Gevaer m53-17 sirius sled dog patrol rifle - Greenland US M1917 Enfield

[Longbranch1943]

Hello all, I recently picked this rifle up from a gunstore and believe it to be one of only a few (50-200 ~ info on numbers are muddy) of greenland issue sirius sled dog patrol rifles used for sled dog teams in the 1950s/60s. Mine in particular appears to have had a storied life being first an 1917 remington manufacture that saw lend lease to our great country of canada as seen by the remnants of red paint at the muzzle and then was later surplused to denmark as a home guard rifle (between 30 and 40,000 rifles were purchased by denmark). Finally this rifle appears to have been acquired by the Sirius Sled Dog Patrol as seen by the notched reciever for a special stripper clip adapter (lots of k98k strippers in greenland at the time) which allowed a 30-06 bullet to clear the front reciever ring when the adapter was used rather than an og american stripper clip. Also it has had the magazine followed milled slightly to remove the bolt hold open function which is correct for this style of gun. It appears to be an early rifle as the sight ears and front sight are all still og m1917 and not converted to the m53 pattern with the rear sight ears milled flat and replacement barrel front sight (all danish home guard modifications). It also should be noted it is devoid of a stacking swivel however the threads look as if they have never had a screw in them with perfect finish on them still. This seems to be correct as 4 of 5 of these rifles I have heard about/seen also lacked the stacking swivel.



If anyone could help expand/correct/backup any information I have presented I would appreciate it. I don’t have any concrete reference book info on these rifles (I’m not sure if it has even been published in a collectors book in any extensive fashion) and most of the info I have compiled and tried to sort from fact and fiction has been from multiple forum posts (most of the correct info seems to come from denmark respectively). That being said I do believe these rifles to be quite rare and it is most definitely a sled dog patrol rifle. That being said I feel like it deserves to be shared on the forum.
Thanks and enjoy.

 

[Dosing]

read some of the comments, some info there

 

[MiG25]

Right on.

 

[B.M.F]

The receivers were nothched in Norway. The Norwegian army used a lot of K98k Mausers in 30-06 and didn't want to have two kinds of stripper clips in their inventory. The German clips doesn't fit well in the M1917's, so an adaptor was made. This moved the bullet tips slightly forward, so the notched was made to avoid the bullets to catch on the receiver.

The ground follower was also done in Norway and were a modification that made the danes think twice before the purchase. the danes bought about 23000 M1917's from Norway in the late 50's.

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=61830&page=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fic09ym56cns9mi/norway_stripper_adapter_M1917.jpg?dl=0

 

[Danielbear22]

You're not alone with this rifle. I acquired one a few years ago but never knew what it was or couldn't really confirm what it was until Ian made that video. Mine still has the appateur sight and is in pretty great condition.

 

[fat tony]

yyy