Here's something I bet most of you have never seen before, an as-issued M1917 Eddystone! Its unmolested since it left the factory back in October 1918. The only thing that wasn't right was mixmaster bolt, which I'm in the process of replacing with the correct one. My thanks to John Beard and Martin08 for their wisdom and help in confirming what I thought about it and helping me identify some of the minute details which I was unaware of.
I first spotted it online in one of the Cabela's gun libraries. The reddish tiger striped stock immediately caught my eye and I started looking at the details more closely. I could see the bluing on the bands looked like it was still intact and the finish on the receiver looked to be original. I could clearly see the flaming bomb on the left side and the rollmark was nice and crisp.
I called and asked for the barrel date and markings which are E 10-18 which matched the receiver serial number's manufacturing date so I thought it could be the original barrel! But how bad is the bore going to be on an original barrel? They say its pretty good, strong rifling and some shine to it which surprised me after seeing so many sewer pipe original barrels from years of firing corrosive ammo and/or blanks. I keep going back and studying the pictures and this detail catches my eye:
That's the trigger guard housing front screw and its staked and obviously unmoved. The rear one is also staked and unmoved too!
Now I'm wondering if this could possibly have been left intact since it left the Eddystone factory? I'd never seen staked screws on an Eddystone before so I started googling and found a post from Martin08 in which talked about staked screws on his gunshow find of a correct Eddystone a few years ago. I decide I need to see this in person, so I pay the $25 to have it shipped to the local Cabela's where I can go check it out with a boresnake, bore light and magnifier. I had read about the parts markings on John Beard's website so knew where to look on various parts for their markings to see how correct it is.
First thing I notice is the bolt is a Remington not Eddystone and I get a little disappointed thinking its going to be a typical mixmaster of parts. The room was not well lit so it wasn't easy to find all of the small marks I was looking for, so I check the bore and it actually looks good. Definitely strong rifling and some shine, so I run my boresnake through it and it shines right up! Wow.
Looking over the various metal parts, the bluing on them looks original and in good shape and the other screws look to be unturned as well. I notice though the receiver is not blued like the other metal parts as I expected it to be, its rougher almost like a parkerized finish, but looking at the barrel its got a nice brown patina that is definitely not parkerized. So now I'm a bit confused because the staked screws and barrel seem to indicate its unaltered but the receiver doesn't look 'right'. I keep looking and I find E marks on many parts I expect to find them on, but I don't find them on some others like the handguard retaining ring. The sight ladder too looks odd to me since its bright silver and all the ones I'd seen before were black/dark.
Not sure what to make of that so I keep looking and finding E marks here and there. I pull the floorplate off and check that and the spring & follower and they're all properly marked. I open the butt trap and there's an E on it where it should be and lo and behold inside is a correctly oriented (leather pad end against the trap door) nickel oiler that also looks like it is untouched since it went in there. Opening it up, the brush and pull thru are in there and the thong is still wrapped up tight as it was when it was put in there. A bonus!
Inspecting the stock I find no cartouche on the left side, which is how I'd expect it to be if its not rebuilt, and all the small inspector marks on the underside with the eagle heads are there so that's good. Can't seem to find any E on the upper or lower handguard, but they matched the stock so well that I didn't see how they couldn't be original. Couldn't see the E on the nose of the stock either at that time but the staked screws made me think its the original stock so I didn't sweat that...
I first spotted it online in one of the Cabela's gun libraries. The reddish tiger striped stock immediately caught my eye and I started looking at the details more closely. I could see the bluing on the bands looked like it was still intact and the finish on the receiver looked to be original. I could clearly see the flaming bomb on the left side and the rollmark was nice and crisp.
I called and asked for the barrel date and markings which are E 10-18 which matched the receiver serial number's manufacturing date so I thought it could be the original barrel! But how bad is the bore going to be on an original barrel? They say its pretty good, strong rifling and some shine to it which surprised me after seeing so many sewer pipe original barrels from years of firing corrosive ammo and/or blanks. I keep going back and studying the pictures and this detail catches my eye:
That's the trigger guard housing front screw and its staked and obviously unmoved. The rear one is also staked and unmoved too!
Now I'm wondering if this could possibly have been left intact since it left the Eddystone factory? I'd never seen staked screws on an Eddystone before so I started googling and found a post from Martin08 in which talked about staked screws on his gunshow find of a correct Eddystone a few years ago. I decide I need to see this in person, so I pay the $25 to have it shipped to the local Cabela's where I can go check it out with a boresnake, bore light and magnifier. I had read about the parts markings on John Beard's website so knew where to look on various parts for their markings to see how correct it is.
First thing I notice is the bolt is a Remington not Eddystone and I get a little disappointed thinking its going to be a typical mixmaster of parts. The room was not well lit so it wasn't easy to find all of the small marks I was looking for, so I check the bore and it actually looks good. Definitely strong rifling and some shine, so I run my boresnake through it and it shines right up! Wow.
Looking over the various metal parts, the bluing on them looks original and in good shape and the other screws look to be unturned as well. I notice though the receiver is not blued like the other metal parts as I expected it to be, its rougher almost like a parkerized finish, but looking at the barrel its got a nice brown patina that is definitely not parkerized. So now I'm a bit confused because the staked screws and barrel seem to indicate its unaltered but the receiver doesn't look 'right'. I keep looking and I find E marks on many parts I expect to find them on, but I don't find them on some others like the handguard retaining ring. The sight ladder too looks odd to me since its bright silver and all the ones I'd seen before were black/dark.
Not sure what to make of that so I keep looking and finding E marks here and there. I pull the floorplate off and check that and the spring & follower and they're all properly marked. I open the butt trap and there's an E on it where it should be and lo and behold inside is a correctly oriented (leather pad end against the trap door) nickel oiler that also looks like it is untouched since it went in there. Opening it up, the brush and pull thru are in there and the thong is still wrapped up tight as it was when it was put in there. A bonus!
Inspecting the stock I find no cartouche on the left side, which is how I'd expect it to be if its not rebuilt, and all the small inspector marks on the underside with the eagle heads are there so that's good. Can't seem to find any E on the upper or lower handguard, but they matched the stock so well that I didn't see how they couldn't be original. Couldn't see the E on the nose of the stock either at that time but the staked screws made me think its the original stock so I didn't sweat that...
Last edited: