My First M1917

[Patrick Chadwick]

A few hints to getting the best out of your Eddy without wasting months on trial and error:

4" of horizontal center at 100 yards is too much. Milsurps frequently have damaged (obvious) or worn (not so obvious) crowns, from general rough use or, curiously enough, over-enthusiastic cleaning with pull-throughs, chains etc. And this wear is often one-sided, causing poor groups that are way off center. So, before worrying about subtleties of bedding, get the crown checked. I did that with my Eddy, and 10 euros to a gunsmith to freshen up the crown turned a doubtful specimen with 4" grouping into a keeper with 2" grouping. And, if you want the best from your rifle, you will have to get into reloading. Don't aim for 1 MOA groups with surplus ammo. You may be lucky, most aren't.

Use nothing lighter than the 167/168 gn HPBTs from Sierra or Lapua. Or the 180 gn round-nose flat-base style for 100 yards shooting.

Seat the bullets to be about 20 thou off the lands, using an RCBS competition seater or equivalent. This is realistically repeatable. I do not recommend following those who claim to seat their bullets 3 thou off the lands - you cannot hold a +/1 1 thou tolerance in real life unless you have, amongst other things, a constant-temperature environment. And perfectly (well, as perfect as I can manage) seated bullets will show a couple of thou difference in overall length, because of minute profile variations - so don't go by OAL, you must have the competition-type seater, find the contact point, and then back off the 0.020.

I use the Vihtavuori powders, so I have the Vihtavuori reloading manual, and have found the "recipes" to be very good, with the proviso that seating depth must be adjusted to your rifle (see above).

I think that is enough for now - check the crown, correct if necessary, and get some first class ammo or make it yourself!

Patrick