One of my hunting buddies,
got himself a prety cool old sporerized enfield, The reciever says Remington 1918.
This rifle wsa done up by someone who knows what he is doing. Yhe stock is very nice, and I plan to help him load for it. it is a 375 H&H.
Is this a strong action ? I mean it awfully old, but its sure has a lot of steel in the right places ? Any help would be apreciated...tj3006

quote:

Originally posted by Thomas Jones:
One of my hunting buddies,
got himself a prety cool old sporerized enfield, The reciever says Remington 1918.
This rifle wsa done up by someone who knows what he is doing. Yhe stock is very nice, and I plan to help him load for it. it is a 375 H&H.
Is this a strong action ? I mean it awfully old, but its sure has a lot of steel in the right places ? Any help would be apreciated...tj3006

Yes it's a strong action. This is the action a lot of guys use to build the big boomers. Do a search and you will get plenty of info about the M1917.

The term strong is relative.....however the Remington (enfield) 1917 and 1918 will hold almost any cartridge you can feed thru it. Including the .458 Lott, the .470 Capstick, the .404 Jeffery, the .416 Rem Mag and others. Load up the .375 RUM if you want. That old action is extremely strong.

Quick , box it up and ship it to me before your buddy ever shoots it. It is OOOOLD, so it must be unsafe, the 375H&H will rip his shoulder off. I will store it safely next to my 458 Lott/Rem-30S.



Have fun with it.

Hog Killer

Does the Eddystone Model 1917 Enfield fall into this same group as the Remington 30 for strenght and DGR capability?

quote:

Does the Eddystone Model 1917 Enfield fall into this same group as the Remington 30 for strenght and DGR capability?

I've not worked on an eddystone other than to restock the original .30-06 barreled action but the advice I've read warns of cracked receiver rings. Also the receiver rings on the eddystones I've used are extremely hard....to the point that spot annealing is done to drill and tap the receiver.

It takes a ton of cash to make these into a big bore action.....I'd not use an eddystone given this advice from others. Winchester and Remington models are still available and I've seen them for as little as $150.....I bought mine in 1966 for $10

Thanks for the reply Vapodog. I have a complete Eddystone action that I had to undercut the barrel on to get it to unscrew. Now that it is removed I would like to barrel it to 416 Rem. Are you suggesting I just abandon the project for this action for saftey reasons. I will do all the metal work myself in cluding the opening up of the mag box.

Eddystone is the name of a town in Pennsylvania where the Remington Arms company bought the Baldwin Locomotive Works factory in 1914 to produce Enfield P14 rifles under contract for England...and where the Remington Arms company also produced Enfield M17 rifles for the USA.

I have never heard anyone say that model 30’s are weak...yet Remington used up the all the left over Enfield receivers from their factories in Eddystone and Illion before they started building new receivers for the model 30’s.

Read Roy Marcot’s book Remington, America’s Oldest Gunmaker.

quote:

Are you suggesting I just abandon the project for this action for saftey reasons.

No, I'm suggesting you trade it for one stamped Remington or Winchester.

quote:

Originally posted by olcrip:
Thanks for the reply Vapodog. I have a complete Eddystone action that I had to undercut the barrel on to get it to unscrew. Now that it is removed I would like to barrel it to 416 Rem. Are you suggesting I just abandon the project for this action for saftey reasons. I will do all the metal work myself in cluding the opening up of the mag box.

I would do one of two things before using an Eddystone:

1. Soak the receiver in oil for a couple of days, then wipe it clean and mildly squeeze it in a vice to determine if there are any hairline cracks in the receiver ring, or,

2. Have it magnafluxed to check for cracks.

The Eddystones seemed to turn up with reeiver ring cracks more than other 1917's, but this may have been due to gorilla-handed attempts to remove barrels, which caused the receiver rings to crack. Judging by the way you removed the old barrel, yours is probably not cracked.

If your testing reveals no receiver ring cracks, it should be as good as any other 1917 for a rebarrel job.

