New to me P-17

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davemccarthy707

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I traded my Auto-5 for a M-1917 (P-17) and I am thoroughly impressed! It looks like it hasn't been fired since 1918 when it was built. The bore is mirror clean now (after I de-preserved it).
The bolt looks like it was cycled very little.

When the weather gets a little nicer I will take her out and try her.

Anyways here are some pics.

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Very nice toy!

Too bad it's so far from here to Town, or I'd bring out a couple of mine and we could go murder a tin can!

I find that you can get really excellent accuracy out of the .30-'06 by loading to the World War One specs: a 150-grain FLATBASE pointed bullet at 2700 ft/sec. This is 'way below how folks load them nowadays, but it kicks less, your barrel lasts longer (not that you'll have trouble with that: Enfield rifling) and it is very accurate.

Have fun!
 
rattus said:
Any marks on the stock? C-Broad arrow? Is there any red paint near the muzzle? Just wondering if it is a Canadian home guard rifle.
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No C-broad arrow or red paint. The only stock stamp is by the trigger guard it is 2M underneath that is an eagle, underneath that are the numbers 023.
 
That rifle is very nice, Dave. Keep it in good shape. If I were you I'd take a $150 sporterized Lee Enfield or Enfield for hunting and I'd keep that M1917 for range shooting!

Lou
 
Yeah, that is sorta nice to be out moose-blasting with.

OR.... somebody's BOUND to have some Bubba'd wood you could get, then bed the thing, slap on an S&K mount and a scope and you'd be ready for anything.
 
very nice model of 1917. I have one the same. it shoots very well. I load 150gr fngc cast lead bullets and they will shoot in about 1 1/2 to 1 1/4" groups at a hundred yards. never got down to 1" but it is fun trying.
 
louthepou said:
That rifle is very nice, Dave. Keep it in good shape. If I were you I'd take a $150 sporterized Lee Enfield or Enfield for hunting and I'd keep that M1917 for range shooting!

Lou
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Hi Lou, I am kinda torn now that I have this rifle. My original intent was to turn it into a nice hunting rifle. I thought these were just as common as the Lee Enfield. Turns out they are kinda rare (in comparison to the LE). So now I am thinking about passing it along to someone who will enjoy it as a milsurp. I really will only use it as a hunting rifle to back up my 300 win mag tikka m695 on a party licence. Maybe I should re-think this hmmm? I also have a unfired Polish M-44 coming that I could turn into a nice moose gun too....but that one is also still in the grease....oh my.
 
davemccarthy707 said:
Hi Lou, I am kinda torn now that I have this rifle. My original intent was to turn it into a nice hunting rifle. I thought these were just as common as the Lee Enfield. Turns out they are kinda rare (in comparison to the LE). So now I am thinking about passing it along to someone who will enjoy it as a milsurp. I really will only use it as a hunting rifle to back up my 300 win mag tikka m695 on a party licence. Maybe I should re-think this hmmm? I also have a unfired Polish M-44 coming that I could turn into a nice moose gun too....but that one is also still in the grease....oh my.
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Now you're just taunting us....:p
 
Riflechair said:
CAI VTK stamped on the barrel just shy of the muzzle?
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No, what is there looks like this

E
Flaming bomb
11-18

You have to remember too Newfoundland was a British Dominion until 1949. There is a good chance this rifle came from a PX off one of the American military bases here. Therefore it wouldnt have any Canadian markings.
 
Please please don't chop the wood on these rifles. Both your M1917 and the unfired M44 have MUCH more value (both on the money side and on the heritage side) staying the way they are. And decent bush guns abound, they are everywhere and cheap. Some even already drilled and taped for scope. Save money, trouble, and save folks like me some heartburns! :)

Lou
 
louthepou said:
Please please don't chop the wood on these rifles. Both your M1917 and the unfired M44 have MUCH more value (both on the money side and on the heritage side) staying the way they are. And decent bush guns abound, they are everywhere and cheap. Some even already drilled and taped for scope. Save money, trouble, and save folks like me some heartburns! :)

Lou
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Rest assured I wont be cutting either one down. At best I will hunt them as they are. At worst I will get an s&k mount for the eddystone and mount a 6x scope.
 
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Nice M1917s seem to keep turning up. Bought a cherry Eddystone @ the Penticton gunshow this weekend. All Eddy parts, bbl date 11-18, mint bore, muzzle gauging .301, nice matching wood with a few minor dings and deep inspection marks. There are no import marks and it came with a Kerr sling and nickle plated oiler with pull thru and brush.:)

The seller made the modest claim that it was "the nicest one in Canada".:eek: Actually it is the 2nd or 3rd nicest,as I have owned the nicest one with a 10-18 bbl since 1974.:p

Back in 1991-92 SIR in Winnipeg was selling the Danish surplus ones, and they were very nice. Got 2 Rems and a Win at that time. There was some degree of parts mis-match on these,but they were in ex overall condition. The ex-Danish ones can be ID'd from a s/n on the bottom of the stock, a s/n on the bolt, sometimes a roll pin type front sight, and sometimes a notch milled out of the rear face of the receiver to facilitate clip loading. I could never figure out why as they fed quite nicely the way they were made.:confused:
 
Remington Arsenal at Eddystone, Pennsylvania, November, 1918.

They started cancelling the contracts on November 5, 1918 and all production had ceased by November 11. Your rifle was made in the very last week of the war, when they were turning out close to 4,000 rifles a day at that plant alone.... plus spare parts. Last few days, they stopped most work, just cleaned up what semi-manufactured parts which were already in progress, didn't even finish that off. Government made a buy-out of finished spares based on degree of completeness, trashed quite a lot of them.

Your rifle has a real story behind it. I have its mate here (same factory, same week) and it is a great shooter, even if it does look sort of like somebody landed a B-17 on top of it.

The American pull-out from Newfoundland wasn't as sudden as generally thought; they actually maintained some small bases (radar station by Tilting Hr, Fogo Island) until the middle 1950s and they kept a couple of big ones until the final sell-off in the late 1970s. But they left a LOT of neat stuff lying around....
 
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