British Pattern 1914 Remington low serial number 00902

[Melanie_Daniels]

Melanie-- I am a bit confused with your statement. The asterik * on the Pattern 1914 denotes the modification to the MKI* specification with a new bolt, barrel and extractor. Each of these parts will have an asterik * on the part to show that it meets the MKI* specification. The encircled star was a Winchester inspector's proof mark on the Pattern 1914. On the Winchester M1917, the encircled star noted that the rifle passed the compatiablity test and the parts were interchange with the Remington and Eddystone rifles.. A letter was sent out by General John T. Thompson to Winchester and Remington, Ilion, NY that a encircled star would be placed on the left side of the receiver next to the US Ordnance mark to denote the compatibility of the rifle. Even though the encircled star is found on the Winchester M1917 none have been noted on the Remingtons. The Army at that point started to use the date of January 1, 1918 as a date for compatiablity and shipment of all brand M1917 rifles to the AEF. Like anything when the bad word gets around its very hard to get rid of. Winchester complained about the "discrimination" of their rifles to the Adjutant General of the US Army.

I didn`t speak about the star in circle. I found four early Eddystone and one early Remington (9-17 to 12-17) with a star without circle. In this time the problem was that only 95 per cent of the parts were interchangeable. So they marked the rifles with not interchangable parts with a star. The Winchester problem was, that only 80 per cent of the parts were interchangeable with the others so that they marked the weapons with interchangeable parts (star with circle). That is the information I got from a guy who worked with General Crozier.