US rifle cal.30 M1917 sporter

[longshot7.62x51]

ok heres the update i got my brother on board (hes laid up after surg and board out of his mind) how do i get the park off i know it be sanded off is the a way to remove it like the blue remover iv seen or should i just stick with sanding

 

[eastbank]

i bought this 30 remington express in 30-06(serial number 26627 made in the 30,s) with a lyman alaskan 2.5 scope at a auction. it has a ex bore and wonderful factory single stage trigger, i am going to refinish the stock in a oil finish with out sanding the stock, only useing 0000 steel between coats, i have to find a original rear sight and front sight and will leave the blueing alone. harris bipod was on it to sight it in. i paid 400.00 for the rifle and feel it was a super deal. eastbank.

 

[cordell]

longshot, doubleh and skyhorse!!!

Hello longshot,
I can't be of much help with the removal of parkerizing. However there are many sites on the net that cover the acid solution including a formula by Brownells that removes both blue and parkerizing.

Just type "removing parkerizing" into your search engine (Google???) and go from there. One site on Gunboards lists removing it with any light abrasive but mentions the fact that it left a greenish tint to the metal. The majority of the sites recommended an acid removal, but again I realize that money may be an issue, so try a small spot on the barrel under where the stock will cover and see what a light abrasive will do! This will also give you an idea of how long it will take to complete the entire rifle.

I haven't had a chance to dig out my Barnes .450 Supreme but I will get it done in the next few days and post it for your aproval.


doubleh,
Thank you for the compliment, it sounds like we were on the same path as far as what was done to our respective rifles. And you did all the work yourself (plus the checkering) my hat is off to you. Most smiths won't do stock work and it is getting to the point most stock smiths won't do checkering............... As far as Herters goes, I remember them well, as a matter of fact there is probably a 1970's catalog on my bookshelf now.... I am looking forward to chatting with you more as we follow this thread.


skyhorse,
Thank you for the kind words, I try to build (or have built) what I want in a rifle. I have always tried to make silk purses out of sow's ears, and in some cases I have succeeded. As far as your Dad being a Seabee, they are and were very high on my "Like" list. We had Seabee's stationed with us at Guantanamo Bay Cuba in 1963 and they are top notch individuals!!!

I like your choice of weapons, being a big fan of the .303, unfortunately all I have left now is a Muscat Martini carbine (pictures attached) that has problems hitting a pie plate at 50 yards................ I don't think I have to elaborate on my fondness for the 1917/14............. They were the best of the work horses, and still are. Looking forward to chatting with you again as this thread proceeds. Take care, Semper Fi, and God bless.

 

[JShirley]

Eastbank, I think you did pretty well.

John

 

[cordell]

eastbank,
I agree with John, please keep us posted on your progress, and plenty of pictures please. Take care and God bless .......cordell

 

[doubleh]

Cordell, I can certainly understand why it's hard to find someone that will do checkering. I learned to do it because I like the way it makes a gun looks with it and I couldn't afford to have it done when I was really busy with my gun tinkering hobby. I have to say that I found it to be one of the most tedious and boring things I have ever done. My tools are laying in a drawer in my tool cabinet where they have been for many years, untouched, except for a couple of times I used them to clean up checkering on a used gun I purchased. I tried stippling on a couple and it's just ugly. I've only built two stocks in the last 5 years and they are both smooth as a baby's behind. I'm getting an urge to build a really wild looking 10/22 and it will be a smooth stock when finished.

Back when I built the 1917 sporterizing military guns was a very economical way to own a nice rifle depending on your abilities or even having one sporterized by a gunsmith. No one ever thought they would become so collectable and bring the prices they do today.

 

[cordell]

doubleh,
It is something I never tried and never wanted to. I had a friend years ago that did my checkering and he had the patience of Job. Unfortunately his eyes have failed him and I am now using an even older fellow that is very reasonable but limited in his patterns (his way or no way)... As far as the 1917 or the P14 being economical, during the late 60's they were worthless, as were the Martini's, Rolling Blocks, "saturday night specials"....good grief don't get me started on the saturday night specials I passed up!!!!!!

Moving on before I get to carried away, I am sure you have been to the RimfireCentral.com forum, but have you ever looked closely at the rifle on the left of the banner? I have absolutely no use for an additional .22 of any type. I may have a dozen or so, with a few bordering on nice!!! However I am falling in a bad case of "like" for a 10/22 like the one displayed in Rimfires banner. Take care and God bless.... cordell

 

[dprice3844444]

fyi,you can contact criterian barrels,a subsidiary of krieger barrels.send them the barrelled receiver,and they will make an exact copy of the bbl for you.they can do it in match and also match chrome lined.if your going to restores it to it's orig glory and shoot it,that's the way to go.they also make match chromed line garand barrells also

 

[cordell]

longshot,
Better late than never, I finaly dug out the Barnes .450 built on a 1917 action by Fred Barnes. It is the only one that I have seen with his initials and I am reasonably sure this was one of his personal rifles (that and a $1.00 will get you a cup of coffee ;-)...).

