Pics of my new M1917

[bigduke6]

Got this this week Eddystone M1917 (also a m1903) wanted to get some info on the rifle, the dealer claims it came from a collector and believes it was refinished after ww1 possible been in storage of unissued? There is still a lot of grease on it and needs a good clean, any info please serial No 1119243

Information

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[Doug Rammel]

Nice Rifle. It appears to be a WWII rebuild. Probably lend lease. There should remnants of red paint under the wood at the tip of the stock.
1.The barrel is original to the receiver.
2. The trigger guard is from a winchester.
3.The bolt is a WWII replacement from keystone and the serial number on the bolt handle was stamped by you Brits or the Danes.
4. What is stamped on the muzzle end of the stock?
5. Could you post pictures of the other cartouches on the stock?

If a part is stamped E it's Eddystone, W Winchester, R Remington.

It should be a great shooter.

[kragluver]

Your rifle looks park'd which would indicate it mihgt have been re-arsenaled after the war. Eddystone did parkerize their later rifles towards the end of manufacture - not sure if your's would be one of those. I just looked in my copy of the Ferris book and it looks like Parkerizing was implemented in the Eddystone factory by Sept 1918, so yours could well be a production parkerized finish. It is interesting that the stamps that I can see on your rifle look nice and sharp which would indicate it was not re-parked after the war. Also, your bolt is serialized - this was typically only done if the rifle was shipped to the UK or some other European ally during the Lend Lease program. The US did not serialize the bolt - definitely a post production addition. Are there any parts on the rifle stamped "R" or "W"? Most rifles that went through re-arsenal after the war became "mix-masters" as there was no attempt to match parts from the same manufacture. Finally, if your rifle went through re-arsenal, there should be a stamp of initials on the left side of the stock. We should be able to tell where it was rearsenaled and inspected if such a stamp exists (not always, but one can usually tell).

Enjoy your '17. They are typically good shooting rifles.

[gunner]

Nice rifle, Congratulations. Have fun and tell us how it shoots.

Regards

Gunner

[bigduke6]

Thanks guys can not find anything on the stock it looks like new, and very smooth in fact it looks too smooth ?. As for the red band no signs of that, i know about the band which was there to distinguish it from a .303 as for the parts the only parts stamped are in the pics.

[Calif-Steve]

British use. Nice one, though. How does it shoot?

[bigduke6]

Dont know yet will find out end of week.

[Prince Humperdink]

Yours was Manufactured In Oct,1918 according to My data, same as my Eddystone(1,090,955).

[cadre]

The rifle came from Denmark. That’s why the bolt is serialized as they would have done it when they rebuilt the rifle. The crescent shape notch milled into the receiver bridge is a dead giveaway. The Danes did this so they could feed their heavy MG ball and tracer ammo into the rifle with stripper clips. I have forgotten what grain bullet they used for this but it made the cartridge long enough that it could not be loaded with strippers in its normal configuration.