Who made this one?

[Hecklerusp45]

Found a M1917 type rifle at local gun store. It is marked ERA. It is chambered in .303. Who made this one?

[joem]

Might be a P14. Pics??

[meterman]

Eddystone made that one.

[Hecklerusp45]

Might be a P14. Pics??

Sorry, was not able to get pics. It did have the volley sight and brit proof marks, so I thought it was brit made, but I guess we made it for the brits.

[dave]

I don't know if the Brits made any of them. They were never proof marked until released for surplus. Brit military was not subject to Brit proof law!

[Promo]

It IS an Eddystone made (so basically a Remington owned factory) Enfield Pattern 1914 rifle, no doubt.

[Tom in N.J.]

The 'ERA' P 14s were made at the Eddystone, PA plant of the Remington Arms of Delaware Company.

[kcw]

As part of the British proofing requirement at the time they were sold off as surplus, the P-14's were stamped NOT ENGLISH MAKE along the left side of the receiver. I have a Winchester which escaped the Weedon Repair that removed the volley sights. Has the original Winchester stamped stock and is RAF marked

[JB White]

I don't know if the Brits made any of them. They were never proof marked until released for surplus. Brit military was not subject to Brit proof law!

Vickers produced an initial batch in the UK (in 303) but wasn't set up to meet demands. Hence the contracted manufacture in the USA.

[kcw]

Vickers produced an initial batch in the UK (in 303) but wasn't set up to meet demands. Hence the contracted manufacture in the USA.

The P14 was simply adapted from the experimental P13 in cal. 276 which had been going though generally successful field trials when WWI broke out. It's likely that the P13, with it's modern high velocity round, would have replaced the Lee Enfield designed rifles, as was the plan, had the war not broken out. With the war on it, didn't make sense to ramp up for a new round but rather it seemed sensible to adapt the P13 platform to 303, and create the P14. That was accomplished quick enough but then there was no factory time available in Britain to produce the required tooling and then to make the guns in mass quantity. For those reasons production was successfully farmed out to U.S. companies, which turned out to be most fortuitous when the U.S. entered the war horribly short on rifles in April 1917. The U.S. War Dept. put out and emergency call for proposals for rifle designs. Along with other relatively minor modifications, the good folks at Remington slapped an 06' barrel on a P14. With the P14 contacts nearing completion it only made sense to modify the existing P14 equipment and quickly crank out M1917's.