Found A P17 - Questions

[Ovidio]

Dear all,

I just found a P17 with an apparently low serial no. (92933). Seller says produced in October 1917.
Shall I go and see it?
Good price and, though the pictures are just barely ok, looks good.
I don't have any real knowledge of these rifles, so I wonder if that might be worth something.
Would be my first 30-06.

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Information

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[oldfoneguy]

Seeing as you are new to these rifles here is a link with detailed information about their history that I pirated from the Remington Society website that you may find interesting.
The Story of Eddystone Remington Society of America

Any US Model 1917 is worth owning especially if it is in good condition. If you decide to go take a look at it let the condition of the rifle be your guide. A rusty piece of junk is worthless and should be priced accordingly. If the rifle is in good useable condition it will probably sell itself on its merits.

The article above states that Eddystone had an average high daily production of 5,000 rifles with production starting on September 17 1917. With a little math you can approximate the month and day your rifle was made. Not an exact science but as close as we can get 101 years down the line. Good luck and let us know if you buy it. - Bill

[Ovidio]

Thank you Oldfoneguy.
I would certainly judge it by my experience with any other milsurps, but I was quite intrigued by the 5 digit serial no.
The few ones I have seen here on sale are all with high 6 digit or, if I'm not wrong, even 7 digit serial nos.
Would such a low number be some kind of plus concerning P17 rifles? In a collector's sense.
Which I'm not really, but just to know...

[oldfoneguy]

To be honest not really. There were well over one million produced so....
If you were talking about a single, double or triple digit indicating the first day of production maybe but that one not so much. Its value is really in its condition. Considering its age it most likely saw front line action though. - Bill

[browningautorifle]

I agree about maybe grabbing it just because. They're getting scarce and a full wood complete rifle is hard to find.

[fjruple]

Ovidio-- Your rifle was probably produced in late September or early October 1917. The manufacturer of the Eddystone version of the M1917 is one of the greatest stories of mass production in WWI. In the production of the rifles themselves, the receiver's serial numbers were in sequence but the receiver once it hit the parts bin at the assemblers station little or no detail was paid to assembling the rifles in serial number order. The assembler would grab a receiver from the parts bin and assemble a barrel to the receiver and that barreled action would move to the next assembler station. The shipping of the rifles were handled the same way, no attention was paid to the serial number order when crating the rifles for shipment.
These are excellent rifles to shoot. If your rifle has all of the original parts, It could a bit higher in value to the collector. The order of preference is based on the numbers of the M1917 produced with Winchester built rifle being a premium, next is the Remington and then the Eddystone. Just as side note your rifle was produced by the Remington Arms Company of Delaware. On January 2, 1918, the Remington Arms company of Delaware was absorbed in the Midvale Steel and Arms Company. After which the location was know as the Eddystone Rifle Plant. After the war, Midvale turned the buildings back over to the Baldwin Locomotive Works which owned the buildings and the equipment and left over parts at the plant was owned by the US Government which purchased the equipment from the British at the completion of the Pattern 1914 contract. The equipment was shipped to Rock Island arsenal for storage. The only buildings that remain from Baldwin is their HQ building and part of the power station building.

[Daan Kemp]

It really won't harm you to go and look, looking is really, really painless. Those Enfields also feel and handle nicely.

[Cosine26]

I was issued a new Eddystone M1917, S/N 160086 as a member of the Mississippi State Guard in late 1943. I trained with it (modified infantry training) at Camp Shelby Mississippi in the spring of 1944. I was promoted to sergeant because I was the only one in the company who could disassemble and reassemble the M1917.
We shot the rifle out to 600 yards using obsolete M1 ammunition. It was brutal on a skinny A$$ed kid, until I discovered our that a canteen cover made a good recoil pad. Quite and experience for a 17 (Just barely) year old boy. I stayed with the MSG until I enlisted in the USN at 17 for service in WWII. I do not know what happened to those rifles after the war.
FWIW

[browningautorifle]

the location was know as the Eddystone Rifle Plant. After the war, Midvale turned the buildings back over to the Baldwin Locomotive Works which owned the buildings and the equipment and left over parts at the plant was owned by the US Government which purchased the equipment from the British at the completion of the Pattern 1914 contract. The equipment was shipped to Rock Island arsenal for storage. The only buildings that remain from Baldwin is their HQ building and part of the power station building.

We had a long thread here on that some time back, and included were pics and maps of the original site. Very interesting yet heartbreaking to see history like that collapsed.

I was the only one in the company who could disassemble and reassemble the M1917.

Wow!!! Those must have been some hard put squad mates you had...

[Cosine26]

That was initially. I taught most of the members when we had to remove the cosmolene (sp?)(with gasoline!). I became the pseudo armorer. After our tour at Camp Shelby we had a competent company. Incidentally my TO&E weapon as a sergeant was a M1928 Thompson SMG. Some kick for a 17 year old. Those "L" magazines were a PIA to load.