Pattern 14 and M1917 for refurbishment

[Uncle Ray]

Kiwi;

I recently purchased through eBay a book titled "United States Rifle Model of 1917" by C.S Ferris 2004 second printing 2008; through Collector Bookstore (Collector Bookstore - 913-651-0600). No problems posting to Australia, and extremely good service. Although this 213 page soft-covered book deals principally with M.17's there is a small section relating to P.14's.

Col.Colt has provided good info extracted from Charles Stratton's book, and it may well be that this book is also available from Collector Bookstore.

Despite having a replacement Winchester rear sight on your P.14 rifle, it boils down to "so what...?". The M.17 rear sight did not go beyond 1600 yds, but you will see that on your sight, there is a mark for 1650 yds, being the correct ranging for the .303 MK VII cartridge. Some, if not all of the P.14 rear sights also had the rifle's S/N stamped on the underside of the sight, at the top. I gather that yours has a number. M.17' sights were not numbered, neither were the bolts to the rifles. I have also seen Eddystone P.14 rifles with sights numbered to the rifle with Remington, or Winchester manufactured rear sights, so if you are so inclined, just file off the non-matching number on the sight!

As a New Zealander, Andrew, you have an interesting piece of NZ history with Maori connotations, which I don't have to remind you. Don't get rid of that stock! The P.14 rifle was issued in limited numbers to certain NZ military forces, and would have had a NZ Govt. stamp on the RHS of the butt, forward of the disc. The Maori carving has removed all of these butt marks. Perhaps a call to one of the NZ Antique Collectors Clubs in NZ will give you some contact point for sourcing info & parts. Don't forget Ted Rogers (Wellington) yearly auctions coming up later this year. Ted usually has some 2,000 items, including bits similar to what you are sourcing for your P.14. It's worth a call to him to find out when his auction is coming up, as he does list all items through the internet, ref: Page Title

Hope the above info is of some help, Andrew.

Cheers,

Ray

[A square 10]

just for the purposes of setting the record straight - the eddystone and the remington plants were not related as such , each was independent and autonimous , they used their own parts and none were mingled - they left the facories with all their own ,

US required interchangeability , and the services interchanged the parts ,

[SPAD 124]

To your original question about a Boyds stock. Boyds makes a M1917 stock and handguards. I was fed up with the high prices for an original and bought a Boyds to restock an otherwise original October 1918 Eddystone M1917. Both action and barrel are October 1918 and the barrel is excellent, that's why I wanted to restock, but I couldn't justify paying more for an original stock than I did for a functioning rifle in what is frankly a nice sporter stock.

It took about a month of night/weekend work. Mostly fitting the bands, buttplate, and working down the outside to the correct profile. There is a generous amount of wood. The action and barrel channel are 95% inlet and the front of the stock even has a rest for the barrel. I free floated the barrel between the action and the muzzle.

One problem is the trigger guard. It is inlet 3/32 too far back. I moved the plate forward so the screws line up, but now there is a slight gap at the back of the plate. I might fill with thin walnut wetted and bent to shape. But, while the gap is there, it is not worse than many war production milsurps.

On the plus side, the walnut is clearly a better grade than most milsurp stocks. It is like a medium sporter grade wood. Also, I bought NOS handguards from Sarco and they fit like a glove. The Sarco handguards have the steel reinforcing brackets, the Boyds don't. Numrich also lists handguards. I suspect the NOS handguards are from WWII rebuilding.

I did not even attempt to replicate cartouches. I'm not trying to pass the stock off as original. I know it's not original and that turns some off. Maybe someday I'll find an original stock at a reasonable price. But for now I've got a good representation of a M1917 that shoots very well. Just need to find a bayonet now.

[Kiwi]

Well its taken a little longer than I had thought to get both rifles in the shape that I wanted, but here is the final result of trawling the internet, and waiting patiently for things to arrive from sarconic.

I think I have the correct slings for the respective rifles. The leather sling on the P14 is dated 1919, but that's ok with me.

Both stocks have minor cracks in them, so one day I'll get a professional to try and fix them.

[gsimmons]

They look nice! The sling on the P14 is on the wrong way round though!

[Kiwi]

Thanks, I was wondering which was around the sling went!