I found a very high serial# 1917 Remington Enfield receiver. It came from a forum member and from the cosmoline, it appeared unused. With the help of Duane Wiebe, John Farner, Nick Hughes, and James Anderson, it is coming together. I forgot Kerry Stottlemyer. Kerry did some micro tig welding to the bolt face that James Anderson requested to help in feeding. John Farner did the prelim metal work on the receiver. He removed the ears on the back and did the first surface grind. John also fitted the bottom metal and made a mag box. He used one of Wiebe's CNC follower and his hinged bottom metal. Ed LaPour was out of production on 3 POS safeties at the time. John piece together one for me that works and looks great. On to Nick Hughes, Nick did the final surface grind, built the scope bases and rings. They are the Burgess style. He welded and shaped the Burgess bolt handle for it. He finished with I believe the first of his short run of custom bolt releases. It does have a Timney trigger. Now James Anderson has it to chamber the Shilen barrel, quarter rib, front sight, and barrel sling stud. He also added an extra recoil lug to the barrel. I really like the classic looking extended tangs added to it. You might notice that he did a lot of mill work on the original tang. James is working on the stock at this time. It will be in what I call the old British style with a pancake cheek piece and a short fore end. Duane Wiebe has reluctantly agreed to checker it with his flat top checkering. I wanted this feature and couldn't find anybody that would do it anyplace in the old USofA. I really twisted Duane's arm on this. Mr Tommy Kaye has agreed to come out of retirement to do some subtle engraving on it.

Butch,
I have to confess, when people post pictures of work like this, I tend to mentally refer to these people using terms usually reserved to describe reproductive organs. You see, one result of these pictures is that I now have to waste the time to line a bunch of my old rifles up along the fence so I can throw rocks at them. This will probably injure my throwing arm and I'll be unable to work for the next week!
Regarding the flat topped checkering: I often do this but never the whole pattern and never on purpose! There are three guys up here who do a real nice job of it; Martin Hagn, Ralf Martini, and Lew Bates. You have, no doubt, seen work by the first two.
Really, that is beyond nice and I feel considerable envy for the skills those guys have demonstrated here.
Though it will undoubtedly hurt my feelings to see it, could you post a couple of pictures of that bolt stop? GD

very cool in every detail. very well thought out and the artist doing it. very, very deep pockets too!!!
can i test fire? pleaseeeee!

That's going to be as close to a Burgess as currently possible.

Keep those pictures coming.

DF

Pictures of Nick's bolt release.




As far as deep pockets. About as much as any old auto repair mechanic end up with. I have a machine shop at home and do a very little work to help pay for it. Also if you have the patience to wait five years or so it doesn't hurt as bad.
I have one more photo to add later.

sorry i did not intend to insult, time does heal and makes things even better once you get them. my 1922 m2 custom is in its 4th year. i will get it some day. again i did not intend to be sounding ugly.

Not a problem domit, just don't want anybody to think I was the local bondholder. This was the term my old military Dad used to refer to the folks in town with money.

Super.

Look forward to the progression.

DF

I like those ol' 1917's, and this one promises to become a very special rifle.

Thanks a bunch for showing us the in-progress photos!

Regards, Guy

Thanks for those pictures, Butch. I'm in the middle of re-working a Remington Model 30 and the bolt stop/ejector is one of the things which has to be changed. It's hard to beat the Mauser stop for simplicity and function and he has done a nice job of making a Mauser type to work on the Enfield. Good stuff. GD

does it cock on opening or closing?

Butch, I enjoy your posts.

Thank you.

Wow....wonderful stuff to see.I love the extended tang work.Very crisp.

cool stuff, keep thinking bout turning my 1917 into a 404 Jeffery but cash has been lacking, but i plan on keeping the original safety as i really like it over the 3 position safety hanging off the bolt but thats personal preference....right now its a 338-06 and is heavy enough i dont pack it at 9 pounds and change and think i need to turn it into a big bore to make use of the weight....

Stunning!

yup....and more.....that is something to be proud of!

Hey Terry,
I was going to call you last week. Haven't heard from you in a couple weeks.
My Grandson, Josh, is in from West Virginia U. for a small 10 day break from football and classes. We are going hog hunting next week and then he is back to year round conditioning and he will take 9 hours in summer school.

