CBI Shortened M1917

[shmlnaaa]

I thought I share one of my more recent acquisitions since it is something so rarely discussed and encountered: an M1917 shortened for use by Chinese soldiers of X-Force in the China-Burma-India Theater during WW2. The barrel is shortened to about 22" and the buttstock is shortened a bit as well (makes a length of pull of about 12.25", pretty short!). It's still chambered in .30-'06, as would be correct for it's use by X-Force in WW2. According to some sources, approximately 18000 M1917's were shortened in India for X-Force, but the numbers are a bit hazy. Some sources claim only about 20000 M1917's period were given to X-Force, but there are a lot of period photographs from CBI that show Chinese soldiers with full length M1917's. There are also many photographs and even some film showing the shortened M1917's in use. Whatever the case was with the actual numbers in use during WW2, these rifles are extremely scare today and are a seldom encountered part of WW2 history.

Information

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[emmagee1917]

Anyone want to bet that in 6 months to a year from now you'll be able to walk into any large gunshow and find a few of these for sale ?
Chris

[shmlnaaa]

I hope not, but there are some tell tale features that most legit ones should have. I'd be extremely wary of any that aren't correctly import marked for example.

[browningautorifle]

Neat, kind of like the SMLEs that were tried. Except these seem to have actually seen use.

[shmlnaaa]

Here's some pictures I've found of them in use.