M1917 Eddystone

[Promo]

I am a bit surprise that none of the gun writers have done an in depth, in the weeds study of the Eddystone Rifle plant especially given the levels of production achieved by Eddystone.

I fully concur with you. The P.13/P.14/M1917 rifle is one of the most underrated rifles, if not THE most underrated rifle at all. I think its poor fate is mainly based upon the fact that it is British engineered (P.13 origin), but US made, so neither the British were happy to get a foreign made rifle, nor the US to use a foreign engineered rifle. But to name a few facts:
- if not WWI had ended, the US Army would had introduced the 1918 sniper rifle, which was invented by Winchester and based on the 1917 action
- it turned out to be one of the best sniper rifles the British had in WWI, no surprise many inter-war experiments were based on the same rifle action (Ainley rifle, detachable magazine)
- new sniper rifles were set up with the WWI sniper mount for Ireland prior WWII
- the British originally even considered the P.14 rifle with the No. 32 scope mount as official sniper rifle at the beginning of WWII
- it was produced as 1934 rifle for other countries as well
- it even was adopted for the Pedersen Device
- there were experiments and serial conversions with other calibers, such as 8x57 (Spain?), .22 lr (Parker-Hale and Denmark post WWII), 7.92mm/.303 rimless, etc.
- the action was so strong, it was very commonly used for high power cartridges Big Five hunting rifles for Africa
- Alexander Martin converted 421 of these rifles as sniper rifles for WWII, and the initial order was for even more of them
- Austria post WWII made experiments with the M1917 rifle converting it to M1917A4 configuration (with the Weaver M73B1 and Redfield mount from the M1903A4)
- Denmark/Greenland still uses this rifle nowadays with their sledge patrol - I can't remember another rifle being this long in service!

... and a hundred more reasons! I guess my passion for these rifles now is a bit obvious.