Thank you sharing the story and photos of what be a truly wonderful rifle. Please keep them coming. GRF

Yeah, I've been sorta tied up too. I've been transferred to Nashville TN and I'm trying to tie up loose ends here. No big deal. Call me when it's convienent. My phone had to go in for repairs and I didn't transfer my numbers into my "loaner."

Butch I love your taste!

I love that whole friggin build!

Butch, James Flynn does a lot of work on high end guns, like H&H, Purdeys, etc. He's a master gunmaker, doing both metal and wood work. He does a great flat topped, vintage checkering job and is a master of the leather (pig skin) covered pad.

Here's a Shotgunworld link to a Superposed he restored for me. It was Major Charles Askins, Sr.'s personal gun.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=124719&start=200

Scroll down near the bottom of the link for a photo of James' flat top checkering. You'll also see his leather covered pad.

DF

IIRC this fantastic work on the enfield emulates the same work originally done by Tom Burgess on Enfields years back.

Only person I know who has/had one is Bill Steigers of Bitterroot bullet,who had a 458 on a blown out 404 Jeffrey case chambered in a much modified enfield that Burgess did for him.

This is great stuff and fabulous metal work.

Here is another SGW link, showing a .470 Tolley that James Flynn reworked.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=124719&start=440

Do a word search for James Flynn Gunmaker to see some of his other work.

DF

DF nice stuff...

Here's a .404J, Burgess Enfield.

What Butch is doing will be as close to a Burgess as humanly possible, today.

Butch you don't take this thing to Africa and its bad rifle ju-ju for you FOREVER !!!!

Seriously this build is already screaming "BLACK DEATH!!"

I always look forward to your posts. Always work of the highest caliber. I am especially pleased to see an Enfield as the basis for this work of art. I had two of them, both purchased when they were $29.95. They were too heavy for an 06 so I let them go. I can still kick myself when I see a post like this.
Thank you, sir.

Whatever happened to this rifle build?

Man I'm sorry. I thought I posted photos of the finished rifle. It was featured in color as the custom rifle on the back cover of the ACGG magazine.






Nick Hughes does the best Burgess work that I have seen. He had spent quite a bit of time with Burgess. James Anderson did the extended tangs and the barrel and quarter rib. James also did a great job on the stock.

WOW! Agree with Efw,that rifle needs to go to Africa and hunt Cape buffalo.

Breath taking,...

GTC

Amazing! Butch I kinda hate you right now.

GreggH

Beautifully done!

Mike

Tagged

Butch,

I think you know what I think of this gun... it's a work of art. However, since I split a rotator cuff I will let some one else test fire it.

Did you ever buy Josh a 944?

Move over a bit so I can hate him a little too. Amazing.

No Tikka, mind you, but amazing!

Thanks to my friends.
No Dick, the 944 was for another Grandson. His dad, my Son, gave him his 95? BMW 320 with about 300,000 miles on it.
Josh is my West Virginia football playing Grandson. He has, in my opinion, a POS 4door Jeep. Josh is my big gun test driver. I hope to only need it for 1 shot.

Construction detail Q, Butch

Is the lower tang, or it's interconnected pistol grip cap connected to the upper tang with a through bolt (?)

Thx

Greg

Super piece, Butch.

Thanks for posting.

I'd hate to scratch that work of art on African thorny bushes, etc. But, I guess it was made for just that.

DF

+1

TOTALLY!!!!

Greg,
The lower tang is tig welded to the bottom metal and the upper tang is tigged to the rear tang of the receiver. No through bolts.

Work of art that, wow WOW!

Add one more WOW! to the list.

Easily the nicest enfield Ive ever seen...

Beautiful Butch. Well done, and thanks for posting. v/r Joel

We've all done dumb things like this. I've sold Enfields, Springfields, Mausers and a Ruger 44 Mag Flattop, all for bargain prices.. Wish I could do a go-back!

Butch - beautiful work; keep the pictures coming!

Stunning, as usual!!

Have to agree with ingwe.......

Scary as that is, I'll have to go with you on that one...

DF

That is an amazing rifle! A true work of art and a piece to be proud of.