Eddystone M1917 restoration

[Calif-Steve]

Springfield Sporters will sell nice parts cheap. DO NOT ask for the "hand select" option. If you simply order the '17 parts you will certainly get only "E" marked parts. Good luck.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Very inspirational. I find such projects quite rewarding if not in the financial sence. Keep us posted on the progress please.

[viking73]

Thanks guys. I want to post some more detailed photos of all of my "E" marked parts that I'm manged to track down.

I faxed over my order to Springfield Sporters yesterday. Will they send you some sort of order confirmation by e-mail or at least let you know when your order ships?

-Derek

[Dad]

From Springfield Sporters you will not get any notice of shipping or order confirmation, but you will get some pretty good parts in around two weeks time.
You just reminded me that I have to place another order with them.....

D.

[viking73]

So about two weeks huh? Well that's okay. I've waited this long, a few more weeks will be fine with me.

Here's a few more photos while we wait. First off is my "E" marked trigger and sear:





I installed that back into the action yesterday:





Next up, I think I'll put the safety back together today or tomorrow time permitting. Here are my safety lock plunger and stop, both "E" marked of course:





I have a bit of a dilemma with the actual safety lever. I have somehow ended up with two of them, both Eddystone marked. One is in nice shape, but just has the "E" stamp. The other has bit of the finish worn off around the edges however, it has both the "E" stamp and also the eagle head stamp. At the moment I am leaning towards using the safety with the eagle head stamp even though it's in worse shape. I just really like those eagle head stamps I'll post a photo of both of them later.

Thanks,

-Derek

[viking73]

Here's a couple of photos of the safety levers I mentioned yesterday. As you can see, the eagle head stamped one on the right is much more worn than the one on the left. Maybe to the point where it's not the best match for my rifle. But as I said, I really do like the eagle head stamps so that's the one I'm leaning towards using.

Here's some photos.

-Derek

[WarPig1976]

I'd go with the eagle head too, more interesting. On a small part like that some cold blue will touch it up nice, just a thought.

[viking73]

From Springfield Sporters you will not get any notice of shipping or order confirmation, but you will get some pretty good parts in around two weeks time.
You just reminded me that I have to place another order with them.....

D.

Well I'm happy to say that my order from Springfield Sporters arrived today (along with the rain but that's another story )! Everything looks excellent. I'm going to de-grease the parts now and get them ready for installation

The last Eddystone part I need now (minus the bolt that is) is the ejector to stick into my bolt stop assembly. Springfield Sporters didn't list them on their website so the search continues for this part. I do have a Winchester one I can use until I score an Eddystone ejector.

-Derek

---------- Post added at 12:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 PM ----------

I'd go with the eagle head too, more interesting. On a small part like that some cold blue will touch it up nice, just a thought.

Oh, I did decide to use the eagle head safety catch btw. Some cool blue touch up might be just the ticket!

-Derek

[Dad]

Viking,
Since you are doing such a detail refurbishment of your M1917 , are you aware of this web site that has the marking details of components.
U.S. Rifle M1917 Markings

For touching up blued parts, I have great results using "Blue Wonder".
http://www.bluewonder.us/BlueWonderGunCareKit.html

D.

[viking73]

Good Morning,

Well not much of an update here yet as I ran into a set-back with the stock. I was going to install the butt plate but much to my dismay, the screw hole near the toe of the stock is stripped out. I can fix this, with a trick I learned here:

Surplusrifle Forum View topic - How to repair stripped buttplate screw holes

I measured the existing hole with a pair of calipers and it's checking about .300". I think a 3/8" dowel should work fine for the repair. Luckily, I still have some Brownells Acraglas resin left over from another project. It's about 4 years old so I'm hoping it's still okay to use I'll be sure to post some photos of this.

There is however another potential problem I just noticed, maybe a big one. After re-reading this thread here:

P17 hits high(no worries) and left (big worry)

I looked at my witness marks. This is what they look like:





Now I wonder if I should be worried about this or not? They are off as you can see. Is this going to have a large, negative effect on my rifle's accuracy? Ugh...

-Derek