Howdy All,
I am building my first rifle ever with the help of my gunsmithing friend. I have had a 1917 Enfield kicking around for years that was given to me for a wallhanger. The bore was a rusted mess when I got it about 15 years back.

I now have a friend down the road with many years of experience whom lets me use his shop. So he is going to "walk me through the process."

I'm going to mill off the old peep sights and install a .35 Whelen barrel. Looking throught THIS catalog, I see that I have two choices for barrels.
Either Douglas or Shilen. They both list a .358 bore blank, but the Douglas is 1-12" twist, the Shilen is 1in 14" twist. Which one should I get? They are within $20 of each other. The money isn't a factor since it's only $20.
Thank you, BushmasAR

Both are excelent. If you are going to shoot 250 gr and heavier bullets, get the faster twist.

I vote for the 1-12 also, and Douglas makes good barrels.

Before you carve up that 1917, you may want to check it out thouroughly. Even with a rusted out bore, if all the other parts are correct, it may be worth more as-is than it would be converted.

You didn't say what manufacturer it is, but it is anything other than an Eddystone, finding and installing a G.I. barrel could make it worth much more than a conversion.

I second the opinion about not carving up an original gun. Really, seriously,..............Put $500 into it and make a $250 "sporter".
You'd be MUCH better off getting a Turk Mauser.


Second, Eddystones can be near impossible to machine, drill and tap. You may need carbide drills and taps. When you break one of those off in the receiver ring get diamond burrs from your dentist to carve it up. Be forewarned.

If you must proceed I like these mods:

Remove the bolt stop button and solder a piece of metal to the spring.

Weld on a decent looking bolt handle, just don't muck up the hole the safety pokes into.

Make it cock on opening my modifing the cocking cams, not the cheesie Numrich kit.

Cut the side rails off the bottom metal and make it like a Winchester M-70. This trims it up alot and makes it look normal. Forget about straightening the existing bottom metal. This never works out quite right. Even if the holes line up with the receiver it still looks nasty.

Keep the safety, it is very good. Reshape the button a bit though.

Remove the clip slots.

When you remove the ears do it on a mill (preferably a horizontal mill) between centers. You will have to make a mandril with centers that threads in the ring and passes throught the receiver coming out the back a ways. Contour the bridge like a M-700, this makes it easy to get scope bases.

I still think you oughta get a Turk, great gun to practice on. Sell this one and put the proceeds toward Turk parts.

Unless this Enfield has sentimental value to you, I too think you should use a Mauser action for your custom rifle.
[Do not tell JOHAN I said this]. A Mauser is the best action for a custom rifle. The 35 Whelen is a great choice.
If I was going to build a custom rifle I would build a 9,3x62 with an octagon Lothar Walther bbl in the British Bolt rifle pattern, or the original German rifle pattern.
Those rifles feel alive when you handle them.I really like the 9,3 bore, but there are no flies in the 35 Whelen.
The Enfield action is more suited to a 458 and up rifle.

Definitely go with the 1/12" twist for the 35 Whelen. As far as the action goes, mine's a Mauser, you can't go wrong.

The rifle is a Remington. Don't have the original bolt, still need to buy one. the stock is cracked in several places and some jackass some time before I got it for free, used course sandpaper on all metal surfaces.

This is definitely the rifle I will be "cutting up." I like them a lot. My deceased grandfather hunted with one and I also have a 300 Win Mag converted from a '17 enfield, (Remington)



thanks for the pointers guys.



PS- The only $$ that I'll be spending on this is; Around $150 for the barrel, $ for the bolt, and whatever I choose for sights. i was very fortunate that the action was given to me, and then my neighbor gave me a nice walnut stock for the '17 action.