My recently acquired M1917 sporter (that is still stumping me).

[KingBigJoe]

Two week ago I bought a 1917 (Made after the end of WW1). As of this very second I'm still trying to find information on it. It has a what I think is a chinese arsenal symbol (?) . Does anyone know what this symbol is or what it means ?

Information

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[Surpmil]

Chinese "Civil Soldier" aka "Civil Defence" mark. Correctly viewed with the rifle held vertically. I don't know if that would be Taiwan/Nationalist or PRC/PLA marking. Viet Nam bring-back?

[KingBigJoe]

Chinese "Civil Soldier" aka "Civil Defence" mark. Correctly viewed with the rifle held vertically. I don't know if that would be Taiwan/Nationalist or PRC/PLA marking. Viet Nam bring-back?

Thanks for the help, Surpmil. I knew there was something unique about this rifle when I first saw it. That symbol is what attracted me to buy it in the first place.

[A square 10]

why do you think its an M1917 made 'after' WWI ? there is no where enough shown to establish anything except the info you got above regarding the marking , its a use mark - not a mfgr mark ,

all 1917s were made in the war years , but they were reissued in later years and "given" as foreign aid , that is most likely the source of the marking , these left the factory with no cartouche

[KingBigJoe]

why do you think its an M1917 made 'after' WWI ? there is no where enough shown to establish anything except the info you got above regarding the marking , its a use mark - not a mfgr mark ,

all 1917s were made in the war years , but they were reissued in later years and "given" as foreign aid , that is most likely the source of the marking , these left the factory with no cartouche

I was giving a back story of sorts in my original post to go along with the picture (I wasn't planning on going a little off topic [Not that I care, really]). The rifle I bought has the SN in the 1.197M range [around 12/1918]. Since I know (from the research I did) there were a small percentage of 1917's made after 11/1918 by Winchester & Eddystone. If you want to know more about my rifle I will be more than happy to post the link from the CMP Forums if you want.

[A square 10]

the cleanup production is true but a moot point to me , what was produced is of that vintage/contract , sorry to misslead if i did , its obviously of one of our foreign aid packages , hard to say how it got there but an interesting piece to be sure ,