Happy Birthday to me!

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cote_b

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Well, being as today is my 23rd birthday, I splurged and bought a P17 that I had been eyeing up for a couple weeks here in town. Its full wood P17, made at Eddystone. All said and done, got it for 275$. Bore looks like it could use a scrub, but other wise its pretty nice! Range report to come.

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It was the US Rifle, Caliber .30, Model of 1917 or just the M-1917 when it was in US stores.

When it came to Canada is became a P-'17 and the Calibre (note spelling) became .30-'06.

Canadian WW2 manuals even refer to it as the P-'17 Rifle.

Poor thing must be confused.

No matter: they can REALLY shoot with a bit of knowledge and some TLC.

Nice toy! Happy birthday!
 
Give the metal the Easy Off treatment. Every time I do that to an old military rifle a big puddle of purple comes out of the bore after 15 minute soaking. That's copper fouling, along with all kinds of other crud. I'll take a photo next time.

If you got a matching original rifle with a really decent bore you got it for half price. They are one of the finest military bolt actions made. A far better rifle than that Sprungfield everyone wets their pants over, for some reason that escapes me.

Being a British redesign of the Mauser didn't help the M1917 win the enduring love and admiration of shooters in the USA of course, but the Springfield is just a US redesign and lovingly preserves most of the Mauser design flaws while adding a rear sight more closely related to a surveying instrument than a battle sight.

A poor orphan of war the P14/M17: designed too late as the ultimate antidote to Boer Mausers, using a failed copy of .280 Ross as the cartridge. They could have just licensed Ross' design, but no, his name was anathema... Left on the shelf until war forced a 1915 rework in .303. Unwanted in the UK once WWI ended and pushed aside lest troops and others make unfavourable comparisons to the SMLE.

Almost made at the Ross Rifle Factory in 1917/18, but for the deliberate foot-dragging of the War Office determined to see Canada give up her rifle manufacturing capability so as to satisfy the desires of the UK gun trade.

Adopted by the US because they had no practical alternative in 1917 - if there had been a rifle equivalent of the Chauchat machine gun whose designer or license holder was a bosom buddy of the chief of ordnance you can be sure they would have bought it, but sadly *sarcasm* there wasn't, so they bought that "limey rifle" since three factories were already tooled up to produce it and they simply had no choice.

And on and on it goes! History in your hands!
 
Nice rifle. Even better price.

I have it's twin also made by Eddystone. Haven't shot it yet, waiting for a range day to see what it will do.
 
Thanks guys! I had an awesome birthday yesterday. I cant wait to give this old girl a try this weekend. I hear great things about the accuracy of these things.
 
The original initiative to design a replacement for the Lee Enfield as a result of the Boer War experience is a perfect example of the tendency of military brass to tool up to fight the previous war. While the P14 was a move toward a sniping rifle away from a battle rifle, more logical thought would have retained the 10 shot magazine. Remember, they also briefly moved to re-convert LE's to magazine cut-offs after WW1. Interesting that Sgt. Alvin York won his medal with a M-17 rather than a M1903. That doesn't tend to get emphasized in U.S.
 
Smellie, RRco and Bushwhacker, thanks for all the great info!

I have heard rumours that Eddystone rifles can be made of inferior metals. Is there any truth to this? Is there a particular serial number range I should be weary of?
 
cote_b said:
Smellie, RRco and Bushwhacker, thanks for all the great info!

I have heard rumours that Eddystone rifles can be made of inferior metals. Is there any truth to this? Is there a particular serial number range I should be weary of?
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All false. Eddystones have been known to cause problems if not relief cut before re-barreling due to them being a little harder/brittle than their counterparts. If it has the original barrel (just below the sight it will say something like 9-18 or similiar) it will be fine. I am going to offend every military collector (especially the Garand guys) and say that the U.S. Model of 1917 is the most accurate battle rifle ever built. Ever. That includes all British,Swiss, German, Finnish, Canadian etc. rifles ever built as battle rifles. Not to mention it holds 6 rounds of rock and roll
(30-06) instead of most of the others holding 5.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I have a sportered Eddystone here that was rebarreled to 300 win mag. Never had a hitch with it.

Dave
 
davemccarthy707 said:
All false. Eddystones have been known to cause problems if not relief cut before re-barreling due to them being a little harder/brittle than their counterparts. If it has the original barrel (just below the sight it will say something like 9-18 or similiar) it will be fine. I am going to offend every military collector (especially the Garand guys) and say that the U.S. Model of 1917 is the most accurate battle rifle ever built. Ever. That includes all British,Swiss, German, Finnish, Canadian etc. rifles ever built as battle rifles. Not to mention it holds 6 rounds of rock and roll
(30-06) instead of most of the others holding 5.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I have a sportered Eddystone here that was rebarreled to 300 win mag. Never had a hitch with it.

Dave
Click to expand...


Thanks for that good bit of info Dave!

Nabs said:
I always wanted to try a U.S. Model of 1917 but I just haven't found one that speaks to me yet.
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Well if you are ever around North Bay, give me a shout and we can take mine out for a shoot.
 
There are stories about Eddystone and a good block of the early rifles were consigned to DP status by the British even before WWII; you sometimes see examples that never went through the Weedon overhaul, seem hardly used, and yet are DP'd. They probably had reasons for doing that. ;-)

I don't recall the exact details of the receiver cracking issues, but I did read that the workers at Eddystone found that if they heated the receivers white hot they could do the forging in two heats rather than the three they were supposed to use, with predictable effects on the steel. Apparently they were paid on piece work and you have to remember that the labour force turnover at the factories was over 100% per month! The work force didn't give much of a damn, they were out to make as much as they could as fast as they could, while the was lasted and the getting was good.

OK, I just checked and the whole thread is here: ht tp://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=116&t=364&p=1238

Worth reading. I do know where there is a Remington P14 with the barrel split at 9 and 3.

On the other hand...there are thousands of P14 and M17s rechambered or rebarreled to magnum cartridges and how many have gone boom in the wrong way? I haven't heard of any, though there must have been a few.
 
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