I just noticed on my 1917 Enfield receiver that the scope mount holes are the front of the receiver are drilled as follows:

1. Rear hole - all the way through, you can see the bolt lug turn past the hole when closing the bolt. Nothing wrong with original bolt or the one I am using.

2. Front hole - measured depth - .24" I assume this is into the barrel threads?

It was like that when I purchased it.


Questions:

1. I am rebarreling first off

2. Do these holes affect the strength of the receiver or the bolt lockup or anything else? Should I proceed with the rebarrel or chunk it.


What's unfortunate is that I did not notice until after I fully opening up the rear of the receiver - filing back past the stripper clip slots and then cleaning up and polishing. But it was at least fun to do that!

Mine on 3 P14 actions are also the same. 6mm Musgrave, 303 Epps and 404 Jeff, and no problems have them since 1984 and shoot hot loads!

Not really going to hurt it. A lot are done like this. Not the preferred way but not really harmful either. If you want to chuck the action you can heave it my way. Earl.

Thanks - I didn't think it was an issue, but had heard from some folks it could be. Maybe the issue is if the are drilled behind the lug raceway, into the thicker cross section that the lug holds against, but then again the lug on the bolt completely passes the hole when closing.

This is good news because if I had to scrap this, I was going to do something really expensive.

To each his own, but when I D&T a military action, I like to do it with the barrel out, and go all the way through on all of them. I can then run the tap completely through and get max holding power. Bottoming taps really don't completely. After installing the barrel, I install the mount screws one at a time, using screws long enough to go through, both front and rear, and grind down each screw till it just fits on length. The result is max strength on one of the weakest points on a rifle.

Barrel off and drilled through is frequently done. Iirc the 30s that are tapped are done this way