A much easier way to detect a crack is dunk the action in a can of gas and walk out into the sun and inspect the action...Any crack will show up very clearly...

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
A much easier way to detect a crack is dunk the action in a can of gas and walk out into the sun and inspect the action...Any crack will show up very clearly...

Geez...nowadays, with the cost of gas, it would be cheaper to buy a new rifle, and use the left over cash to buy some ammo!

good one Rick

Billy,

Sometimes these “oh so serious“ discussions need a bit of humor injected!

From what I understand, the reason for the cracker receivers was the original barrels were screwed on too tight. The cracking occurred when someone tried to remove the too tight barrel.
He said he had to undercut the barrel to get it off. If he tried to remove it first, before doing the undercutting, I would suggest the soak in gasoline for a few minutes, and place it it the sun. If no cracks shot, the action should be just fine.
Paul B.

Thanks to all you guys for your input. It makes me feel better. If I go ahead and do the gasoline test can I use ethynal or use regular?
Corn gas is the thing of the future and my project is slated for the futere. I love the way everybody throws in a bit of banter to make life a little more bearable. It sure takes the edge off all the serious KAKA in this poitically erect world full of stand up statesmen. The best money can buy.

I have two Enfields built from old barreled actions...one a Winchester and one an Eddystone...and I had to cut into the old barrel with a hack saw up near the receiver in order to get both of them off. Enfields, from all manufacturers, are notorious for having the barrels put on by gorillas.

I have no idea how much this would also effect the tightness, but Enfields also used a left hand twist which would naturally try to tighten the barrel each time a round was fired...I think!

quote:

Originally posted by Paul B:
From what I understand, the reason for the cracker receivers was the original barrels were screwed on too tight. The cracking occurred when someone tried to remove the too tight barrel.
Paul B.

That may be correct in some instances. Another reason, according to the NRA Technical Staff, is improper heat treating of the receivers during production. Much the same problem as with the "low number" Springfields, though not identical. Personally, I'd spend the few bucks to get it magnafluxed. Lots cheaper than getting some artifical body part(s) after an incident. Most, however, apparently were good actions. I used an Eddystone in .450 Ackley Mag for about 16 years before I sold it in 1976...it is still going strong the last I heard.

Some coverage of this phenomenon is found in P.O. Ackley's book.....

FWIW Eddystones are not the only P-17s known to have cracked receivers upon removing the barrel....so did Winchesters and Remingtons.....

They just had a far less incidence of problems. The Remington made actions had the fewest problems of them.

Just because you start a project with a Win or Rem P-17 doesn't mean you don't need to check for cracks.

As I recall the incidence of cracked receivers was many times higher with the Eddystones. I always thought it was because of the extremely hard case hardening they were given.

Square threads like on Enfields tend to get a set after long time, and all military barrels should be removed by relieving with a lathe.
As any of the three can be cracked.I have all three types and Eddystones seem harder, but if not cracked they will hold anything you can get in them.Just like Rem and Wins.I have 458HE in
Eddystone and had 510HE
for testing in other.Close to 12,000 ft lbs
energy on 510.Ed.

quote:

Originally posted by Thomas Jones:
One of my hunting buddies,
got himself a prety cool old sporerized enfield, The reciever says Remington 1918.
This rifle wsa done up by someone who knows what he is doing. Yhe stock is very nice, and I plan to help him load for it. it is a 375 H&H.
Is this a strong action ? I mean it awfully old, but its sure has a lot of steel in the right places ? Any help would be apreciated...tj3006

TJ,

I just now reread your post and I’m confused. The receiver you have says “Remington 1918??â€

Every 1917 Enfield I have ever seen has the receiver stamped with: “U.S. Model of 1917†underwhich is the name of the manufacturer, and under that the serial number. Is yours different than this?

Just thought I would add a diddy about the P17. I inspected one that had a 8mm Mauser accidently fired in it. The bolt had to be hammered open. The lower bolt recess was set back a lot, so when the bolt is closed it only contacts the upper one. There is not much medal at the bottom where the feed ramp is. I told the customer to hang it up and not use it.