My four US 1917 Enfields - It's getting tougher to find originals with a good bore

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I have four 1917 US Enfields all in original condition .. In the photo of the four ..

Rifle # 1 at the top is a Remington made rifle with a serial # in the 51XXX range. ME = 2.5 - excellent shooter
Rifle # 2 is an Eddystone made rifle with a serial # in the 487XXX range. ME = 1.5 - very good+ shooter
Rifle # 3 is an Eddystone made rifle with a serial # in the 825XXX range. ME = 2.5 - very good+ shooter
Rifle # 4 is an Eddystone made rifle with a serial # in the 1162XXX range. ME = 3.5 rougher bore but a good shooter. This rifle is the only one with all "E" parts. The three rifles at the top have some parts made by an arsenal other than the manufacturer of the action.

Things to consider ... It is a lot tougher to find a US 1917 Enfield in original condition especially with a decent (very good to excellent) ORIGINAL barrel than a 1903A3 Springfield or a Garand. These 1917 Enfield Rifles are nearly 100 years old now and some were shot with corrosive ammo and not cleaned properly. Some were also stored in areas of high humidity. When you have near 100 years of time to work on the steel, a little corrosion is bound to happen. Compare that with WW2 1903A3 Springfields or WW2 Garands whose barrels have had only about 70 - 75 years of time to deteriorate.

Sights - While 1903A3 Springfields and Garands have a rear peep sight adjustable for both elevation and windage, the 1917 US Enfield is only adjustable for elevation. If you want to adjust windage on a 1917 Enfield, you tap the front sight over.

Rifling - While the 1903A3 Springfield has 2 and 4 groove barrels with a right hand twist, the 1917 US Enfield has a 5 groove barrel with (for some reason) a left hand twist. This fact is really inconsequential in relation to accuracy

Finish - AFAIK all original 1917 Enfields had a blued finish. There is information out there that many were rearsenaled and pressed into service during WW2. During the rearsenalling many were parkerized rather than reblued. One of my 1917 Enfields (#2 in the photo) does have a parkerized finish so I am guessing that this rifle was rearsenalled.

ME - (muzzle erosion) - I always bring my ME gauge when checking out (locally) US Garands, Springfields and US Enfield for possible purchase. Since I am a hobby shooter of military rifles and not a collector, the ME gauge plus a visual inspection of the barrel will usually tell you whether the rifle will be a decent shooter. Interesting to note .. Rifle # 2 with a ME of 1.5 does not shoot quite as well as rifle #1 with a ME of 2.5. Rifle # 1 (the Remington) does have a true "mint" bore ...

These are solidly built rifles which, if equipped with a barrel still in very good to excellent condition, can shoot as good as any US Springfield or Garand. Three of the four rifles shown (the top 3) will shoot under 4 inches at 100 yards consistently with most 5 shot groups being in the 2 1/2 inch to 3 inch range. The Remington made rifle shown at the top of the photo will shoot under 2 inches pretty consistently with my handloads. (46 grains of IMR 4064 with the 168 grain Hornady match bullet) For more info on the US 1917 Enfield check out the pdf file at the link below ..

http://www.odcmp.org/503/rifle.pdf

Bob

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