US Model of 1917 Eddystone.

James K.

"It is not true that the P-14 and the M1917 are identical. A number of changes (other than the rifle bore and chamber) had to be made before the Model 1917 met the Army's requirements. For one thing, the receivers are not the same, although even folks who own both often don't notice the differences"

James K, in what way are they different? There is the world of Internet and there is the real world. There are shades of "had to be made before" I disagree with.

F. Guffey
 
I don't know what you mean by "had to be made before" but there are a lot of differences between the two receivers. One is easy to see if you measure from the rear of the receiver ring to the rear of the clip guide. Also, the sight "ears" are of a different shape. There are also internal differences in the receivers, differences in the bolts, differences in the rear sights, etc.

The receivers are, naturally, very similar, but it took a lot of work to effect what first appears to be a "simple" caliber change.

Jim
 
Mr. Guffey, you are correct that my rifle has no arrow or broken arrow stamps.

As I stated in my original post, I did not / do not believe that this is the original stripe if this rifle ever had one. I have seen rifles marked like yours and like the one that tahuna posted. I have never seen one marked like mine and could not find another example that was.

Also, the stripe was not spray painted, it was brush painted and I believe that it was masked with masking tape. What you can't see in the photos is that there are brush hairs in the paint. There are also a couple of thumbprints. I am sure that we could probably figure out who painted the stripe. :)

Thanks to you and everyone else for looking at and commenting on my rifle. The discussion has been educational for me and I hope for others.

I am happy with this rifle. It shoots well. I bought it to shoot it and I plan on doing so. I would like to shoot it in some Vintage Military Rifle matches.

I think the M1917 fits in nicely with my Springfield M1 Garand, my Remington M1903A3, my Inland M1 Carbine, and my Remington Rand 1911A1.

2013-06-29T18-58-12.jpg


I shoot all of them, too.

And before anyone says that the sling isn't correct on the Garand, it was that way on purpose. I had just fired the M1 in a clinic where we had to case and remove our rifles from the firing line and take them straight to the truck. When I cleaned the rifle, I didn't put the sling back before I took the picture. When the sling is set up as it is in the picture, it is self-cinching.
 
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I just want you to know I am very jealous of you Tad T.
I just have the garand and a low serial springfield which I do not like to shoot often. someday I hope to have a 1917 and maybe even a 1903A3 some day but for now I'm stuck ogling yours.
 
Tad T. The British overhauled/rebuilt the P14, when finished they gave it a MK designation, 4 of the 5 ‘red/white’ banded receivers went through the process. It is believed the P14 had a flat faced barrel, that worked until the they went from P14 to MK. They, across the pond, did not like the gas escape design, so they added one.

Both the banded rifles are P14s in appearance, one is a P14 with a M1917 barrel and hardware including the bolt, the other is a P14 with a M1917 barrel chambered to 308 Norma Mag with a P14 bolt.

A friend called and informed me he just (that day) swore off of building bench rest type one hole group rifles from P14 actions. And, I thought that was OK, I didn’t ask but he had to tell me why. He wanted to use the P14 receiver with M1917 hardware. It took me about as long to get there as it did to to modify (5) the receivers.

F. Guffey
 
The Daily Mail Home Guard being inspected by the paper's proprietor, Lord Rothermere, with a mixture of .303 and .30 ones (and some early Sten guns).

standard.jpg

Full size http://www.fototime.com/FDDFF5590744049/orig.jpg

Later there was a concerted drive in Southern Command (and presumably other commands, though I have not so far located any other files in the Public Records Office) to locate all .303 weapons in the HG and and withdraw and exchange them for .30 ones. Some static Army units were also subject to this.
 
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/for...73-us-m1917-enfield-with-vb-grenade-launcher/

I know nothing about the grenade launcher for the M1917, M1 Garand is another matter. It seems the effect is the same as the soldier has the butt of the rifles placed on the ground, There are documentaries on military channels that show soldiers firing rifle grenade launchers from the shoulder, it would appear they were turned half way around.

Thank you for taking the effort, I have not seen everything but wonder, with two rifles that look similar I wonder: Why would they paint one and not the other? I know, there is no answer.

Sten and Bren, I have a book that was written by an American “Just passing through Africa” on a Thumper, he wrote a review on the Bren and Sten.

F. Guffey

http://world.guns.ru/smg/brit/sten-e.html

http://www.vincelewis.net/brengun.html
 
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Just going to throw my two cents in - here's a pic of my Winchester M1917. You can just see the remnants of a painted stripe around the tip of the forestock. It was originally red but over the years has faded to an orangey colour. There is no paint on the upper handguard but I believe it is a replacement anyways. Anyway, the story I got when I aquired the rifle is that the stripe was applied to distinguish the rifle as having a non-standard caliber (from a Commonwealth troopers point of view). These rifles were used by British, Canadian, Australian and other troops, usually in a rear echelon role (POW guards, train station guards etc.) as well as in "Dad's Army" and similar.

 
Snow Dog, Thanks for sharing, took two of my red and white banded rifles to the range along with the ‘ugly one’ and the Eddystone with the long chamber that went through UTAH and was stamped with EK. There was a shooter with all new equipment and a black rifle sitting next to me, he wanted attention so I gave him some. During the test firing, I did not notice a Chinese man from Taiwan walk up behind me and wait patiently, during a cease fire he introduced himself and informed me his father used the M1917 in China when a member of the Nationalist army. I thought that would be a test of memory for the son to remember what his father used and I wondered how he recognized the rifles with changed configurations. He explained it had nothing to do with memory, he pointed to his father that was standing behind the line, he said his father pointed the old rifles out to him. I offered to allow him to shoot any and all of the rifles I had me. When his father escaped China, Taiwan was called Formosa.

F. Guffey
 
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