My first 1917

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Originally Posted by rangerbluedog

They are both eagle heads. Here's mine. They are inspectors marks.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...modeview-1.jpg

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Rangerbluedog,

That looks exactly like what i have. So its just a really lightly stamped eagle. Well, thank you for the clarification.
I had a fresh question for the powers that be, since my rifle has never been through the re-arsenal process, the bore looks really bad. It still has rifling but pitted and probably has a lot of ingrained grime.
I was wondering how i should clean it and if its still an issue should i replace it with NOS barrel or a Criterion Barrel. Will it hurt the value to change the barrel.

Bernard Simon

If you change the barrel on an all original rifle, it will definitely lower the value. It will be noticeable because folks can tell the time frame the receiver was made by using the serial number. When compared to the date stamped on the barrel, they should be within a few months of each other.
I would shoot it first and see how well it groups. If it shoots acceptable groups, I can live with a few pits in the bore, or a dark bore.
I think a lot of guys have had success with a foaming bore cleaner.
Give her some range time - she might surprise you!

The M1917 rifles are some of the best documented. Take a magnifying glass and look closely. Almost every individual part of your rifle should have an 'R' stamped on it. Remove the handguards and you will see about four more eagle head stamps, each with an inspector's number underneath. Pretty cool, I think.

both are Eagles head ord, markings/

---------- Post added at 09:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 AM ----------

since said rifle has had the stock refinished, a new or good replacement barrel, will help in its resale appeal, selling a rifle with a dark crusty original barrel, and refinished stock, that you cant shoot, VS, same rifle with refinished stock, that you can shoot and enjoy?
if you installed a good Remington 1918 barrel close to the same date, the average collector would have no clue if it were original or replaced.
id bet that less then a handful of hard core collectors on the U.S, would know for sure what date should be on a givin 1917, and they would have zero interest in that rifle as a collectable.
the person that will likely be hot after that or a rifle in the same shape, is one that is starting out in U.S, militaria, and likes to shoot as well as collect, they may have a few other Militara rifles, Garand, Carbine, Mauser ect, and looking for an example for his or her stable, that wont set them back 800.00

You might be surprised at how well your barrel will clean up. I have had great success with using a bronze bore brush, Hoppes No9 and lots of elbow grease. Clean it from the breach end and after a half dozen passes with the brush, run a couple patches down the bore. It may take a while, but I have had barrels that looked hopeless come out nice using this method.

I once bought a 1898 Krag that was in beautiful exterior condition very cheap because the barrel looked like a sewer pipe. It sat in my safe for a year while I looked for a barrel for it until one day out of boredom, I decided to try and clean it up. Due to the difficulty of trying to push a brush through by hand, I wound up having to put the brush on a cleaning rod in my drill and running it through the bore (slowly) while chunks of petrified carbon came out the other end. It took a while, but eventually I was rewarded with an excellent shiny bore with very few pits.

Pits in the bore will not necessarily effect the accuracy of the rifle. If the crown is in decent shape, you will probably find that it will shoot OK. Personally, I would rather have the original barrel with some pitting, instead of having a mismatched barrel.