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There were Springfield action rifles supplied to the British by the USA in WW1 chambered for the .303 cartridge so theoretically it is possible.

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This now leads us to the strange saga of the Rifle-Which-Nearly-Was-But-Wasn’t and Nearly-Wasn’t-But-Was, generally known as the P-14.

The reasoning behind my somewhat excruciating hyphenated conundrum will become clear once we examine the history behind that odd rifle, the P-14. No sooner was the hapless No.1 Mark 3 adopted than there were plans afoot to replace it. Experimentation led to the adoption on a trial basis of the P-13 in 1913, and this was a different rifle indeed (although, confusingly, it is generally referred to as the “Enfield” rifle). It was far more Mauser like, having double front locking lugs on the bolt and the Mauser non-rotating claw extractor. It also had the Mauser integral five round staggered magazine. A very good peep sight was fitted, which was ahead of its time, but protected by rather cumbersome “ears” machined into the receiver bridge. The calibre was also different, being a .276" (7mm) rimless round similar to the .280 Ross. Although it had its points, the whole rifle strikes me as being a Bisley target shooter’s idea of what an infantry rifle should be. Nonetheless, British Ordnance were impressed with it (who cares what a bunch of dumb old troops think, anyhow??), and testing proceeded with a view to adopting it.

Unfortunately, these tests were beset with problems. Great difficulty was experienced, not so much with the rifle but with the ammunition. The new 7mm round produced excessive blast and flash, overheated the barrel and quickly eroded and fouled the bore. Much head scratching was done, but before any solutions could be obtained World War 1 intervened. It was wisely decided to shelve all development work on this troublesome new ammunition and to stick with the .303 round, for the time being at least. As such, a few minor modifications were made to change the new rifle to .303 calibre, and it now became the Pattern 1914 (or P-14) rifle.

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Ironically enough, when the Americans entered the war in 1917 they, too, faced a critical shortage of U.S. Army Springfield rifles. The Springfield was similarly difficult to mass produce, but guess what? There was all this machinery and tooling already set up to produce P-14’s for the British, the contracts for which were now fulfilled. It was but the work of a moment to do the few design changes necessary for it to be changed from the British .303 to the American .30-06 calibre, and hey presto - the Americans now adopted the self same rifle in .30-06 calibre as the P-17 to offset the shortage of Springfields. Again, the P-17 was never intended to replace the Springfield, but it turned out that there were more P-17’s used by front line American troops than there were Springfields. Thus it was that a rifle which looked set to replace the Lee, which was then abandoned in the light of combat experience, came to at least partially equip two of the major armies of the conflict.

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Springfield action .303's. With those funny "ears" on top of the action at the back, which are often milled off on custom rifles.

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I think that's the Enfield rifle.


British Enfield .303 caliber P14 rifle, made in USA by Winchester.


US .30 caliber (.30-06) M1917 rifle.

The Enfield Pattern 1914 was in .303 British and made for the British Government by several U.S. companies. The Enfield M-1917 (Pattern 1917) was in .30-06 and made for the United States government (to help alleviate the shortage of Springfield Model 1903 rifles).



Well, we're getting a little off topic but this is interesting in itself.

-Bob F.

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From the African Hunter website:

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This now leads us to the strange saga of the Rifle-Which-Nearly-Was-But-Wasn’t and Nearly-Wasn’t-But-Was, generally known as the P-14.

The reasoning behind my somewhat excruciating hyphenated conundrum will become clear once we examine the history behind that odd rifle, the P-14. No sooner was the hapless No.1 Mark 3 adopted than there were plans afoot to replace it. Experimentation led to the adoption on a trial basis of the P-13 in 1913, and this was a different rifle indeed (although, confusingly, it is generally referred to as the “Enfield” rifle). It was far more Mauser like, having double front locking lugs on the bolt and the Mauser non-rotating claw extractor. It also had the Mauser integral five round staggered magazine. A very good peep sight was fitted, which was ahead of its time, but protected by rather cumbersome “ears” machined into the receiver bridge. The calibre was also different, being a .276" (7mm) rimless round similar to the .280 Ross. Although it had its points, the whole rifle strikes me as being a Bisley target shooter’s idea of what an infantry rifle should be. Nonetheless, British Ordnance were impressed with it (who cares what a bunch of dumb old troops think, anyhow??), and testing proceeded with a view to adopting it.

