DiD you ever find your Enfield?

45nut, The only ones I have found so far are at CMP and they don't sound too pert. I'm still looking.

Do a search at www.gunsamerica.com and look at 1917 and Enfield. There are several available and at good prices for some of them.

Thanks M1, I'll give it a shot.

I've got a Mauser.

Do I want an Enfield, a Garand, or another (nicer) Mauser?

Mil-Tech will sell you a complete rebuilt 1917 for a bit over a grand (new stock, new barrel etc.)...and if you supply the action it runs about $750.00. You can buy the actions from Sarco for just over a hundred bucks.

Most of the ones you'll find for sale have bores that are completely shot out so you will end up re-barreling anyway. Numrich sells brand new barrels in military contour and also sporter types.

I have two 1917's (one Eddystone and one Winchester) both in military configuration and they are great rifles. The only real modification I did to them was to replace the ejector with a coil spring assisted one which you can buy from Numrich Arms for six dollars.

Rick

Thanks Rick, Mil-Tech didn't occur to me. Of course at my age a lot of stuff don't occur to me any more. My lady is going to give me the military rifles I want to complete my collection of shooters for my birthday. So Now I'll start looking for an unmodified Krag. She just got me one of those unissued 98s from Mitchel's Mausers.

My shooting buddy here in Roanoke Rapids has a very nice one he is considering selling. PM your phone number to me and I'll pass it to him. ned

Thanks Ned, I'm interested. Problem is I'm in Colombia and phone calls to here are expensive if you can get through. My email is in my profile. If I can make a deal my son in Texas does the leg work for me so that won't be a problem. Appreciate the help.

Bob,

Mil-Tech also has very nice 98 Mauser's available. I only mentioned them because I have experience with the company and they treated me great with lots of personal attention and service...which ain't all that common nowadays!

Go to their web site: www.miltecharms.com and check them out.

Like you, I'm a shooter not a collector, and these old weapons are great fun to shoot and play with. I've got four 1903's, two 1917's, and two 1898 US Krags.

Good luck!

Rick

Thanks again Rick, I'll check them out. I'm hoping Ned's buddy will get back to me via email.

Hey Rick, I see you have two 1898 Krags. Any suggestions on where to look for one of those? Thanks

Bob,

I bought the bare actions from Sarco ($49.95 each !) they were in really nice condition and am building them up in military configuration...one carbine and one full size. You can find all the parts to complete the actions at any of the companies like Numrich, Sarco or Popperts. Numrich even sells new barrels (both carbine and full length) and Boyd's makes new walnut stocks. I will have less than $500.00 into each rifle when I'm finished, but I'm doing all the work myself.

It's pretty difficult to find complete rifles in original condition but they are out there if you don't mind paying an arm and a leg for them. As with any military rifle of this age the bores are pretty rough and the stocks are normally beat to shit.

I'm a shooter not a collector so I could care less about matching serial numbers, original finish, and all the other things that drive prices up. I have found that most military rifles were reconditioned at some point by the armories anyway and it is very normal to find these rifles with mixed and matched parts that make it almost impossible to say whether or not they are "original." This is especially true with 1903's.

I work in the movie business and a few years ago Stembridge Gun Rentals went out of business. They had been the primary gun rental business in Hollywood for 60 years or so and just walking through their warehouse would make you drool! They had racks and racks of every type of rifle you could imagine and they probably had two or three hundred 1898 Krags and probably 500 or more 1903's. I don't know who bought all their weapons but it was quite a collection. The only problem with most of their rifles was that the bores were totally screwed from firing nothing but blanks for years. It was next to impossible for the prop guys to clean each rifle every day and the barrels certainly showed the lack of attention.

Good luck!

Rick

Rick, Thanks for the info. I'll look on SARCO's web site to see if they still have the Krag actions. If not maybe I can find a dinged up rifle that I can rebuild. I'm the same as you regarding collecting versus shooting. My M1 Garand is one I had built from one of those SARCO kits on a Springfield action with a Boyd's stock and reparkized. It looks good and shoots good but not worth anything to a collector. My 03A3 is a rebuild reparkerized rifle from some outfit in Calif, can't remember the name. My 1914 303 is also a rebuild but not in as good condition as the other military rifles I have. I have an M1 carbine with two stocks, original folding and standard. When I was working for the Chinese Air Force in Taiwan the Col. gave me the folding stock but had his shop refinish it so it's not a collector either. All of them are sure fun to shoot though. I'll post if I find Krag. Again, thanks

Well, looks like I have one bought from Ned's friend. I love this forum. Thanks guys.

My son picked up the Enfield Saturday from our dealer that I bought from Ned's friend. It was just as Ned said, good shape with nice bore. As I said before, I love these forums

A little 1917 Enfield trivia for you...

Theoretically, the torque applied to the barrel on a weapon from the rifling would tend to try to turn the barrel in the opposite direction to the rifling when a round is fired. Most rifles have a barrel thread that will be tightened (again, theoretically) by that torque...right hand thread/right hand rifling twist.

Enfields are just the opposite having a right hand barrel/reciever thread and a left hand rifling twist...so theoretically each time the weapon is fired the resulting torque (opposite the direction of the rifling twist) would be trying to loosen the barrel rather than trying to tighten it. The heavier the bullet, the more torque.

I'm not a physics professor...but I have removed several Enfield 1917 factory barrels and them puppies are about the hardest barrels to break loose of any rifle I have ever worked on.

So much for physics and theories, I guess.

Rick

Rick, I found a 1917 Enfield made by Remington in the back of my home town gunsmith's shop late last year. Some one had cut the bbl to about 10" I made him a deal for it so if I ever want to build a big boomer I have the action. However, I didn't want to take it out of his shop because I think a 10" bbl on a rifle action is not exactly legal. You are right about it being tight. He put it in an action vice and had to use a 3' cheater on his bbl wrench to break it loose. I thought the work bench was going to come unbolted from the floor.

I believe it!

The first one of these I removed I was scared I was going to tweak the receiver.

I think the factories hired Gorillas to mount the barrels on these things!

I had several gunsmiths warn me about buying Enfield receivers that didn't have barrels attached. They said that some of the receivers they had seen in the past had small cracks in the front ring and they believed it probably happened when the barrel was removed without using a proper action wrench to support the receiver.

I don't know if this is true but I do know that these barrels certainly don't seem to be effected in the least by the "loosening" effect of the torque.

I'm probably in the minority but I happen to like the look of Enfields with those big "ears"...maybe its because I have big ears also!

Rick

I sure like them too. My first center fire rifle was an Eddystone Enfield that I bought with paper route money. My Dad ordered it through the CMP for me. The old mechanic at the local airport was an amature gunsmith. He cut the ears off and put it in a Bishop stock for me. When I put together enough money for a scope (Texan from Gibson's, $29.95) he drilled and tapped it for the scope mounts. Broke all his bits and never did get the fourth hole drilled. I still have it and am going to get the Texan scope reworked. Still shoot it periodically. So not only are they hard to get the bbls off but the Eddystones are hard as hell.