Brought home my first M1917 yesterday. It was manufactured by Eddystone and based on the serial number it was manufactured in the fall of 1918. The barrel has a fairly clear J.A. stamp on it. Then below that the ghost of a flaming bomb stamp can be seen if you hold the gun just right. I was hoping to see a barrel date below the flaming bomb but I see nothing but what looks like "turning" marks from barrel manufacturing. I guess my question is did Johnson Automatics date their replacement barrels? I was thinking it was a requirement.

The gentleman I bought it from said that during post war arsenal rebuilding it may have been sand/bead blasted off before being re-Parkerized. As evidence he showed me other marks on the receiver which he said were rather faint he thought because of prep work before refinishing. Maybe I have two questions, If weapons were refinished by an arsenal would they have removed so much metal as to make the stampings faint? I have not had a chance to take any pictures yet but the whole rifle looks refinished, the stock was stripped, and then I think a polyurethane coat was added (the stock is very shiny). The price however, was just too good to pass up and no permanent damage was done as in Bubba modifications to the stock or action. So thoughts on J.A. barrel dates and might they (military rebuild program) have aggressively sandblasted the metal before a repark? I see no stamps on the receiver or stock that I would typically associate with a rebuild.
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