CMP M1917 Eddystone Safe the Shoot?

[cquickel]

A few years ago, I purchased a M1917 Eddystone directly from CMP. WW2 Rebuild with a Remington 1918 barrel. After I got the silver paint off the metal parts, it looks great, but the bore looks like a sewer pipe. Have cleaned the best I could. I have not changed bolts, but did replace the Remington sticker with an Eddystone. Would you consider it safe to put a few rounds down range to clean the barrel out a little more? Thanks,

Curt

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Doug Rammel]

How is the headspace? If it's OK it should be sake to shoot.

What Remington sticker did you replace? I don't understand that statement.

[Pattern14]

Someone painted it silver?

[Patrick Chadwick]

"Would you consider it safe to put a few rounds down range to clean the barrel out a little more?"

Curt, in a word: NO.
Painting metal parts with nice thick silver paint is a standard dodge for decoration pieces to fill up the rust pits on the outside. And you say yourself that the bore looks like a sewer pipe. Do not try to shoot it clean!

There are 2 basic types of sewer-pipe bore:
1) Plain filthy. In which case: clean it!!!
2) Rust-pitted. In which case: bin it!!
How to tell the difference in a few seconds? Push a tight-fitting cloth or felt patch through the bore. If it comes out filthy, you may well have type 1 ... keep on cleaning.
If the patch comes out torn ragged, you have type 2, and any further effort is wasted.

I have restored several type 1s that looked at first to be junkers. It's just elbow grease and patience. But a bore that shreds patches is scrap.

Patrick

[Calif-Steve]

It really comes down to the bore. If the bore is OK, go for it. I have seen many CMP M1917's that had terrible bores and must not be shot. Is the barrel crusty? Pass if so.

[Chuckindenver]

dont shoot it with that barrel..replace it with one that hasnt been shot with blanks.

[cquickel]

Someone painted it silver?

Thanks, It came from the CMP with the metal PAINTED silver. Probably the VFW. I striped off the paint and found that the parkerization was great. (WWII Rebuild) The paint protected the finish all those years. Rifle looks great, just the bore has me concerned. I am sure it fired a lot of black powder blanks.

[cquickel]

"Would you consider it safe to put a few rounds down range to clean the barrel out a little more?"

Curt, in a word: NO.
Painting metal parts with nice thick silver paint is a standard dodge for decoration pieces to fill up the rust pits on the outside. And you say yourself that the bore looks like a sewer pipe. Do not try to shoot it clean!

There are 2 basic types of sewer-pipe bore:
1) Plain filthy. In which case: clean it!!!
2) Rust-pitted. In which case: bin it!!
How to tell the difference in a few seconds? Push a tight-fitting cloth or felt patch through the bore. If it comes out filthy, you may well have type 1 ... keep on cleaning.
If the patch comes out torn ragged, you have type 2, and any further effort is wasted.

I have restored several type 1s that looked at first to be junkers. It's just elbow grease and patience. But a bore that shreds patches is scrap.

Patrick

Thanks Pat,

I think I will clean it some more with hot water this time and see if it gets any better. I will also check the headspace with a field gage. Cheap insurance. Better safe than sorry.

Curt

[Dan Wilson]

Curt

That really depends on the barrel
First Check the headspace, be prepared for it to just barely pass a Field Reject gage (fairly normal for M1917's) but pass by a hair is a pass by a mile.

As to the barrel, if you cant see the rifling to begin with - don't shoot it yet, you could easily overpressure trying to push the slug out the end.
So if you cant see the rifling start cleaning, if its really cruddy, bore cleaner, patches and bore brushes may not do it, even bore brushes will get eaten alive.

Here's what I did with the last one that was really cruddy, I wrapped an expended case with Teflon tape and tapped it into the chamber to seal that end.
With the bore up and muzzle taped to protect the finish (I spun my vise vertical and clamped the barrel blocks and barrel to hold it up) and I filled the bore with (now get this) C.L.R. - the bathroom cleaner. Not only will it eat out the carbon build up and black powder residue it will also remove rust that may be resident in the bore. Let it soak for a couple of days, compared to most rust removers its pretty mild.

Drain it out, run a brush through it and patch it (will most likely look like rotten motor oil when you drain it out), check the bore and repeat the CLR until you can get a good view of the lands and grooves.

If you can see the rifling fairly well then it will be safe enough to run some ammo through it and see what comes out of it, if you keyhole your target after a number of rounds then most likely your going to need to replace it but if its just throwing a shotgun pattern then keep running lead downrange and see if it gets better with more usage as it helps to scrub the bore.

You also have the option of trying to fire lap the bore to clean it out too but be warned it will really sand down the bore, besides in my kids Eddystone we ran about 200 rounds of HXP downrange for the price of a set of fire lapping rounds and it may not be a pristine bore but it actually looks quite usable and holds about 4 or 5 MOA, and that could very well be the shooter.

Patrick Chadwick recommends replacing the barrel if its pitted, I might agree with that depending on what kind of shooting you intend to do.

If your a Highmaster shooter like Mr. Chadwick, I agree and by all means ditch it and put something new on.

But if your a casual shooter (like most of us) and not looking to cover your groups with a two inch paster then keep at it for a couple hundred rounds and see just what kinds of results you get. For casual shooting, it (pitting) doesn't seem to hurt the accuracy too bad, but its going to take a good soak once in awhile to lift the jacket material out of the pits.

This is my sons rifle, when we bought it we were hard pressed to get a .22 brush down the bore, after cleaning and about 200 rounds this is what it looks like. Its not the prettiest bore but it works plenty well for our casual shooting.

Dan

[cquickel]

As always, excellent recommendation. WOW a bathroom cleaner. I'll try it.
Just got a new field gage. I'll use that too.

v/r

Curt