This rifle will shoot both the .450 Barnes Supreme cartridge and the .458WM. Barnes came out with the .450 in or around 1950 well before the .458WM came into existance. He later added in his catalog that the .450 would handle the .458's... I have shot many .458's in this rifle and a few .450's, although I have allowed others to fire it over the years and 3 rounds has been the limit a big man can handle........ Recoil of the .450BS is brutal but it is still dead on at 50 yards with the old Weaver 4X steel tube and Weaver side mount. This scope was on it when I received it and until it starts to move or malfunction it will stay on it.........

I still have 2 other rifles built on the 1917 action and will post those when I find them........ I think they are in the back row of my other safe, and will take some digging and moving ................

longshot, I hope you are having a safe and uneventful day. Keep your head down and your weapon clean.......Take care, Semper Fi and God bless you and the men and women who serve in harms way with you!!!! cordell

 

[longshot7.62x51]

She's a beutiful lady and take your time on digging them out i should have some pics of the start of this project in a couple days that way you all can slowly fallow the progress

I was doing some chem figuers and i have a question will Navel jelly work to remove the park or is this a bad idea?????
Gunsmith wanted 600 to strip polish and reblue so im try and save some funds and strip and polish my self (well have my brother strip at least)

 

[cordell]

longshot,
I don't know, but again you can do a small spot on the bottom of the barrel and see what happens. I think $600.00 for a strip and blue is ridiculous, strip it yourself and by that time we may have a gunsmith on this thread who will do it for you at a reduced rate. If all else fails there is a fellow 50 miles from here, I will check with him and get a price!

Is anyone else having a problem pulling up the Barnes rifle? Everytime I go to enlarge it, there is only 1/2 a picture???? I will try and post it again.

longshot, thank you again for serving, and may God watch over you and those serving our country. ...cordell BTW what branch of the service are you in? cordell

 

[BrocLuno]

Another lovely 1917 sporter

I think the guys that get seriously into this make some very nice rifles. Even if it's shared work between the owner and the smith, it still becomes a family shared project. Mine can't be returned to Mil-Spec as they were "worked on" by others before me. So now the choice is scrap , or make a useful and hopefully good looking gun

I have two receivers, three stocks, extra bolts and barrels along with misc parts. I'll get 'em done as time and energy permit.

My buds "new" 1917 sporter just popped a big feral hog that's at the butchers. He was impressed with the way it worked in the field. Don't think that one is going anywhere in the foreseeable future (?), except back on the trail. He was very impressed with the feel with 180 gr Cor-Lok's compared to his old Remington Pump (sold and good riddance). Like a lot of folks who have had a chance to shoot a 17 sporter that's well put together, there is a charm and ease of use that is not necessarily available in modern factory guns

 

[longshot7.62x51]

Hey Cordell as to what branch in I am Army and a 19K M1 Armor crewman. no plans on getting out since i only have 10 years till i can retire

 

[cordell]

Hello longshot,
Ten years and out with a check is smart thinking, unfortunately somewhere during a 20 to 30 year career a war or two pops it's ugly little head up and we are placed in harms way. We will keep you in our prayers!!!!

Were you able to ask your brother to test a spot or two under the barrel in front or the receiver? Let me know what you find out, I am still looking for that smith to jump on this thread and help out a serviceman!

BrocLuno, I agree there is just something special about putting that "project" together and making it your own. Whether this is done with steel wool and elbow grease or a check book and working overtime for the extra money doesn't really matter, the end result is normaly something you will always be proud of!!!

longshot, BTW I just learned from another site that all of the Barnes rifles were marked F.N.B. (except for the Barnes/Johnson) so I guess mine is not worth that extra cup of coffee after all... There is also some information on the site that I want to discuss with the fellow posting, so I will write more later. Thank you again for serving, and God bless you and all those that serve to protect our Country!! cordell

 

[longshot7.62x51]

its job it pay the bills and feeds the fam and its fun (not the getting shot at part) i found a new gunsmith near my brother so i made an appintment for sunday cost wise its 300 for them to dissassembel bead blast then reblue and another 100 off if we do the dissambly.

so hes gunna go and talk to him and see whats what

oh and if im ever in your neck of the woods ill get you that coffee lol

 

[velocette]

Hey Longshot! Your retirement is one that I will gladly pay my taxes to support.
You will have EARNED it.

Roger

 

[BrocLuno]

Roger that

 

[hso]

If the only change to a milsurp is the furniture and easily replaced hardware I would restore it to military standard if cost effective. I love old milsurps so my bias is very clear.

