Eddystone U.S. Model 1917 30-06

B

Buckley

New member
Just pulled up past threads on this rifle and I am intrigued with it. I found one today at an auction house and gave it a quick inspection as the place was crowded.The stock looks fine and original with no splits or damage and has not been "sporterized". Some wear on front sight ears ;but really not bad for a rifle this old. The barrel exterior , receiver, bolt etc are in mint condition and the cartouches are in place. Only problem I could find was that the bore is dirty and has a layer of rust . Also it appears that there is a screw missing from the base plate of the receiver near the trigger housing.

The auction house is estimating that it will sell for between $200.00 - $400.00.The rifle strikes me as being an excellent opportunity to buy a big bore for military fun shoots at my club.I would buy an M -1 Garand if I had the money ;but just can`t swing it and don`t really need a semi auto capability.

Did not have a chance to check for matching dates on the barrel and the receiver. nor for serial numbers Can anyone give me an idea where these dates and numbers might might appear on the rifle.? Is the price range accurate ? Thanks in advance for any help . Buckley
 
Barrel date is behind the front sight on top of the barrel.Hopefully 1917-1919.They made replacement barrels during WW2,for refurbishment, and will be so marked.$200-$400,hopefully closer to $300 is still a good price.Soak the barrel over night and most of the crud would probably come out.If not CMP sells replacement barrels.
 
The serial number is on the receiver ring.
The barrel is dated right behind the front sight.

All 1917s were made in 1917-1918, maybe into 1919.
A barrel dated much later would be a replacement,
If the gun is Parkerized instead of blued, that is the result of a post WWI overhaul.
 
and look for some import markings, often on the left side of barrel or rcvr. A company name, like Blue Sky (did they import 1917's??)

That makes it less desirable.
 
not necessarily true. importers marks are required by law and there's just no getting around them but the fact that this rifle is an american rifle on american soil suggests that if there is an importers mark that the history of this rifle extends beyond other 1917s as the US stopped using them after WWI for the most part however England's home front security and several other European resistance groups used them during WWII and these are more valuable to collectors than a gun that's been sitting in storage collecting rust for 80 years.
 
If its in as good a condition as you indicated grab it.

Even at $400 its a good price.

Barrel does not have a serial number, you check the mfg barrel date and then see what date the serial number is for produciton (that will come up with a month and year)

OEM barrel will be within a month or two of the receiver date.

Other item to check is what stock it has. On the for-end there will be an E, R or W (possibly nothing, there seems to have been original stocks made that did not get a mfg stamp, in my limited looking I have seen two of them now and they were old and matched the gun).

If you buy it PM me and I will send you links on sights that can get you parts, how to dissemble the gun and the bolt and ID of various parts and where the markings should be on them.

Best match collector wise if the barrel and receiver are same mfg.

WWII barrel least desirable, you do find a lot that have good barrels and receivers that do not match up mfg. They were redone so much in various calibers that spare barrels were around and someone would convert them back.
 
Even a post-WWI rebuild M1917 will have value so if it checks out otherwise $200~400 isn't too bad.

At one time M1917's were the redheaded stepchild of the collectors world. Yes, they had history, but they just weren't that desirable and they sold for cheap. Now with '03 Springfields bringing $800 and (way) up, they have come into their own as a US military collectable and the prices have started to climb.

Original condition M1917's are getting hard to find and will bring a premium. One thing about the US Endfields is that they have the manufacturers mark on all major components and are therefore much easier to verify their originality.

As for the barrel, you would be surprised what a good cleaning will do for it. I have had great success with using a bronze bore brush, Hoppes No9 and lots of elbow grease. Clean it from the breach end and after a half dozen passes with the brush, run a couple patches down the bore. It may take a while, but I have had barrels that looked hopeless come out nice using this method.

I once bought a 1898 Krag that was in beautiful exterior condition very cheap because the barrel looked like a sewer pipe. It sat in my safe for a year while I looked for a barrel for it until one day out of boredom, I decided to try and clean it up. Due to the difficulty of trying to push a brush through by hand, I wound up having to put the brush on a cleaning rod in my drill and running it through the bore (slowly) while chunks of petrified carbon came out the other end. It took a while, but eventually I was rewarded with an excellent shiny bore with very few pits.

