Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 1917 Enfield

Evening,
I am fixing up an old enfield,it had an old Lyman 21/2 power Alaskan scope so I had it re drilled for mounts.am ordering a timney trigger,I don't mind a good 2 stage trigger but the original sux. It's still sporting the original barrel and is still accurate as heck and has quite a nice older custom stock.Anyone else like these old gals?

Sure! Mine was a favorite until my youngest son decided it was his a few years ago. He's gone on to take bucks & bears with it. I had the barrel cut to 21" and put it in a B&C stock quite a while ago. Topped it with a 6x Leupold too.

Dad originally "sporterized" it shortly after WWII. It's been in our family a long time and continues to do well.

My son practicing with it at the rifle range:


And with his first bear:


We normally load 165 gr Nosler Partitions for it, with H4350.

Regards, Guy

Well, I guess....

Got a pair of them...

Actually the old Enfield is my favorite action...

Have one Winchester Made and one Remington Made..

no Eddystones...

I've got a few beautiful M1917 rifles. One even has an Elmer Keith inspection cartouche on the stock, whatever that's worth. But it's an interesting conversation piece.

I'm an lefty so I can't properly run the 1917 or the Brit SMLE type rifles. But I know there's an technique to run the m1917 and you'll understand by looking at the relationship of bolt knob to trigger. It's fun to watch a good bolt gun operator shoot and then reload with an clip. I just wish I weren't an lefty in an world of right handed bolt rifles.

I have a couple of 1917s in my safe. a 9.3x62 scout and recently completed 458 lott. its a grand old action to build off.

I grew up using one and find it very easy to "run"....

Awesome rifle Josh

I keep my eyes out for a 17 to make into a 400 Whelen.. it’s a horse of an action.

Yeah, I had a minty one. Grease all over it. It was an Eddystone, like a foolish kid years ago I traded it for something I don't have anymore.

Old son has two. One in .270 WCF is he "go to" for serious shooting. Many elk, deer, hogs have succumbed to that rifle. The other is a .300 H&H put together back in the day by old time Austin gunsmith, J.F. "Buster" Kreuz. I've seen him take elk with both rifles.

Have you ever had the ejector spring modified? They can be problematic at times.

Where'd ja get that stock?

My ejector springs ALWAYS get modified. Only coil spring for me now... Have had too many of the leaf springs break... I was 13 years old when I modified my first one...

Here's one of my favorite rifles. It has a left handed stock on it...:

I've got an Eddystone version that my grandfather sporterized when he bought it. He made the stock himself, and while it's kinda clunky and heavy, it was his and I can't help but think of him each time I take it out. I haven't shot it in probably 10 years, but my boys each want to take it out in the field this year in memory of him.

When I was 16 (growing up in East TX) a dying uncle gave me a pristine, full military Eddystone and a bandolier of Garand clips with armor piercing ammo. It shot that ammo to POA and was really, really accurate. It was not regulated, of course, with sporting 150gr ammo. It would shoot them about 15" high at 100. I cut the stock down myself and then left it with a gunsmith who was going to "really" sporterized it, but then he absconded with everyone's guns and skipped town. A year later the Texas Rangers found him and a wad og guns and mine was recovered. He had cut the barrel back to 24"/crowned it, and had ground the ears off/removed the peep and drilled/tapped it for a scope. He also had attached Williams Guide sights/ramp front. I then went in the Army and when I got out we just used it as a spare rifle, none of us ever killed anything with it. About 7 years later I met a friend (and he was my boss) who was into home Gunsmithing and he and I made it a project. It still had the Perch Belly magazine, so I found a "bargain" Enfield sporter stock from Bishops for $20 ( 1980 dollars). My friend inletted/shaped it to what I thought felt good and as slim as I could get it. We put a Traister trigger in it and he filled the big hole on the back bridge with epoxy. I then added a 2 pc Weaver base. Because the receiver was not ground down to Mod 70 specs, it took a Medium ring and a High ring to get the scope on a normal axis. I had a Tasco 4X with a 4 minute Dot from a trade so put it on. I then used Tung Oil, hand rubbed 7 coats on with wet sanding in between coats. I shot all kinds of ammo but only two handloads, bith using the Sierra 200 sbt and the Speer 200HC through that thing. (I really wanted it rebored to the 338/06 like Elmer's! Young family/poor pay held me back, ha) That big Enfield barrel was awesome! I just used the tip top of the Dot as an aiming point and I could wad up the loads it liked. I had other rifles that I used, but I jetted them all but this one when I went off to Bible School, Tulsa. I found a small rifle range with two benchrests in Wagner, about 25 miles from where I lived. I rigged up my RCBS Rockchucker to a board that I C-clamped to the kitchen table and I was in business! ha. I settled on IMR 4350, BR2 primers, Remington cases (prepped) and Sierra bullets. I used 59gr/150PH; 58gr/165SBT; 57gr/180PH; and 54gr/200SBT (like before back in Texas) Later, in Utah, I carried that thing down a huge canyon on an easy Forestry trail. It took me "hours" to get me and that 10 pound booger back up out of it! ha. I ended up giving that rifle to an older friend (lady) who used it to train kids to shoot (she is still around, still helping kids, and her grandson used it to kill a huge 5x5 with his dad along. His dad died a couple years later and it had been a great memory for him. It made me proud. I know my Uncle Bud would have been too). So, yes, they are accurate, they are bulky, they are heavy, they are kinda weird looking (even sporterized) but dang near indestructible, ha.

I wish you could still find 1917's and 03'A3's for less than a grand in any shape worth having!!!

Mike

I wish I had a dollar for every one of those things we cut/ground/built on at a Rifle guys’s shop I worked at back in my college days. Pallets full that he’d buy at auction.

Enfield's are cool,
I came into a Winchester made Enfield action a few years back. The size of the action dictated I should build something large!
So I built a 338 Lapua. It was a awesome rifle , but a young veteran had to have it , down the road it went. I am glad he has it and enjoys it but i kinda miss it.

Picked up this old warhorse a little less than a year ago. Somebody put a lot of work into it, although their purpose was to make a hunting tool rather than a showcase piece. Wish it could tell it's history. Although in really sad shape, it appealed to me and I have every intention of letting it make meat again.





The Weaver 330 M8 scope was still zeroed when I shot it, although the lens were so milky I could hardly see the bulls eye through it. I took it hunting once last season knowing I couldn't hit anything without a perfect setup and excellent light. No deer appeared but one armadillo paid the price of crossing my path.

The Weaver was sent to L&K to be refurbished and is now clear and ready to go. The Stith mounts are solid as a rock and the old crushed recoil pad is replaced. The finish is in sad shape but it will stay as is. I have 220 gr RN loads for it and it will be used primarily as a mid day walkabout rifle.

It’s in a Springfield stock. Didn’t know that would work

Yeah, that was another part of the "lot of work" comment. The action was completely scrubbed, I guess while taking off the hump, so I don't know what the origin is either.