Milsurp After Hours

Hi
I Hope this is the right place to put this?

I have just bought a Eddystone M1917 in 303/25(have not got it yet,waiting for the dealer to get back from holidays)and it has the fat belly in the stock and was wondering would that be the 6 shot or the 5 shot?

How do you get it so you don't have to get a "Fat belly"stock when you put a new stock on it?
Do you alter the magazine or is it the floorplate,action?



I intend to get it re-barreled to the .303Epps (by an Aussie barrel maker) and get a laminated stock,trigger,bedded and free floated and a real good scope,Leupold maybe?
This is going to be my project gun

Any help would be appreciated.

M1917 and Not a P-14? I suppose the bolt of a M1917 could have been modified for a rimmed cartridge. The M1917 has a six round magazine because six 30-06 rounds will fit in the space of five 303 rounds. The M1917 is the P-14 chambered for the 30-06 with as little modification as possible. The fat belly is endemic with the design and requires some gunsmithing to deal with it. The thing was designed as a military rifle (My Favorite btw) and has requires effort to make a hunting rifle out of it. I am going in the opposite direction. I lucked into an intact miltary reciever and (perhaps the last) surplus WWII replacement barrel and am building a M1917 in original configuration.

Paul1807 wrote:M1917 and Not a P-14? I suppose the bolt of a M1917 could have been modified for a rimmed cartridge. The M1917 has a six round magazine because six 30-06 rounds will fit in the space of five 303 rounds. The M1917 is the P-14 chambered for the 30-06 with as little modification as possible. The fat belly is endemic with the design and requires some gunsmithing to deal with it. The thing was designed as a military rifle (My Favorite btw) and has requires effort to make a hunting rifle out of it. I am going in the opposite direction. I lucked into an intact miltary reciever and (perhaps the last) surplus WWII replacement barrel and am building a M1917 in original configuration.

Hi Paul1807
The dealer said it was a M1917 Eddystone,I did see it but only briefly, as I was passing through NSW on my way home from a goat hunt,so I was pressed for time,(Mate wanted to get back to his new girlfriend )what I did see of it was it was in very good condition,so will see when I pick it up for sure if it is a P-14 or M1917.

Good luck with your project too mate

you may find [god forbid] that some "dealers" dont know the diferance , but eather way you have purchased one of the finest rifles ever made IMHO

I second the high opinion of the 1917.
I used one that my Uncle had started to sporterize as
the basis for a .338-'06 AI and it's just about my favourite hunting rifle.
The action is extremely strong and can be trimmed down a bit
if you want,especially in the rcvr bridge area,a Winchester contour works well
if you can do the filing!
The deep belly can be a plus,esp if you are going to go back to
a rimmed cartridge chambering or,as in my case, a wildcat that has minimum
taper.The roomy mag allows the straight cases to slide without binding as they can in a regular five
round magazine.
Enjoy the Old Girl!
John

ozzielee303, Used to be if you wanted to restock a p14/m1917 with a slimmer sporter stock, you could buy a straight trigger guard to replace the original bent end trigger guard, but that was years ago. I walked into the shop of a local gunsmith not too long ago, as he was cutting off the bent end of a P14 trigger guard. He would later weld the bent end back on the triggerguard, creating a straight triggerguard for a P14 action he was rebarreling to 404 Jefferies that would go in a sporter stock. It may be necessary to shorten the magazine box, depending on the stock you choose to replace the military stock. When you remove the two screws in the trigger guard and pull it from the stock, the magazine box should be just stuck in the receiver and should be easy to remove.

By the way, top of receiver should be stamped Eddystone and if a M1917, then next to Eddystone stamping should be stamped U.S. Model M1917.

Welcome to After Hours, Huff!
Texans are always welcome here!

OldIronSights, Thanks for the welcome. I've been viewing this site for sometime now. LOL, someone finally asked a question I had some knowledge about that I could share.

Well here it is:




Winchester action, Johnson Arms WWII manufacture replacement barrel that I got packed in cosmo in the factory wrap! and a unissued WWII replacement stock. It does need a new ejector (on order). Granted a parts gun but a very nice parts gun