Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Got several rifles at a recent on-line auction, including this Eddystone. Won't know till I get it how original it is.



I've read that the Eddystone factory used some technique to attach the barrel that requires a special technique when removing it, lest the receiver be damaged. Anyone know anything about that? Is that true of the Winchester and Remington 1917's also?

I understand that Eddystones usually don't have numbered parts, like European rifles tend to. I also understand that some of the small parts are marked with a letter to identify the manufacturer. Which parts should I examine for the letter?

Thanks for all the help

Steve

I was reading on another forum that you need to put it in a lathe and make a relief cut just in front of the receiver ring as the barrels were put on with some sort of hydrolic pressure. If remove the conventional way it cracks the receiver. I think the others were installed in a conventional way.

Rad

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ive heard that as well , but im not up on the particulars , said to be only eddys ,

heres the marking data you were looking for ........ http://m1903.com/m1917markings.htm

Thanks for the link.

One of the gun store employees that conducted the auction is a regular on another forum and PM'd me with his evaluation of the rifles (1903A3, Eddystone and a Winchester P-14) that I got. Said they were all very nice and that he would see that they were shipped out promptly.

As soon as they arrive, I will post more pics and examine the parts to determine if this is original.

Thanks again

I love my Eddystone. Only 3 parts not Eddystone. The front site is Remington,the front band is Winchester, and the barrel was arsenal replaced during WWII with a Johnson Automatics barrel. A 30 cal. muzzle gage barly hides the "0" line. She is a sweet shooter.

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Let me keep my money, my guns and my Freedom, and you can keep the change

Production figures for the US 1917 Rifle:

Remington (Ilion NY factory): 545,541
Winchester (New Haven CT factory): 465,980
Eddystone Rifle Factory (PA): 1,181, 908

Eddystone Rifle Factory, as it was called, was operated by Remington Arms. The factory was a half-completed shop owned by Baldwin Locomotive Works when Remington acquired it for the production of the Model 1917. When rifle production was completed, the factory was sold to Midvale Steel.

W.H.B. Smith in his book on rifles says that over 1 million M1917's were sent to Great Britain in WW2. If true, that still left plenty of them in the US. Many have been seen with Parkerized finish that were reconditioned in the WW2 era.

no flame intended gary but the factory was set up in 1915 to produce british contracted pattern 1914 rifles originaly , it was converted , along with the winchester and remington facilities for the US contracted model 1917 rifles in 1917 ,
while "owned" by remington , eddystone was opperated independently and no interexchange of parts occured ,

anouther interesting tidbit is that winchester fell way short on deliveries due to 'interchangeability" problems , remington also had problems to a lesser degree delivering just over 80% of their quota to start with but succedfed in overproducing by twice in the end , but eddystone had a three hundred percent success in there initial deliveries ,

eddystone had set a 1 million rifle goal in its first year and actualy had 1,332,477 rifles accepted in the first year ,

Yes, I mis-spoke. I should have included the P14's, which the M1917 was spun off from. My point was that Remington only used the Eddystone plant for WW1 production, and was not an on-going part of their enterprise. I don't know exactly how Remington ran the Eddystone plant; I do know that the history books say that it was a Remington plant during the time of the "American Enfield." If I am not mistaken, the P14 was also made by Winchester (New Haven CT) and Remington (Ilion NY) prior to changing their lines over to US production of the M1917.

The M1917 was issued to US forces in WW2 as a kind of subsititute standard to rear area troops in theaters of war and for training soldiers in the US.