Range Report: First Time with M1917 Eddystone

[alamo308]

My Eddystone (01-1919) is shown below, a post-WW2 rebuild right here in San Antonio at the old SA Arsenal (cartouche: C-SAA in a box) with a two-groove Johnson Automatics barrel. Other than the R-marked front sight and firing pin, all other metal and wood components are Eddystone-marked where expected, including stock, barrel bands, rear sight, safety, sling swivel, bolt release, bolt handle, and more. I have had this rifle for several years, but just never got it out for some long-overdue exercise.



Finally today we went to the range, and here are the results. Using the battle sight, and knowing it would probably shoot high with this M2 ball ammo, I first sent five rounds down range to establish a POA before putting up the bullseye, then held "Kentucky Windage" and shot two sighters, followed by ten rounds "for record". Managed to get nine out of ten rounds inside a four-inch group.

I might try drifting the front sight a tiny bit to the left, and then have a go at 200 yards next time.
And it would be interesting to test it with some HPBT handloads, too. (I know, ...I know; it was never meant to be a target rifle! )

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[NRA]

love it! now thats good stuff

[jmoore]

I suspect you can substantially reduce the group size when you find the ammo it likes. So the match ammo might be quite worthwhile to try.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Very promising, but a couple of tips:

1) Forget the "Kentucky windage" and correct the foresight blade position. It is not easy to hold the "6 o'clock" aim + hold-off perfectly. If you hold off to left or right, your perception of the black/blade tip relationship alters. Basically, you will tend to aim a tad higher if you hold off.

2) But the sight correction depends on the POI, which varies with the ammo, so...
...as jmoore has quite rightly said, get the ammo right first.

3) Pick a bullet. If you want maximum target shooting effectiveness up to long ranges, I recommend the Sierra 168gn HPBT or the Lapua equivalent...

4) Then establish the maximum cartridge length that will fit the chamber. Take the length at which the bullet just touches the lands on chambering (you can determine this simply by "painting" the bullet with a felt-tip pen, and trying a dummy round with various seating depths until you find the length at which the lands do NOT mark the bullet when the cartridge is chambered. Take this length LESS 20 thou/0.5 mm as a good starting OAL.

5) Keeping that length, conduct the necessary experiments until you find the best load. Until you have found the best load, leave the blade alone, just concentrate on the group size, not where it is!

6) And only when you have found the best load, then correct the foresight blade if necessary. In the case of my Eddystone, after a lot of testing, no correction was necessary. All groups stayed inside the 9 ring from the day I bought it.


Patrick

[fem]

That's good shooting with a very nice Eddystone......

[Capt Mil Coll]

I just love the feel of shooting the P17 (yes I know its not an "official" designation). Its heavy solid feel just makes shooting it a pleasure. And when you think of the history behind this rifle it makes it even more fun to shoot. I like the fact that you are not drilling, cutting, scopeing, refinishing, reblueing, or just general bubbaing it. I keep my rifles as close to the soldier as I possibly can. Certainly is very good shooting with your American Enfield.

[alamo308]

I appreciate all the comments and suggestions, but maybe to save some of you some keyboarding, I should have mentioned right up front that I am already, and have been for a long time, well aware of the nuances of hand-loaded ammo and sight adjustments. I qualified as Expert Marksman with both M16 and .38 pistol, as combat aircrew in USAF. I load my own ammo and shoot competition matches at 200 to 1000 yards (mostly in .308 for the longer distances, not .30-06). What I neglected to mention is that, when first shooting a military workhorse rifle like the M1917, I always prefer to use near-as-issued ammo and near-as-issued sights, and do the best I can with only what the soldier had to work with. I doubt the combat soldier fielding this rifle would have had much opportunity to try different commercial ammo, hand-load precision ammunition to evaluate different loads, or drift the front sight. So... that's why I would not do any of that for the first time firing a vintage rifle, and that's why I would rely on "Kentucky windage" to put the POI where I needed it. I am very pleased with those results as detailed above, and can now proceed to refine any of the variables I choose to, based on my skill and experience, plus inputs from y'all. Thanks again for the kind words on those results; credit goes to a good gun, decent milsurp ammo, and a lucky shooter.

[jmoore]

In my experience, M1917s are pretty good at "shooting where they look" out to 600 yds when using a 150gr bullet at 2700 fps. Custom tailored loads can shrink the group size sometimes, but it's nice to expect that the rifle won't generally need a lot of tinkering with the sights. (BTW, POA = POI, so a six o'clock hold doesn't apply for bullseye shooting.)

The lack of windage adjustment usually isn't of huge concern once the basic zero is set unless one has delusions of becoming a high power champion whilst using this type rifle.