Just for a little gun related eye candy, here is a Winchester M1917 that was overhauled at the Ogden Arsenal during WWII and inspected by Elmer Keith.
IMG_0880-XL.jpg

IMG_0879-XL.jpg

IMG_0870-XL.jpg

IMG_0881-XL.jpg

IMG_0874-XL.jpg
 
I paid $500 for a matching Remington barrel/receiver. Hope to one day get an R marked.

As the de-facto was a post WWI refurbish (some escaped but unusual) that's part of the history.

Fun part was to go through it, ID what was Remington and what was not and start building a list to get it to all Remington. Stock will be the hardest.

Best sights of any gun until the 1903 A3 put the peep on the rear (K98, SMLE etc all had that forward of the receiver sight that is ok but not anywhere near as good as the 1917 type peep.

Funny to see you have the bayonet. I found one when I had mine ordered and got it. Great character and the price was decent for that too.
 
Some, I hope I can hold back my tears for now.

Interesting heritage for both major models (1917 and SMLE).

And an interesting conjecture if they had continued to develop the 1917 into a true carbine how popular it could have become.
 
The auction house is estimating that it will sell for between $200.00 - $400.00.
Click to expand...

The auction house is wrong, if it goes to auction it's gonna go for a grand or more.

Not many around in that good of shape. Oh, and it hasn't been mentioned, the square or rectangle around the OGEK in the above pictures indicates that Elmer Keith was the inspector at the Ogden UT depot.
 
elmer keith could inspect a mcdonalds cheeseburger, that doesn't mean it'll be worth more than it's actual value of 99 cents. unless you are familiar with elmer keith and inspectors proofs in the first place, few would even know or care who keith was and less would know what OGEK stands for.

also regardless of whether woodrow wilson himself inspected this rifle, it has a rusted out bore and missing receiver screw, repairable damage to be sure but not something that is easy to find original parts for anymore.
 
If you buy it PM me and I will send you links on sights that can get you parts, how to dissemble the gun and the bolt and ID of various parts and where the markings should be on them.
Click to expand...
RC20,
Would you be kind enough to post this information for all of us that already own a Model 1917?
Thanks in advance,
K Squared
 
numrich arms generally has a large amount of replacement parts for most milsurp bolt actions. most of their stuff is current production however they have been known to get USGI stuff in from time to time.

liberty tree collectors also has a number of parts available but their selection isn't as wide as numrich.
 
Happy to. I like this site a lot for the general nature of it and at times better than the experts, I haunt this one more than the others as I like the wide range of interests.

This place has a lot of parts for the 1917 (Numrich as noted has some as well)

http://ssporters.com/parts/1917-and-P14-enfield.html

This is the tear-down of the gun. The only place its wrong is taking the pins out when you remove the upper hand guards and the ring. Just spread the sling ring a bit and it slides over just fine, easy and no messing with pins.

http://www.surplusrifle.com/m1917/rifledisassembly/index.asp

This is the tear down of the bolt. I cut a washer up so it horse collars over it and more secure than the nickle. Having the nickle or washer in there also deactivates the cocking part and allows you to head space it and not destroy the gauge with the cock on close feature.

http://www.surplusrifle.com/m1917/boltdisassemble/index.asp

CMP Forum site has some good experts. John Bear, Rick the Librarian and Chuck in Denver are all very informed.

http://forums.thecmp.org/forumdisplay.php?f=79

and the following is pretty active and " Chuck in Denver" who is one of the true experts is on both sites."

http://www.milsurps.com/forumdisplay.php?f=111
 
Last edited:
You are certainly welcome

I like the good forums because we get a lot of information from others and in turn we can pass on what we find ourselves.

I am getting some great information on a Luger I picked up. Other than liking them a lot I know (knew!) almsot nothing about them.

I would be foundering there if not for generous response from those who know those guns.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top