Eddystone date?
- Thread starter MD
- Start date
You can get the exact MONTH from the Barrel Date.
Look on the top of the barrel, couple inches behind the front sight.
Mine are 9-18 and 11-18: September and November of 1918. Only built complete rifles for 5 or 6 days in November; production was cancelled as soon as Germany sued for peace.
Look on the top of the barrel, couple inches behind the front sight.
Mine are 9-18 and 11-18: September and November of 1918. Only built complete rifles for 5 or 6 days in November; production was cancelled as soon as Germany sued for peace.
For a WW1/WW2 production M1917, M1903 or M1 Garand a general rule of thumb is that the receiver would have been produced within a month or 2 before or after the month/year date on the barrel. This is because of variable production rates on all components which meant that barrel production might have preceded or lagged behind receiver production with receivers being fitted with barrels as they were available. This only applies IF the rifle still has its original barrel. The one major exception is a block of M1903 receivers which were produced shortly after WW1 and then held in arsenal stocks until they were finished into complete rifles at the start of WW2. Many of these rifles were re-barrelled one or more times in service. Some M1917s will sport WW2 era replacement barrels made by Johnson Automatics (barrel marked JA) or High Standard (HS).
Original Eddystone barrels are marked with an "E" and year/month stamp on the barrel behind the front sight. Winchester and Remington barrels are similarly marked with a "W" or "R" respectively. M1917 production started in the latter half of 1917, so your s/n indicates that the receiver would have been produced in that timeframe.
Original Eddystone barrels are marked with an "E" and year/month stamp on the barrel behind the front sight. Winchester and Remington barrels are similarly marked with a "W" or "R" respectively. M1917 production started in the latter half of 1917, so your s/n indicates that the receiver would have been produced in that timeframe.
Fortunately, for the M-1917 we have pretty precise production figures and serials. Hatcher has a little chart of 1918 production in his "Notebook".
I would hate to have been the guy in charge of storage at Eddystone if they were on a 2-months-either-side basis. They were cranking out 4000 rifles a day, plus spares; that is almost 30,000 a week, 120,000 a month. Two months either way could include half a million rifles. I doubt they kept that many on hand; they were delivering rifles almost as fast as the Army wanted them...... and the Army's idea was to put 4 million men overseas ASAP.
"You there; sweep that floor! I've got half a million rifles to pile there!"
Eddystone production, once the tooling was set up for the changes from P-'14 to M-17, cranked out almost a million and a quarter rifles in about 16 months. That does compare rather well with 350,000 for Rock Island in its entire career. In some ways, it is the difference between getting paid for a job.... and getting paid for a job per unit actually manufactured.
My higher Eddystone M-1917 number is 1132###, so it is getting pretty close to the end. Still a decent shooter, too.
I would hate to have been the guy in charge of storage at Eddystone if they were on a 2-months-either-side basis. They were cranking out 4000 rifles a day, plus spares; that is almost 30,000 a week, 120,000 a month. Two months either way could include half a million rifles. I doubt they kept that many on hand; they were delivering rifles almost as fast as the Army wanted them...... and the Army's idea was to put 4 million men overseas ASAP.
"You there; sweep that floor! I've got half a million rifles to pile there!"
Eddystone production, once the tooling was set up for the changes from P-'14 to M-17, cranked out almost a million and a quarter rifles in about 16 months. That does compare rather well with 350,000 for Rock Island in its entire career. In some ways, it is the difference between getting paid for a job.... and getting paid for a job per unit actually manufactured.
My higher Eddystone M-1917 number is 1132###, so it is getting pretty close to the end. Still a decent shooter, too.
There you go, an 11-17 barrel date with an "E" means it's an original barrel. The C Broad Arrow mark is a Cdn property mark indicating Cdn use in WW2. The red paint was often applied to forestocks of M1917 rifles in Brit/Cdn service to indicate use of the .30-06 ctg, rather than the standard .303 Brit. You see the same red paint on all of M1 Garands, M1903 Springfields and even BARs which were sent to the Brits on lend lease during WW2. Sometimes there will be a `300` or `.30` painted in white on the red band to indicate the different ammo requirement. If there is a s/n on the bolt handle and/or the bottom of the buttstock this would indicate use by the Danish reserves after WW2.
