1917 eddystone

M

mark clausen

New member
My brother inherited this from his long gone father in law. He has had it for years and wanted me to check it out. I'm not really a milsurp guy so I thought I'd ask youall for any info age wise on the origonal configuration of the gun. 50s era sporterizing still looks very good. He is interested in scoping it. That looks difficult to me given the shape of the reciever. Just looking for thoughts and info. Thanks Mark
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Personnaly? I would not try to put a scope on it. Here in the Greater Northywest; getting your hands on a 1917 Eddystone still in good to great shape(ie: not rusted out, not a lot of holes drilled in it, with a good bore) is almost impossible. You didn't mention the bore? Is it in good shape?:confused:
Anyway, if everything is as good as the outside, I would take it to the range to see how it performs with some diffrent loads. If it shoots well, I might have a nicer stock made for it:). Just me a talking here. :cool:
 
Somebody already fixed that rifle beyond the restoring to orginal configeration. Mainly grinding off the ears.

So go a head and put a scope on it. It will make it more usable.
 
To mount a scope properly, the gunsmith will have to weld a steel block into that hole in the rear of the receiver (intended to lighten the rifle - it didn't help much). Othewise, there is no place to drill the hole(s) for the mount.

That will probably require rebluing the action, since it would be difficult (but maybe not impossible) to do that welding without damaging the bluing.

Jim
 
I was wondering what that hole was. It's looking like scoping is out. The bore is in really good shape. Haven't had a chance to take it to the range yet. My nephew shot it a couple times a few years ago and declared it junk but he thinks anything thing not black and stainless is junk. That is why my brother brought it to me to look at. It doesn't look like it saw much use after being sporterized. The blueing is strong. It shoulders nicely. The sights really aren't that bad. I hope he uses it even if we dont scope it.
 
It is what it is !!!

Somebody already fixed that rifle beyond the restoring to orginal configeration. Mainly grinding off the ears.
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As has been the case with many surplus rifles. Shoot and enjoy as is. ... :)

I assume it's still a 30-06 ??

Be Safe !!!
 
B-Square makes a scope mount & rings for the 1917 Enfield, including the Eddystone.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/10...cope-base-with-1-rings-enfield-1917-p14-gloss


Looking at the buyer comments/reviews, and thinking about the 1917 rifles, I would think additional mount screws are needed, and that the receiver & bridge needs to be spot annealed before any D/T, due to the exceptional hardness.

If the B-Square base doesn't already have mounting a screw hole just ahead of where it passes over the hole in the bridge, it'd most likely possible to drill new holes in the required location.

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Thanks for the B square info. I will check that out. As I said in my first post I dont know much about this model. Is Eddystone a manufacturer or type of this model?
 
Just FYI, most of us didn't grind off the "ears", we cut them off with a hacksaw, to no specific specifications. That is why it is sometimes hard to get the right scope mount base.

Jim
 
The long ago smith left no evidence of the ears at all. It seems to me that these old sporters are greatly under appreciated. The checkering might leave something to be desired but the metal work is beautiful.
 
The US Gov't made their rifles at US Arsenal's - Eddystone (in PA) was one of them, along with Springfield (In MASS) & Rock Island (a Mississippi River island between Davenport IA & Rock Isl, IL).



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Eddystone was not a government arsenal, it was a private factory operated by Remington. Remington and Winchester contracted with the British at the start of WWI to build their Pattern 1914 rifles for them, since all the British factories were tied up making the SMLE Mk III (later called the Rifle No. 1 Mk III).

As the British contract expired, the U.S. entered the war. The government factories, Springfield and Rock Island, were unable to meet the need of rifles for an expanding army, so the U.S. Army contracted with the existing private factories to produce a modifed P-14, made for the American .30-'06 cartridge. That rifle was called the Model 1917 and so many were made that it, not the Model 1903 Springfield, was the primary rifle of U.S. troops in France. The troops invariably called the latter rifle "the Springfield" and the Model 1917 "the Enfield", recognizing its English origin.

Jim
 
Those "Made in XXXX" marks are what is known as the "country or origin" or "COO" mark, required of all products imported into the U.S. Up to 1968, that included guns, but GCA '68 changed that to the importer and caliber, the former because it had proven very difficult to trace the Carcano used in the JFK assassination.

But that mark was almost always put on, not in the exporting country, but in the U.S., in bond. And the folks doing the stamping were minimum-wage laborers, not gun experts, so if an American-made Model 1917 was in with a bunch of Pattern 1914's, it got stamped "Made in England."

Jim
 
I don't know for sure who carried it but it definitely was made in the U.S., at the Remington-operated factory at Eddystone, PA, down the Delaware river from Philadelphia. And the barrel is American-made (and probably original) and has the normal U.S. eagle inspection stamp and Ordnance "bomb".

So whoever put on that "Made in England" stamp goofed.

FWIW, not the first or only time. I have seen U.S. Savage and Canadian Long Branch No. 4's with "ENGLAND" on them. Same thing. Importers had people stamping those guns as fast as they could wield a hammer and, as I said, they were not gun experts. They had to stamp so many hundred a day and that was what they did.

Jim
 
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