If metal has been removed then there's no need to worry about further sporterization and you should build the best shooting rifle you can out of your former milsurp.

 

[longshot7.62x51]

hso: yeah the rear sight ears have been removed so a sporter is the only option CMP said the should be getting some sometime this year cost will be around 500 for servise grade

 

[skyhorse]

Good evening all,

HSO makes a good point and one that is not wasted on those who have posted on this thread. None of us are in the shop with the dewalt grinder or the Milwaukee sawsall sporting up a 94 year old relic.
Fifty years ago was another time and with millions of these war horses around it made perfect sense to modify them for hunting rifles. We can see this today with abundant milsurp rifles.
I’m glad the ‘03 Springfield , M1917 and several others received another calling.

I personally would not have purchased an as-issued M1917. My need was an
accurate,durable hunting rifle. Sure, I would like to have an original, but I was filling a need, not a want. As I said before, mine is a working rifle that puts food on the table.

I have done some research and found that before the lot of arsonaled M1917’s were sold off in the U.S., England began ‘sporting’ their lot of P14’s for military sniper rifles in WW2.

The common refitting was a shortened barrel, removal of the volley sight and the fore stock. This sounds pretty much like what I hunt with today. They performed substantial testing before they made the revisions and even drilled and placed a scope with see-through mounts. This was in the 1940’s during the war!

When I went to buy a good used hunting rifle I looked at the current bunch on the market. As BrocLuno touched on, They were light weight, thin barreled,thin receivers, fitted with plastic stocks,plastic magazines. I’m sure they fit allot of folks and they are a joy to carry,
but this is not what I was looking for.

I was raised on heavy rifles, most were too large for me at the time. As I grew up and they fit me better, I could appreciate the accuracy that I had due to the weight absorbing the recoil and the steady feel and balance of a heavy rifle. Personally , I can take a shot with a
hevier rifle and see the bullet hit. I cant do this with a light weight rifle unless it’s on a rest.

When I researched rifles back when, on this site and with my good friend who has been my mentor for some time, the choice was narrowed to a ‘03 or a M1917.

I’ll tell you what, I would not trade my M1917 for a handful of others. I think there are several here who may agree with me. It may not be ‘the’ rifle, it may not be super popular, but it is a damn good rifle. As Cordell has shown, some are downright show stoppers!

 

[cordell]

skyhorse and longshot,
Well skyhorse thank you again for the compliments and you are absolutely correct with your assessment of the fact that these were brought into places like Ye Olde Hunters (Alexandria Virginia) and placed around the floor in barrels!!! Most were in what was then called "good to very good" which meant that if you were lucky they still had most of the parts and might have some bore left (operative word being "might").

The .03 on the other hand had a large following even back then and a mint or close to mint .03 brought "big" money. On the other hand when one turned up that had been abused they could turn into some slick little sporters with just a little work, and could turn into works of art in some cases. If you have any of the early Gun Digests (I think that's the one it could have been Shooters Bible??) they had guns pictured from custom gunmakers listed every year. Many were built on the .03 action and some were indeed works of art. I am going to impose on longshots thread here and post a little fella that I have had since ???????... It has a well above average piece of wood with a few eyes and checks, engraved Neider grip cap (anything steel was called Neider back then ...) silver oval, horn forend cap, and jeweled bolt, follower etc. It had a peep sight at one time and that was removed and a filler plate was place in the slot. This rifle will do 1 1/4" groups @100yards with it's 4X scope all day with factory ammo, hope you enjoy the pictures.

longshot, if you are ever out this way I will take you up on that coffee offer.........as a matter of fact there is always a pot on here at the farm so why don't I just treat you........

Oh BTW longshot I did want to mention that if you are going to straighten the trigger guard, you will want to do this before you have it blued. Take care and God bless....cordell

 

[longshot7.62x51]

got of the phone with a gunsmith yesterday it i (my brother) bring in compleat dissamble then it 200 for blast and mat-blue to jewel the bolt will be another 90 and 45 for cut and crown and 35 (a hole ouch) to drill and tap. found a stock maker that for 163 will cut a stock for me in sime fancy walnut the all i have to do it some light fit and finish work i will try to get some pic of this up soon

thank you all so far for the help i hope to have something of bueaty to show you all when its finished

 

[BrocLuno]

The reason for $35 a hole is that is hard steel (heat treated) and it takes it's toll on bits and taps. Pretty near have to use very hard two flute gun taps. Not easy and always a chance to break one

 

[longshot7.62x51]

well it the man is a craftsman so that is understandable it was just a stander ow price

 

[longshot7.62x51]

as promised pics

here is what i have to start with the stock is one i found on ebay and its ugly but will work the trigger was shortend as well as the magazine and floor plate have been orderd