My Remington M1917

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/258302EF8E60E15/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/5A9CC04191BC203/standard.jpg

There is a bit of a long story with this rifle, I'll try to condense it some. One of the guys (Jim) at work had bought a piece of property in the desert just outside Pioneer Town. The previous owners (another whole story themselves) had vacated the property, and typical of a lot of desert dwellers, had accumilated quite a large amount of junque (possibly valuable trash) behind. Ole Jim fit right in. This was more a vacation spot for him, as he and his wife had a nice house in north San Bernardino.

http://www.fototime.com/4631090295B2C00/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/F5226DB777ABAE7/standard.jpg

A Remington action and an Eddystone barrel, I do believe. Jim was in that enviable position of having a wife that made good money and liked her job. More importantly she didn't care if Jim worked or not, so Jim worked with me at Covenant more to simply aggravate the drivers I think, then anything else, and did a super job of being very dense when trying to help a driver at the window. He'd almost have ME in tears of frustration. Jim collected cars. Not nice cars, or fancy cars, or rare cars, but simply cars of most any type and condition. His new several acres in the desert let him really hit his stride. One morning Jim came in and said, "Hey Rick, I think there's an M1 Carbine out there in a junk pile next to the barn".

http://www.fototime.com/D81DFDDB593213E/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/F3F318BC4AB0FC7/standard.jpg

I told Jim he didn't have a barn. He had an old shed made out of whatever had fallen off the backs of lots of trucks over the years. Kinda like me calling my 2 car garage "The Shop". I asked him why he thought it was a M1 Carbine? He said because it had that kind of front sight, and all he could see was the end of the barrel. I asked why he hadn't simply pulled it out? He said because it was back in there too far and he couldn't reach it. Jim isn't really a 'Gun Guy' like we are but he likes guns and has a few. I said if he could bring it in we could figure out what it was.

http://www.fototime.com/739E1C2EB8F12BD/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/6442A0FFF9BB4B7/standard.jpg

Several weeks later, I walked into the office and Jim said he'd dug back in amongst all that stuff (never say junk) and had brought them in. I asked, "Them?" He said yeah, there's 4 of'em and some parts. So as soon as he could he brought in this long narrow galvanized steel tray somone had soldered together. I would have cleaned it out but Jim had obviously just picked it up and put it in his trunk. There was dirt, leaves and some dead grass and bits of broken glass in the tray.

http://www.fototime.com/9C18128D3B68615/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/85297900625708E/standard.jpg

[Buckshot]

...........The first thing I saw was a complete barreled action for a M1917. It even had had all the bands rattling around on the barrel. And it is the one in the photos. The only thing I had to buy was a stock, handguards and a buttplate. A call to GPC had them out to me in a week or so. The buttplate is like brand new and the stock was more then I'd hoped for. Except for the lighter colored upper front handguard wood I'd have considered it a miracle.

http://www.fototime.com/20A4D892AA6120E/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/4B67A8461FC6459/standard.jpg

The bayonet wasn't in with the stuff Jim brought in. I bought that someplace now that eludes me. In addition to the Remington complete barreled action there was a stripped Remington M1917 barreled action that had had the ears milled off, two stripped 1903 barreled actions, a loose stripped 1903 Mk1 action, a couple magazine boxes for the M1917's, two 1903 Springfield milled triggerguards, and a couple of the metal action extensions/stock reinforcing metal the Japanese used on their Arisaka's. I was holding the action up to the light trying to look through the Remington's barrel (couldn't) and Jim said, you can have that one if you want it. Well, duh! I then wrote down a list of the balance of stuff, and what each would need to make it into a complete rifle for Jim, as he was talking of making a couple sporters. We couldn't see through any of the barrels, btw.

It was several months after that when Ken, a shooting buddy passed away and his brother asked me if I'd be interested in buying all his black powder stuff. I knew Kenny had had a Hawken of some make, with a Green Mountain barrel on it, and it was a super shooter. He'd also had a double 12ga percussion shotgun, plus all the other general flotsam and jetsom BP shooters tend to accumulate. He named his price and I agreed to it, as it was a stunning buy. Now Jim had mentioned ML'ing at one time, so I asked him if he'd ever done anything with those gun parts he'd discovered? He said no, and to shorten things up he agreed to trade them for the Hawken, a couple pounds of powder, close to 1K of caps, measures, etc & etc.

http://www.fototime.com/47BAB9213B49993/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/020E64F1CEA0D13/standard.jpg

I'd already fixed up the M1917 barreled action so next up was this Springfield. It sure looked dismal to begin with. The first thing I did when I got home from work was to literally DRIVE a patched cleaning rod through the barrel and it gleamed like it had been new! Whoever had had these things was aiming at a sporter as the barrel had been turned to a sporter configuaration. I didn't want to sink a bunch of money into it so I set out calling some folks to see what I could scrounge up to get it shooting.

http://www.fototime.com/8D6431C4F7EECD5/standard.jpg

This is what it turned into! I call it my 'Garage Sporter' as it looks like what someone in the 50's would slap together to get out into the deer woods. One friend sold me the bolt (complete) and the sport-ster-ized scant grip stock for $35. Another buddy, ole Gopher Slayer (a member here) sold me the old steel Lyman 57 reciever sight for $25. I already had the triggerguard so I was all set.

http://www.fototime.com/8B5991EA4FDA0A9/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/8EAE60F542F4147/standard.jpg

This thing is like one of those $150 deals that languish in a gunrack at the gunshop seemingly forever. It is pretty disreputable looking. The black plastic forend tip is a bit loose (I need to fix it before it falls off), and that red(ish) ventilated buttpad is dead, dead, dead. It's as hard as a rock. But boy will she shoot!

http://www.fototime.com/9DDC9AF2291A561/standard.jpg

8.0grs of Red Dot, Lee C309-113F. 1903 Sporter Springfield. Iron sights, 50 yards. It's no earth shaking load but it shoots most any reasonable load about as well. For some odd reason, as fugly as it is I really like the thing :-)

...............Buckshot

[EMC45]

Wish I worked with a "Jim". Nice shooting Buckshot.

[Three44s]

These old guns are sure fun ...........

....... but sometimes the pursuit of them ............. is even more so!!!

Grand story and great rifles for paltry investments ........ it does not get better than that!

Three 44s