RIA 1917A1 Restoration (presented with no comments).

[MG34_Dan]

Information

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[Eaglelord17]

Looks great. It also looks like someone had a great day at the range judging by the amount of brass and links at your knees.

[browningautorifle]

And empties were created from fulls...nicely done.

[henry r]

most of the time i'm fairly glad i live in a country with strict gun laws. gun violence is something that simply never crosses my mind in day to day life... but when i see the pictures above i want to cry with jealousy.

[browningautorifle]

The 1917 is one of the few I've never owned.

[MG34_Dan]

Based on s/n, 317564, this weapon was manufactured in October-November 1942 at Rock Island Arsenal. It was issued to the US Navy and served with the US Marine Corps in the South Pacific during WWII. It was scrapped as damaged/surplus in 1948 at the US Naval Base in Norfolk Virginia. It was then legally de-milled with the above listed damage and sold to an 18 year old kid. The kid patched up the damage scars with automotive body putty and black spray paint. He then kept it in the his basement for 50 years. It was then sold to a private museum in Portsmouth Virginia in 1998 where it was placed on display. The museum closed its doors in 2009 and I purchased the weapon from them. It took two years of scrounging to find all the period correct repair parts. The most difficult, and expensive, part was the correct Left Side Plate (LSP). Every period correct 1917A1 LSP I have located had a "Flaming Bomb" ordnance acceptance stamp located along the top edge of the plate directly above the front top plate rivet hole. At the time I purchased the weapon, there were only 33 RIA 1917A1s known to exist. Most were located in museums. Since then I have located five more examples. That still brings the total number known to less than 40 pieces. Karl Kurkey in Houston installed the new water jacket. Alex Kreuger in San Antonio rebuilt and refinished the 1940 RIA 1917A1 tripod that came with the weapon. The weapon itself was rebuilt and refinished by John McGuire in McMinnville Tennessee.

[browningautorifle]

So...you bought it and applied for a stamp? Then when that comes you can re-activate it? It's OK to do this as long as there's a paper trail showing where it came from?

[MG34_Dan]

So...you bought it and applied for a stamp? Then when that comes you can re-activate it? It's OK to do this as long as there's a paper trail showing where it came from?

I was not activated when I bought it. I got it tax free on a Form 5 as it was deactive. After it was in my possession, I applied to reactivate it via a Form 1 along with the $200 tax. Yep you can reactivate a prior registered DEWAT. Even though the weapon was deactivated, it is still classified as a machine gun. I did not create a new machine gun, I merely changed its status to ACTIVE. All perfectly legal. Hell, Uncle Sugar was not hesitant to take my money.

[browningautorifle]

Right, that was my point. That's what I thought. But it was registered as a dewat in the museum? It can't just appear from nowhere as a dewat and be registered and rewetted?

[MG34_Dan]

Right, that was my point. That's what I thought. But it was registered as a dewat in the museum? It can't just appear from nowhere as a dewat and be registered and rewetted?

It was registered as a DEWAT at the steel scrap yard in Norfolk. From what I understand, they had the contract to process the Navy's scraped weapons. When they found a weapon that could be used as a display piece, they simply registered it as a DEWAT and sold it to the civilian populace. It was worth more as a display piece than as scrap metal.