Unfortunately, these tests were beset with problems. Great difficulty was experienced, not so much with the rifle but with the ammunition. The new 7mm round produced excessive blast and flash, overheated the barrel and quickly eroded and fouled the bore. Much head scratching was done, but before any solutions could be obtained World War 1 intervened. It was wisely decided to shelve all development work on this troublesome new ammunition and to stick with the .303 round, for the time being at least. As such, a few minor modifications were made to change the new rifle to .303 calibre, and it now became the Pattern 1914 (or P-14) rifle.

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Ironically enough, when the Americans entered the war in 1917 they, too, faced a critical shortage of U.S. Army Springfield rifles. The Springfield was similarly difficult to mass produce, but guess what? There was all this machinery and tooling already set up to produce P-14’s for the British, the contracts for which were now fulfilled. It was but the work of a moment to do the few design changes necessary for it to be changed from the British .303 to the American .30-06 calibre, and hey presto - the Americans now adopted the self same rifle in .30-06 calibre as the P-17 to offset the shortage of Springfields. Again, the P-17 was never intended to replace the Springfield, but it turned out that there were more P-17’s used by front line American troops than there were Springfields. Thus it was that a rifle which looked set to replace the Lee, which was then abandoned in the light of combat experience, came to at least partially equip two of the major armies of the conflict.

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http://www.african-hunter.com/303_rifle.htm

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Martin and Osa Johnson spent four years at "Lake Paradise" in Northern Kenya on the Eithiopian (then Absynnia) border. This was their second sojourn to the Lake to take photos and film of the wildlife.

They armed themselves with the following 'arsenal':

3 English Blands - .470 NE - double barrel
1 English Bland - .275 - Mannlicher action
1 American Springfield - .303 - Mauser action
1 English Rigby - .505 - Mauser action
3 American Winchesters - .405 - lever action
1 American Winchester - .32 - lever action
2 English Jeffrey's - .404 - Mauser action
1 American Winchester shotgun - 12g - repeating
1 American Parker - 12g - double barrel
1 American Ithaca - 20g - double barrel
1 American Ithaca - 20g - sawed off shotgun, called riot gun
1 .38 Colt revolver
1 .45 Colt revolver


Reference: "I Married Adventure" by Osa Johnson, 1940

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NitroX: I like that the lever actions were in .405 Winchester, which seemed a reasonably common rifle among early safari hunters, at least the American ones. Popular also among the horse riding lion hunters of the day I believe as well.

No mention of that other "classic" "modern trend" old lever action chambering. I dare not mention it by name!

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RLI said:
I see the Winchester 1895 in .405Win was popular with early safari's maybe they knew something about the .45/70 that todays shooters have forgotten!
Steve

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Many Americans were familiar with Winchester lever guns at that time and Winchester ads said the .405 was suitable for dangerous game.

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Perhaps Teddy's use of it made the .405 popular in Africa?
There weren't any decent heavy loads for the .45/70 1886's. Even the .45/90 smokeless loads were not up to much due to light bullets.
I assume the 300gr. .405 bullet at 2,200 fps was slightly better than the .450 Express loads& the Winchester held 5 rounds.

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Early on there was a low pressure smokeless .45/70 load by both Rem and Winch using a jacketed 405gr. FN at 1,320fps, supposedly matching the 1873 mil. loading of BP with the 405gr. lead bullet. The later 1880's mil loading of 70gr. BP and 500gr. RN at 1,210fps which worked fairly well on bison in the 1800's, wasn't duplicated in a modern smokeless load.
In the 70's or early 1980's Federal came out with the first modernized smokeless loading for the .45/70 with a 300gr. Jacketed FN at something over 1,800fps that was safe in ALL .45/70 rifles including the 1873 Trapdoors. Rem. and Winch. followed suit.
These loadings should show QUITE plainly why the round didn't see popularity in Africa. I thought, wrongly it seems, that everyone knew this.
The Marlins, with their 43,000PSI max loading pressures turned the tide on the round, however Elmer Keith and others had been loading the 1886's with 53gr. of IMR3031, producing 1,830fps with the 405gr. Jacketed and cast Bullets for decades before Marlins came on the scene.

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