I own 4 1917's...one by each of the manufacturers; Winchester, Remington, and Eddystone. The fourth is another Winchester that I found at some backwoods gunshow some years ago. It had been sporterized quite roughly, The stock was mangled, but amazingly the rear sight had not been altered nor the ears ground off. The barrel had been chopped etc. I decided to rebarrel it and rebore the replacement barrel to 35 Whelan while restoring the rest of the rifle to original appearance/condition. I obtained the parts needed from GunParts Corporation in W.Hurley, N.Y. and did the easy work myself. The pulling of the barrel had to be done by a gunsmith; I had him send the replacement barrel out for the caliber conversion and he remounted and headspaced it when it came back. The restoration/conversion went smoothly and I have a good looking big game rifle that shoots accurately in addition to my 3 original 1917's. There is certainly nothing wrong with a 30-06. All of my rifles feed and function smoothly. So does the 35 Whelan. 1917's can be converted to many different calibers and some have been made to handle very powerful cartridges like the 505 gibbs. It is a fine rifle and certainly worth restoring or converting. Parts are still reasonable. If I would have to cite one difficulty it would be the lack of rear sight adjustment for the wind factor, although the front sight can be moved to help with that. I made a sight adjustment tool out of one that was designed for the SKS...all of $8. and a little filing to allow it to slip by the "ears". Probably the bulk of the expense would be that of the gunsmith and that would depend on how much you want done and what he would want to charge. When finished you would have a strong and good shooting rifle that would serve you well for many years to come. Jerome Cooper