WHOA! What's wrong with this 1917 (keyholing)

[bladeswitcher]

Just bought what appears to be a really nice 1917 off of Gunbroker. Everything looks great, including the bore. Went to shoot it today and couldn't hit the target at all. Finally set up my stand at 25 yards and still wasn't doing any good. After a few shots I realized that I was keyholing bullets all over the target board. One shot was a perfect profile of the bullet! This was with M2 ammo, btw.

Got it home and took a closer look at. I still think the bore looks good, but I think the crown needs work. It appears to have a few nicks and maybe even a slightly rough edge to the crown. Is this enough to explain the scattergunning and keyholing?

WHat's my next step? Try different ammo? Have a local gunsmith try to recrown it? Send it to a military rifle expert (any recommendations)?


What makes this more aggravating is that I just sold a different 1917 in much worse condition because I wasn't comfortable with the fact that the bore looked like crap and it was counterbored. That gun shot 2 inch groups at 100 yards! Stupid me!

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