1917 Eddystone at auction today

[Foul Mike]

I watched a fairly nice Eddystone at auction today. Old dirt but from Akron Colo. so most was dry and mix in some old Hoppes and gun oil. About 75% I would say. Had a 4 land Bbl but so dirty you could about not tell. Probably a nice bore underneath but you don't know.
It went for $500. plus tax and transfer fees so got up towards 6 all said and done and 60 miles away.
I probably should have bid more but I am cheap. I hope to see another like that one of these days. FM

 

[sirhrmechanic]

That was a steal.... sorry you didn't end up with it.

I always say that I regret the things I didn't buy, not the things I did buy.

Then again, I probably would have tried to bottom-feed it, too. The thing about auctions is that it could go for peanuts (it did) or two people might have gotten into a "my Schwantz is bigger than your Schwantz" competition... and it could have gone for 5x value.

Would be a nice rifle to have, though!!! Thanks for sharing.

Sirhr

 

[Dan M]

A four groove barrel would be a replacement barrel...original barrels were 5 groove with left hand twist.

Was it a Rock Island Arsenal marked barrel?

ETA- High Standard made 4 groove M1917 replacement barrels as well

 

[Foul Mike]

I am not sure, I just knew it wasn't a 2 groove. Probably as you identify it. I stopped a 5 and now I am happy as it went to a young guy who likes it.
Had I known it was him I would have stopped earlier. FM

 

[sandwarrior]

A four groove barrel would be a replacement barrel...original barrels were 5 groove with left hand twist.

Was it a Rock Island Arsenal marked barrel?

ETA- High Standard made 4 groove M1917 replacement barrels as well

What were all the two groove barrel 1917's. I thought the two groove were standard on them?

 

[Dan M]

JA- Johnson Automatics

 

[sandwarrior]

I'm somehow missing something in that I understood a bunch of these came with original two groove barrels. Later production I understood? I know there were re-barrels done post WWI with two groove.

FWIW, my Winchester, which was marked with a W and 372 was a two groove that had what I thought was an original barrel. The marking obviously made it a leftover P-14 action. It was marked U.S. something. But, not U.S. Model of 1917.

 

[NukeMMC]

FYI ... Getting ready to list a Winchester 1917 and an Enfield P14

 

[Dan M]

All M1917s as manufactured came with 5 groove left hand Enfield Pattern rifling. Winchester, Remington and Eddystone all followed this pattern. Winchester also produced a run of replacement barrels in 1919 with 5 groove Enfield Rifling.

Existing stocks of barrels were used in the post WW1 rebuild program. For the Second World War, contracts were awarded to High Standard (4 groove barrel) and Johnson Automatics (2 groove barrels)
Rock Island also provided barrels... interesting story on those...blanks were provided by Remington, turned to size by Savage and finish machined by RIA.

i have never seen a M1917 with a 2 grooved non- JA (Johnson Automatics) marked barrel. Winchester did start making rifles before the drawings were finalized...and failed interchangability (reason why early WRA M1917s are marked with a star in a circle...those rifles were prohibited to be sent overseas with the AEF to France)

Hard to say what is up with that rifle. Long ago i did see a couple of M1 rifles that has 2 groove 03A3 barrels fitted to the stub of the original barrel...those M1s were also rewelds.

 

[Foul Mike]

The barrel on this rifle was so dirty I could not tell if it was twisted right or left and quite frankly didn't know what I was looking at as far as the bore goes. I could only see that it had more than 2 grooves.
I do wish now that I had bid more and bought it but that is water under the bridge.
I have learned a lot from this thread and thank you all for the information. FM

 

[sandwarrior]

ahh finally finding and figuring out how to post with a smart phone.

If you can see the two proofs on the barrel, would that explain why my Winchester 1917 was a two groove?

 

[Dan M]

Check to see if there is a seam foward of the chamber... or an ordnance escutcheon (flame and shell) with JA above it... those are the only two possible explanations for a two groove barrel on a M1917. That is a VERY early Winchester M1917... like end of first week/beginning of second week of production off the top of my head. It was manufactured with a 5 groove barrel, but the rifle did not have parts interchangability... lots of hand fitted parts, no bueno for the field.

For those who wish to get one as a shooter, you may find this useful...The groove diameter for Second World War replacement two and four groove barrels are between .3075 min through .3095 max, except for a time when up to .310 was allowable...most of the barrels meet the min/max standard. The First World War 5 groove barrels run a nominal diameter of .310... let me explain. The barrels were rifled using the enfield system...the bore diameter was .300 with a rifling depth of .005, giving a nominal groove diameter of .310 +/- due to wartime manufacturing tolerances.