking lug is extremely beefy and even when milled has lots more metal present than on a M98. M98's have been used for 585 NYATI's supposedly successfully, and the 1917 Enfield is a stronger action based solely on the size and location of the locking lugs IMHO. The A-square actions I have seen were crudely done and this may be the cause of your reliability problems. Hope this helps-Rob

I have not had any problems with my .577 T-Rex that was made by A-Square on their Hanibal action. I can fit three in the mag and one in the tube and have had no failure to feed or eject problems. It is a fine action/stock/firearm.

Rob, I'll try and get those photo's to you as soon as possible.

The only Hannibal problem I have ever heard of was a PH who supposedly had a jam on a leopard backup and got scratched as a result. Second hand story so I do not know how accurate it is.

Rob,

if you have a picture of one of these p-17 actions could you please post it as I have never seen one to date.

PC- I will post some pictures of my new 470 MBOGO built on a modified 1917 Enfield and born just last weekend. To be clear, their are two distinct Enfield actions. the 1917 was built for the rimmless 30-06 class cartridge and the P-14 was built for the rimmed 303 British cartridge. The bolts are quite different because of the cartridges they are designed to feed. One of the things I have learned however, is that the P-14 bolt has larger ejector hooks and when you convert one of these to a big bore, this provides much greater cartridge control than the original 1917 Enfield bolt. this is what I did to make the 470 MBOGO work in the Enfield action. By the way it works incredibly well!! I believe, but have not substantiated, that this is what A-Square did to get their Enfields to work with the T-Rex since there can't be any bolt rim left other than the extractor hooks due to the .688 rim requirement of the T-rex.. I need to see some pictures to confirm my analysis.-Rob

Are the Enfields control feed actions?

Hi Rob. Being an Enfield fan, I too would like to see your pictures. Thanks. - Dan

Harry McGowen did some work for Art Alphin on the A-Square rifles early on, barrels etc. Harry told me that Art was using P-14 bolts in the T.rex. In Harry's opinion, the rifles were opened up too much to be confidence inspiring. Harry's association with Art did not last long.

I picked up a dirt cheap A-Square rifle w/dies a few years ago. The rifle was chambered in Alphin's 338 ASquare round. It feeds very well, and never has jammed despite my best efforts to make it do so.

The receiver is marked "Remington Model of 1934" which I have read somewhere was a run of the P17/M30 style rifles that was sent to Central America.

This rifle shoots well, and when the barrel is gone may become a DGR.

Question for Robgunbuilder or others: will it be possible to turn this into a 416 Rigby w/o too much work? Thanks.

THe Enfields are all Control Round feed actions! Yes you can convert your 338 A square to a .416 Rigby but it will not be simple. There is simply an enormous amount of work involved. Way too much for a .416 rigby IMHO. I'd just but a complete CZ550 rifle in .416 Rigby for $600 and you will have saved yourself about $400 in the action work alone. The Enfield makes a great really big bore ( 505 Gibbs, T-Rex, Nyati etc. and given the amount of work involved, I'd only reccomend it for the cartridges where actions tnhat will work are really rare.
DaggaRon - I'm encouraged about your confirming the use of the P-14 bolt in the T-Rex. However, i don't agree with Harry ( who I know pretty well) that the action has to be opened up too much for safety. There are some neat tricks that you can do with an Enfield if you have the necessary machining skills that will let you open it up big time mostly to the rear.-Rob