velocette
Member
I am the lucky owner of a US rifle of 1917, aka, 1917 Enfield in caliber 30 of 1906. Made by Remington's Eddystone arsenal in 1917.
I salvaged it from a rusty Bubba'd wreck. It could never have been returned to original, so I spent a year with hand tools only to make it a great sporting rifle. No plastic, no CNC, just blued steel and hand finished Walnut.
I did not expect a lot in the way of accuracy from it. Original GI barrel on it that had seen use with corrosive ammo.
Last week I proceeded to do ladder loads to find whatever the old warhorse liked.
Fed brass, TTL & flash hole reamed, Sierra 168 Match King bullets, IMR 4895 powder, Win primers, loaded out to maximum magazine length.
10 different loads, 5 rds each from starting to max in 0.5 grain increments. All fired from prone with bags front & rear & a 14x scope.
Only one of the loads grouped larger than 1" @100 yds. The best 4 were:
.78 x .52"; .39 x .75"; .48 x .51"; & finally, 4 rounds through the same hole 0.12 x 0.12 & one round bringing the group to 0.53x 0.28.
The rifle has been epoxy & pillar bedded, with a Dayton Traister trigger.
I am both surprised (pleasantly) and highly pleased that an almost 100 year old ex battle rifle can and does shoot with great accuracy.
Roger
I salvaged it from a rusty Bubba'd wreck. It could never have been returned to original, so I spent a year with hand tools only to make it a great sporting rifle. No plastic, no CNC, just blued steel and hand finished Walnut.
I did not expect a lot in the way of accuracy from it. Original GI barrel on it that had seen use with corrosive ammo.
Last week I proceeded to do ladder loads to find whatever the old warhorse liked.
Fed brass, TTL & flash hole reamed, Sierra 168 Match King bullets, IMR 4895 powder, Win primers, loaded out to maximum magazine length.
10 different loads, 5 rds each from starting to max in 0.5 grain increments. All fired from prone with bags front & rear & a 14x scope.
Only one of the loads grouped larger than 1" @100 yds. The best 4 were:
.78 x .52"; .39 x .75"; .48 x .51"; & finally, 4 rounds through the same hole 0.12 x 0.12 & one round bringing the group to 0.53x 0.28.
The rifle has been epoxy & pillar bedded, with a Dayton Traister trigger.
I am both surprised (pleasantly) and highly pleased that an almost 100 year old ex battle rifle can and does shoot with great accuracy.
Roger
