U.S. Model of 1917

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Blindstitch

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This years hunting season i'm using a family heirloom borrowed Winchester 1917 that was sporterized some 50 years ago.

I'm curious why some have rear peep sights and others are flush like modern guns.

This one has a scope mounted on it and was a bit of a trick identifying which manufacturer actually made it but it ended with an ER so Winchester wins.
It has a 5 round blind magazine and if I knew I could keep it for more than this season I might install a timney trigger.

 
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in my youth i used a sporterized 1917 remington in 3006 and killed several deer with it, a good rifle but a little heavy by todays standards. however it was leaps and bounds above the single barreled punpkin slinger i had been useing. eastbank.
 
"...why some have rear peep sights and others..." Called 'custom' for a reason. However, a lot of times it's just because whoever did it didn't have the skills/technology/desire to add or remove iron sights.
 
Nice rifle, but it doesn't look like a blind magazine to me. It looks like the trigger guard has been worked over to remove the perch belly, but it's still there. The 1917 didn't use a hinged floor plate, but you could drop the floor plate if needed. They used what was called a bullet button, where you inserted a cartridge tip to depress the spring and release the floor plate.

I have a sporter in .300 H&H on the Winchester action.
 
Was it common for people to remove the rear sight. Looks like a lot of work.
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I'm also curious about a possible trigger modification it had. I was told that when the gun was bought it had a hair trigger and my grandpa didn't like it so he took it to his friend who was a gunsmith to get it fixed.

From what I see the upper half of the trigger that can't be seen without removing the stock has a threaded hole in it from front to back. Was this some sort of mod when adding a correct screw to remove creep from the trigger and set it back near the breaking point?
 
Beautiful and most interesting rifle and congratulations on inheriting nicely done conversion.

Not something we would want to do today but it was done well before it was an issue and was done often.

what markings on the bolt?

Trigger pictures would be needed, screw is not original part but could be added I suppose, seems more likely a timney or some such.

the ears were battlefield protection and not a big deal to get rid of. Neatly done is much harder, but not hard to grind off Supposedly made it sleeker.

The sights were misunderstood , as the main lay down peep is a battle setup for 450 yds range, it is not a good one for under 200 yd hunting. You would need to know to flip it up and use the ladder peep at its lowest setting for most irons site hunting.

Once you get used to them peeps are phenomenal but not immediately intuitive.
 
I shot several 1917's in my youth. The thing I remember best about them is that they were all superb shooters. These are very strong actions with excellent barrels and they make a top notch sporter. Looks like the hard work is done on yours and done quite well. Congratulations on a fine old US military sporter!
 
what markings on the bolt?
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I actually don't see any markings on the bolt. Looks like it was smoothed and polished while adding the new bolt end on it.

Trigger pictures would be needed, screw is not original part but could be added I suppose
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The trigger in it now is 100% stock but half between where it's attached to the action and the bend of the trigger there is a threaded hole from rear to front. I'm to lazy to take it apart right now but here's a trigger I found online for shape reference.

s-l225.jpg
 
I missed the obvious that the bolt would be re-done for the scope clearance.
I am an avid 1917 fan (and owner) - love the old clunker.

Yours looks to have been cleaned up to be a beautiful looking and more useful hunter. I had a friend who hunted with it in the original setup, works fine but heavy and awkward by todays standards. Makes for a fun bench rest though.

the only rifle I can shoot iron sights with (original) to some varying degree of success as the peep and the long distance to the front sight (original) is enough to get a fairly decent sight picture.

I would guess from your description that the screw hole was intended to take up the first part of the two stage. I like two stage but a lot do not.

If you ever take it down get a note of what parts have E, R, W on them.

Do you know how to take the firing pin (striker assembly) out of the bolt?

Don't ever try to take the safety all the way down, the little mechanism inside the housing is a bugger to get out and back in and no reason unless authentication of a rifle and yours does not need it.

The rest are more curiosity and easy enough to find when its out of the stocks.
 
Does it cock on opening, or on closing??

Cock on closing was the original design, but a LOT of them were converted to cock on opening when converted to sporter rifles.

A hole through the trigger like you describe is a modification, and probably held a set screw used to limit trigger overtravel, or take up.

Removing the rear sight and its ears was a commonly done thing, the old gunsmithing books often have a chapter on how to do it. It was done to remove a couple ounces weight, give a sleeker look, but most of all, to allow for a top mounted scope.
 
To your original question about why some were " flush " and some had rear peeps, it had to do with the rear bridge area of the reciever. Underneath the original military rear sight, some had solid steel, others had a little pocket milled out. The solid ones, when sporterized had the ears cut off and the rear bridge reprofiled to match whatever scope base was going to be used. The ones with the pockets couldn't be reprofiled enough to totally eliminate the pocket. I'm guessing that may be what you saw with a rear peep still in place.
 
Removing the rear sight was a common part of "sporterizing" the Model 1917 or Pattern 1914 rifle, both of which were widely available after two World Wars.

The rear sight protective "ears" were removed by simply hack-sawing them off and filing the rear of the receiver to take a peep sight or just leave the receiver with no sight at all, using either a scope or a barrel sight. With rifles having a lightening hole under the rear sight leaf, the hole was filled with a piece of steel welded in and polished down to match the receiver contour.

The "cock on closing" system was not liked by Americans, so that was altered to a "cock on opening" type, like the M1903. After WWI, Remington reworked thousands of its surplus Model 1917 receivers, finished them into the Model 30 series and sold them on the commercial market as new rifles.

Jim
 
I don't like the cock on closing either.

I have handled an SMLE and I can see it on that gun, slick, fast and works.
Completely different beast.

On a 1917, ugh. All mine cock on close as I don't hunt and its part of what they are, not a problem really but you can see why SMLE user like it and 1917s not so fond of for speed of action.

I think its the bolt size and material with the type of steel that is not slick on slick and its just not smooth.

I want to try a hard non nickel steel bolt someday and see if it works better.

Still love the old beast. best peep site ever. The sight distance gets you about half way to a 100 yds target (grin)
 
I took the bolt apart and cleaned it. Who knows when the last time that happened was but it's done now.
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Yea that was what I was hinting at.

Nice clean and oiled and good for another 100 years!
 
Removing the rear sight's ears was best done with a milling machine.

Dayton-Traister made trigger assemblies for cock-on-opening.

Straight floor plates were available as after-market items, getting rid of the bulge.

My father and uncle combined to put me into the .30-'06 business in 1950, with a DCM Enfield. I learned all about removing cosmoline and cleaning the bore after shooting GI ammo. :)

I was glad to sporterize it. Me at maybe 125 pounds, that steel butt plate "like to beat me to death!" :D
 
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