Remington 1917 Re-barrel?

[DGV]

I just came into possession of a Remington 1917 in great condition except for the barrel. The barrel looks like a 98 year old sewer pipe. It still has rifleing but is corroded beyond salvation. Anyone here ever re-barrel one or have one re-barreled? Any and all comments are welcomed. Am I wasting my money? Thanks

[Gtek]

The CMP sells a replacement barrel for about two bills, then find someone to install and chamber. This is a cast boolit website and 35 Whelen would be about the same money.

[Multigunner]

The CMP Custom Shop

http://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/custom-gunsmithing/

They also rebarrel and headspace the M1917

[376Steyr]

Have it rebored to 35 Whelen, which would leave the outside intact without the woes of getting the old barrel off. Jess at www.35caliber.com does great work at reasonable prices. Don't even think about "sporterizing" it.

[Mauser48]

I wouldn't rechamber it. Just get a new 30-06 barrel and leave it how it's meant to be. It also doesn't make sense saying not to sporterize it but to rechamber it. I would leave it original.

[Multigunner]

If you checked a few smiths who have done a lot of rebarreling work you might find an original M1917 with life left in it. A take off barrel from some custom sporter project where they chose to replace a slightly worn but still good barrel with some snazy high dollar barrel.

[376Steyr]

I wouldn't rechamber it. Just get a new 30-06 barrel and leave it how it's meant to be. It also doesn't make sense saying not to sporterize it but to rechamber it. I would leave it original.

Reboring to 35 Whelen would get it back into shooting condition without excessively messing with its military exterior. I think of sporterizing as chopping on or replacing the stock with a non-military style one, grinding on the action, drilling and tapping for scope mounts, and all the other stuff that goes into trying to turn an old warhorse into a Model 70. I'd say reboring is just a reasonable avenue of "leaving it how it was meant to be".

[Huffmanite]

Numerich/egunparts may have a new 1917 replacement barrel to sell thats made in Belgium. Been about 3 years since I bought one and had it installed in a 1917. As I recall it was already threaded and short chambered, but would need a key slot cut in barrel for the front sight. Price was around $130 back then for the barrel. P.S. the Belgium barrel was a 6 groove and left twist too.

As to Criterion barrels. Am aware of Criterion making a replacement barrel for Springfield 1903A03s and Enfield rifles, didn't know they were also making a 1917 barrel. Couple of gents I shoot with in a military rifle competition use a 1903A03 rifle with Criterion barrels. They shoot darn good.

[CHeatermk3]

If you posted a "want to buy" ad for a 1917 barrel here and/or on another site you might be surprised what you could turn up.

[DGV]

I would like to keep it all original as possible. If I can make it a good shooter thats good enough for me. CMP can do all the work I would like. I dont know much about Criterion barrels, but they sound like pretty good quality. Anyone have a Remington 1917 barrel in good shape? Lots of options. Thanks for all the replys

[leadman]

Original barrels show up often on E-Bay but the prices are usually high. If you go with the CMP to install a new barrel you will lose the military markings.
I also bought a 1917 awhile back with a bad barrel. I shot it and the bullets and boolits went straight thru the paper but groups were large.
I firelapped it with 6 rounds of cast boolits with Carnuba Red and 600 grit lapping compound on them, followed by 9 rounds of the same boolits with JB Bore paste on them. The barrel now shoots about 2 to 3" at 100 yards. Oh, this barrel has been counterbored about 4" at the muzzle end!
Might try salvaging the current barrel and if it doesn't work you are out only some time, powder, primers, and boolits.

[Multigunner]

I've heard of Garand barrels being re lined to preserve the markings, also some early Garand barrels were a bit different than later production so a run of the mill replacement barrel would reduce their collector status.
Some Gew 98 rifles were relined to 7mm for sale to Spain. If properly done a relined bore should be safe enough. Don't know of anyone doing this.
When I mentioned selling a nice Krag carbine because the bore was cratered some people suggested that I could have had it relined.

[6mm win lee]

I just came into possession of a Remington 1917 in great condition except for the barrel. The barrel looks like a 98 year old sewer pipe. It still has rifleing but is corroded beyond salvation. Anyone here ever re-barrel one or have one re-barreled? Any and all comments are welcomed. Am I wasting my money? Thanks

I agree with Leadman. Have you tried putting any rounds down range yet? Clean it up some and then put a jacketed round through it and blow out the rest. Then see what you have, whether it is a group or a pattern.

Just my two bits.

Six

[lefty o]

id clean and shoot it first, you may be suprised how well a sewer pipe barrel can shoot. if you decide to rebarrel, id find a good gunsmith to do it, not the cmp's volunteer hack of the week.

[Multigunner]

If you can have it lead lapped the bore won't be much over sized and you could use bullets intended for the .303 instead of .308 bullets if necessary. Bullets of .309 were available from Lapua, some soviet 7.62 bullets are .310 and others .312. Hornady makes very good .312 bullets and theres a .311 SMK bullet.
With Cast Boolits just size them to whatever works best.

A well lapped if slightly over sized bore should work out nicely, and lapping would be much cheaper than rebarreling, plus markings remain intact.

[CHeatermk3]

"A well lapped if slightly over sized bore should work out nicely, and lapping would be much cheaper than rebarreling, plus markings remain intact."
+1

[kenyerian]

I'd shoot it first. I've seen some pretty ugly bores shoot very well,

[flounderman]

just got an Enfield barreled action and the barrel looked hopeless. I cleaned it and it looks like it hasn't been fired much. Barrel is about like new . I'm sure your barrel will shoot once you get it cleaned. The crown might need to be refreshed. I wouldn't do anything until I shot it and cleaned it a few times.

[pietro]

I wouldn't rechamber it. Just get a new 30-06 barrel and leave it how it's meant to be. It also doesn't make sense saying not to sporterize it but to rechamber it. I would leave it original.


Nobody recommended a rechambering, which won't solve the cruddy bore issue.

OTOH, a rebore will remove the bore issues. (Jes charges about $245, IIRC)

While obtaining a proper/replacement .30-06 barrel is fairly easy, there is plenty of peril involved in removing the issue barrel - unless the gunsmith know what he's about, it's pretty easy to crack the receiver when removing the barrel.

Most knowledgeable gunsmiths cut the old barrel off just ahead of the action before chucking the action into a lathe for turning/cutting out the old barrel stub, from the chamber to the outside of the barrel reinforce, then picking the old barrel threads out of the action threads.


.

[CHeatermk3]

I used some wipe-out patch out on another P17 barrel that looked "iffy" and had what looked like blue Ink(like what we useta suck up into our pens in the 3rd grade) running out of it for several applications, it doesn't appear to be iffy anymore but have yet to shoot it...

[Multigunner]

and had what looked like blue Ink(like what we useta suck up into our pens in the 3rd grade) running out of it for several applications,
Sounds like it had cupro-nickel fouling. Copper when dissolved by a solvent usually looks green.
Could have been hardened carbon fouling as well.

I've cleaned a few barrels that had looked pitted in the grooves, but found the apparent pits were voids in a thick layer of hardened fouling, the steel under the fouling still bright and smooth.
I figured unburned powder granules had been ironed into the layer of fouling and been blown out or dissolved easily while the rest remained solid. Flecks of cladding over a steel jacket could also get ironed in like that. I've see gilding metal cladding peel right off a steel jacket of badly degraded ammo.
Besides the common powder fouling, residues of neck sealants of some milspec ammo can add to the fouling making an aggregate thats really tough to get out..