New to me P17

[RC20]

Good Post on the Sirius Patrol.

I do think the information on the chamber to 303 and then and re-chamber of the 30-06 is wrong.

While its possible, it requires a new barrel and the feed end is wrong.

303s stayed themselves as did the 30-06.

I had a Danish return that had Canada broad arrow and then all the hallmarks of Danish service. It went to a person who had Danish heritage and wanted that connection.

Canada got a lot of the P17s and the P14s were out there from WWI as well.

[browningautorifle]

I do think the information on the chamber to 303 and then and re-chamber of the 30-06 is wrong.

Yes, they're a whole different rifle...

[RC20]

I got back to my most finish worn 1917, one I will keep I suspect. Pulled of 1.5 inches at 90 yards (about the most I can see well enough with the iron sights )

Pretty tickled with that. I had lost the load I had for it and took a bit of digging to find it.

The K-31 so far will do a bit under 1 MOA, not bad company.

---------- Post added at 10:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 AM ----------

Yes, they're a whole different rifle...

The information indicates they re-chambered them. Understood they are two different guns but that's not what the article says.

Clearly the P14 and 1917 were different calibers and some difference in parts, stock. Same basic rifle though.

[browningautorifle]

Same basic rifle though.

I think you better read some of our threads about that. It sounds like you've never seen one before...to say that. I suspect the writer of the article was misunderstanding what had been said or done...

[pickax]

Here is a well written downloadable article on the history and development of the American Enfields.
http://www.vgca.net/education/TheUKP...2014-09-17.pdf

[Brian Dick]

It reads like the solid front sight base pin has been replaced by a roll pin.

---------- Post added at 07:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:31 PM ----------

The proper nomenclature is U.S. M1917. I throw this out in jest as I got reamed by an anal U.S. martial arms collector many years ago for calling them P'17's and I never forgot it.

[fjruple]

Actually, the use of a roll pin for a front sight blade is not a bad idea. If the Danes re-barreled or modified their M1917 Enfields the front blade would have to be adjusted to zero the rifle for elevation. Traditionally, on the Paterrn 1914 and M1917, the armorer would select a front blade for the appropriate height. The Danes made it easy by machining off the blade and place a roll pin in place of the front sight blade and then file down the roll pin until the rifle is zeroed. One of the problems with the WWII rebuild programs was that at some US arsenals little or no attention was given to correctly zeroing the M1917 thus making a reputation that the M1917 was inaccurate. With many of these rebuilt rifles still floating around with improper zero, novice shooters believe the rifles do not shoot straight which is not correct. The rifles just need a correct front sight blade.

[RC20]

That may be true, but with the battle zero being 400 yards, getting a shorter range more reasonable sight setup for what Sirius did and needed would make sense.

Shooting a bear being a close up and personal encounter.

Sure would make the tuning of the front sight a breeze. Its a good solution.

[lgo]

The M1917 rifles, or M/53(17) as they are officialy named by the Danish military, that are being used by the Sirius Patrol in Greenland does still have their original rear sights. The Sirius Patrol is a Danish military unit and uses the rifles in original condition as issued and they are as far as I know not modified in any way.

The M1917 rifles with cut-off rear sights are surplus rifles that were modified and sold to the local civilian hunters in Greenland via the Kgl. Grønlandske Handel which roughly translates into the Royal Greenland Trading company. The reason for the modification was because the hunters didn’t want the peep sight as it was easily blocked by snow and ice. The modification was performed by Kgl. Grønlandske Handel who used a subcontractor to do the actual work. The Danish militay has not used rifles where the rear sight has been cut off.

[lgo]

The roll-pin front sight was adopted by the danish Homeguard because especially the older members found it very difficult to keep focus on the very narrow original front sight. Using the roll-pin solved that problem at a relatively low cost. A test showed an 13-20% improvement in score. Some 85000 original front sights were modified by a danish company.
The roll-pin was adjusted to the same hight as the original so that the original front sight markings were still valid.