Ive re barrelled/retro fitted more than a few M17 P14 rifles. Most were back to military trim but have sported some too.
What you have there is a US model 1917 rifle. A popular mod was to forge/ iron out the bottom metal for a more streamlined appearance. You can ID your bottom metal simply by looking at it to see if it has a pronounced step towards the front of the floor plate before the action screw. If it has a slight crook in it, more than likely its originally configured. The p14 box capacity is 5 and the m17 6 minus the rim for the 06 cartridge.
Keep in mind mag boxes, floor plates, bottom metal /followers etc will not interchange between the two variants nor will the originally fitted stocks, however a p14 stock can be modded to work with a M17 action with some minor in-letting/fitting.
The rear of the barrel stubs between the two differ with the p14 having a slightly narrower profile where it meets the body I have found personally. The barrel reinforce/bearing will need to be opened up very slightly with a 17 barrel/body in a 14 stock probably due to manufacturing tolerances.
Without a barrel mated up to a body, a 14 bolt can be fitted to either stripped action and vice versa the primary difference is a 14 bolt has a larger bolt face than the 17 to accommodate the rimmed 303 cartridge which is popular for mag cartridges.
Bolt stop parts will not interchange due to the extractor design as well but the entire ejector box will interface as a whole dependent on cartridge. There are very slight differences at the rear of the bottom metal between the two particulary wher they slim down towards the trigger bow. Both in size of the metal and the stock bedding at the radius to the rear of the floor plate. but they are minor almost unnoticeable unless you worked on them a bit.
Both barrel tenons have square 10 tpi, nominal diameter at reinforce of 1.325 and p14 tenon .720 and m17 .800 extractor cuts are .275 for the 14 and .410 for the 17 The CMP used to stock both CBI barrels for the two rifles at one time but they were phosphated/ceramic coated which would have to be cleaned off prior to bluing if you could get one from them yet.
It would be a shame to cut one of those down, unless it wound up with a muzzle defect or something or for a sporter becuase they may no longer even have them available as far as I know anymore.
The good thing about the two of them without getting into whats the better rifle is that many parts/spares are available for the two of them minus uncut stocks, barrels and rear hand-guards anymore. I'm sure your dad would be very happy to have his old deer rifle rejuvenated for what ever purpose he chose if that was his wish, some things just cannot be bought and projects like yours are one of them.
Good Luck on your endeavor!
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