Sporterized Remington 1917

[Sealskinner]

I received a family gun, that I knew was my dad's favorite rifle to take to the woods when I was growing up. And just about ever relative wanted to borrow it. But I was back in Georgia and see a picture my cousin has. My dad is a teenager and my granpa and his brothers were in the woods with a big ole pile of deer. And this rifle is in pretty clear in 1.

I guess it was a cottage industry converting all the good military rifles to civilian use. I have a catalog from 1966 listing all the different rifles, from Guarands to Swiss, Mauser to Springfields. And all the pricing for everything.

Mine cocks on the up motion of the bolt. Has a Weaver 4X scope. Cambered in 06. Manufactured in Aug 1917.

Shot about 100 rounds through it. Just a cool gun to shoot

My question is, optics. It's pretty accurate. But my eyes are getting old. And I want to see out more that 100 yards at the outside. I see all the new technology and wonder if I can get a new mounting system to fit the old holes for the Weaver? Or is this a gun smithing thing? Thank you for looking.

[Shooter6br]

Mine is made 1918 Has 5 grove barrel(20 in) If you have the orginal barrel( not re fitted in WWII) it has a .311-,312 bore. I use a .314299 clone from Accurate Molds. (200 g), Being a 5 grove it is dificult to slug bore without special micrometer. It had a Weaver 2.5 scope.


89152

[Char-Gar]

I fail to understand why a 4X scope limits you to 100 yards. If you want a higher power scope, they should work fine with the existing weaver bases, though you might have to go with higher rings if the scope has a large objective bell.

I have some familiarity with the 1917 rifle having several now and have owned several more over the years. I read on line where folks say these have .311 plus barrel groove diameters, but my experience does not prove that to be correct. When the US government adapted the British design Pattern 14 rifle to 30-06 they DID NOT keep the larger British barrel specs. They did keep the 5 groove barrel, but spun the rifling the opposite direction from the British.

A Remington, Winchester and Eddystone barreled 1917, will typically run .309 to .310 in the barrel grooves. Those rebarreled in WWII with Johnson Automatics barrels will run a uniform .308 in the grooves. The barrel groove diameter is pretty academic anyway, as the critical size is the barrel throat. A bullet of .310 to .311 will do well in these rifles and in the case of a worn throat, perhaps even .312.

I have a 5 groove Winchester and a Rebarreled WWII (JA) Remington (show below). The Remington has been fired very little and I find that bullets over .301 on the nose give chambering issue, whereas the worn Winchester will gobble .303 noses with ease.

At any rate, these are fine old rifle and will give you lots of shooting fun.

[Hardcast416taylor]

You are only wanting to change the power range of the scope on the rifle as it sits now. There should be no problems in just changing the scope and possibly the height of the scope rings. Excellent rifle and great family history of its use.Robert

[Multigunner]

P-14 and M1917 actions were being used to build factory sporting rifles well into the 90's.
Quite a few stripped receivers and receivers with shot out 7.92mm barrels showed up on the surplus market around that time. You could order these with either M1917 or P-14 bolts for special projects.

Some M1917 rifles were re barreled or bored out and re chambered for the 7.92X57 cartridge.

Remington built a lot of Sporting rifles using the basic action, some were converted to cock on opening.

If the M1917 were gauged in the same manner as the .30 Krag some might have bores around .310. I would not doubt that a few with slightly over size .30 bores got through, since the rifles were being manufactured in a rush.

[opos]

A bit off topic but I recently picked up a 1917 Winchester mfg Enfield with the original barrel (30-06 and slugs to .310...it shoots J words in standard.308 really well....it was "sporterized" by Sears back in "the day"...Sears sold sporterized Mausers and the Enfields as well as model 70's ....they bought up barreled actions and had a company do the stocks, etc...mine has a Sears 4x scope that is clear and bright...I'm an old guy and my "deer rifle" as a guy in his teens in the 50's shot a lot of deer and elk with an Eddystone Enfield that was sporterized...they were cheap, reliable and parts and stocks were easy to get....The Remingtons I've seen were called a model 30 and like the Sears rifles were made up from excess stocks of barreled receivers in the armories...great old guns.

The 4x scope on mine is probably about as big an optic as I could go with out putting it on higher rings...I think the diameter of the tube would stay at 1" but the flare would be bigger on a higher power scope...I shoot 200 yards with very old eyes and do fine..Scope is over 50 years old as is the rifle.

[duck hollow pete]

nice m1917 char-gar, mine is a nov.1918 eddystone 5 wide grooves they spin left .300 nose is snug

[duck hollow pete]

nice m1917 char-gar, mine is a nov.1918 eddystone 5 wide lands they spin left .300 nose is snug

[TNsailorman]

My all time favorite rifle I have ever owned was a Remington Model 30. That was just a Remington version of the 1917. I put a 4x scope on it and it never failed me. I went wild and bought a Boyd's laminated stock for it and glass bedded it. I told my grandchildren when they reached 15 they could pick out a rifle and a pistol from anything I had. The oldest grandson latched onto that Remington the first time I let him shoot it. He still has it several years later. Even with my 72 year old eyes, 4 power does it for me out to about 300 yards and then things kinda gets interesting from the fact that my nerves are not what they used to be and I am a little too shakey to shoot further without a good rest. I agree that all you need to do is change scopes if that is what you are after, maybe buy higher rings if the scope objective bell is large than the present one. I have owned several 1917's and I loved them all. Good luck with your rifle, james

[leadman]

If you want to measure a 5 groove barrel slug wrap it with a .001" to .002" automotive feeler gauge, then measure and deduct twice the feeler thickness. Not absolutely precise but you will probably be less than 1/2 thousands off at the most.