Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Remmy Mod 1917 Sporter cock on close

I am looking at a pretty well put together Rem P17 sporter. 30-06 right now. Barrel is 25 inch. It has cock on close. Been looking around and see that a lot people like this feature and do not go through the conversion to cock on opening. What say you. I am going to re-bore it to 9.3x62 or 35 Whelen. Should be able to get some nice velocity increases with this longer barrel

My Eddystone still has the full length 26" barrel and original cock on close. All I'll tell you is to not shoot it as is. Simply for the reason that they shoot so good you won't have it rebored. They built them cock on close so that they would cycle faster on the ejection phase sounds kinda funny but that's what Gen. Hatcher said in Hatchers note book. Original style barrels were 5 groove long before the current 5 groove rage. Try to get some discourse on this gun from BSA17 & Gnnoah they both have good handles on these. MB

Sounds like a nice rifle. However, I sure have seen a lot of bubba'd m1917's in my day. The thing I look for is how well they filled and machined the "ears" off of the rear bridge of the receiver. I guess I know a little about these rifles, as I started out with one when I was 12 years old. It was a beautiful rifle and extremely accurate. It had a timney sportsman trigger in it and I remember when I got it, it was so light of a pull that it would actually fire sometimes when I would close the bolt. It was a heavy barrel custom build that my dad bought from one of his buddies that was a gunsmith. My first rifle was chambered in 30-06 and it would shoot cloverleaf groups. My dad was amazed at its accuracy and I think that rifle is what convinced me that every bolt action rifle should be that accurate. It was not converted to cock on open, and I came to appreciate the cock on close feature. As Magnum Bob said, they were designed that way to aide in ejection and speed of operating the bolt. Of course, closing the bolt down as it cocked the rifle seems like it took more effort, but you get used to it over time. I remember shooting tons of jack rabbits with mine, before I started big game hunting with it.. So, like I said, the first thing I look at is how clean (well machined) the rear bridge is and make damn sure the drilling and tapping is in line and centered with the bore. I've seen some where you could tell with the naked eye that they were off. I usually walk away if its too bubba'd up and let me tell you, usually about 75% of them are pretty rough and not worth my time.

This is what a clean receiver looks like with the ears properly machined off, filled in and polished out and drilled and tapped for scope bases:

(BSA model E)^^

This rifle is probably my favorite hunting rifle and its seen a lot of use in the field. It has a custom left hand stock with left hand palm swell, as I shoot left handed and this rifle really fits me. I love the location of the safety lever and how easy it is to manipulate, even though I shoot left handed... Here's another pic of the other side of the rifle:


Now, since you are asking about cock on close vs. cock on open, I will say that if its done right it can be really nice. Generally the kit most people get is the Dayton Traister speed lock kit. It consists of a modified cocking piece, the trigger, a lighter firing pin and a new firing pin spring. I'm going to assume there were other companies that made the cock on open conversion for these m1917's, as I've been told you can only use the dayton traister trigger in this kit. Mine on the other had has the Timney sportsman trigger in it. I know this, because I installed it myself. It works without flaw and is a major improvement over the old military trigger. Every m1917 I've ever owned has been upgraded with the Timney trigger. This rifle is the only m1917 that I've had that is cock on open. It works more like my pre 64 model 70's. It actually has a pre 64 model 70 extractor on it, as that spruces them up and some guys don't know you can do this, so I'm just throwing it out there. I also always change out or modify the ejector spring. They were made with a leaf spring and that always breaks over time. Its inevitable that it's going to break on you, so you might as well replace it. Here's what that looks like:


For a few years (1949-1951, I believe) BSA in England was taking old war surplus m1917's and sporterizing them. They were really turning out some nice rifles. Kind of reminiscent of the Winchester pre 64 model 70. Here's an old 1951 model D I fixed up. This rifle was so damn accurate, it would give any of my Tikka's a run for their money:


Oddly enough, BSA never converted their sporterized m1917's to cock on open. Even their Model E was left with the cock on closing feature. Not that it breaks my heart because it operates just fine. Here's a model E that i recently had re-chambered to 308 Norma magnum:


My m1917's are my "go to" hunting rifles, because I know I can count on them. They are very robust and accurate. My magnums hold 4 in the mag box, and my 30-06's hold 5-6, depending on which rifle I grab. For the OP, if you are thinking about converting yours over to 9.3, you'll have a hell of a lot of good reliable fire power there. Good luck with yours, as I really enjoy mine. Also, butch lambert built a very nice m1917, that maybe he could show off. Last time I saw pics of it, it was quite the show piece...

I recently acquired a Remington Model 30 Express chambered in 30 Remington. The Model 30s were M1917s "factory sporterized", I guess you could say, by Remington after WW1. The early ones were close on cock, and later ones were changed to cock on open. Very nice rifles, I'm looking forward to shooting it.

Good info. You are correct.

Everyone has different preferences, but I have been a loony since the 1960's...I got NO problems with cock on closing. Have had a couple 1917's and a model 30 Rem Exp, in each configuration, no preference. Some of the old aftermarket speedlock kits (Dayton -Traister) were junk and I changed a couple rifles back to as issued, just slightly changing the striker travel to a bit shorter. But then I am one of those loonies that likes a well tuned 2 stage trigger.

A question, will a Timney trigger work with both cock on close and cock on open actions ?

Sweet rifle. If I were to buy one I’d probably consider having it rechambered to .300 RUM or Weatherby. Might as well take full advantage of that nice long action and well made 5-grove tube!

Either way id leave cock-on-close. They’re very cool rifles congratulations on a sweet find!

Read my post above^^^ however, it would probably depend on which kit Remington used in their conversion.

I don't know, but I doubt Remington was using aftermarket "kits" in their conversions.

I've installed close to 20 Dayton-Traister cock-on-opening kits on Swedish SR Mauser actions and never had a problem with them. Sometimes they needed a little polishing, but I have never though of them as junk. All of the SR Mausers that I put a Dayton-Traister kits on also had Bold or Timney triggers installed at the same time. All of them worked fine.

I've never been a P14 or 1917 fan, so I've never owned one of them long enough to work on any of them.

260remguy, I don't know how the m96 cock on open kit applies to the m1917. They are 2 totally different animals...

Nice rifles makes me want to customize mine.
Joe

I’ve had a couple, cock on close never bothered me.