Sporter 1917, should I refinish the stock?

[mooner]

I currently have my Father-in-laws sporterized 1917 that he received from his uncle when he passed away. My wife and I snuck it out of his house when he was away with the purpose of refinishing. It had some light rust on the bolt handle and the safety and was kept in the attic of his three season porch and I wanted to get it cleaned up a bit to prevent any further degradation. We figured we could give it to him as a present after it is refinished. With that being said, I have some questions.

First, I am debating whether or not to strip the Fajen Monte-Carlo style stock down and refinish it. The stock has been bedded. The existing finish is not too bad, but there are some scratches here and there and it appears that a refinish would really make the nicely figured walnut "pop" out. The only question is whether he would prefer the "old and used" look it has now. For what it's worth, my father-in-law is not a hunter and not a gun guy.

The gun has a Winchester receiver with the sights milled off and a very nice Redfield 4x12 scope mounted. Someone (presumably his uncle) also added a Timney trigger, and it was either re barreled, or the original barrel was cut to around 23". Anyway to tell If the barrel is original or aftermarket? The blueing on the receiver has started to turn a very faint purplish color, while the barrel is a deep blue. I assume it would have had to been re-blued after the sights were turned down? The barrel has "R B Olson" stamped on the side. There is also "K21" with what looks like a flame stamped on the bottom near the receiver, and a "P" stamped a little further up. I do not know if it is still 30-06 for sure, but the bore measures .300" and when I put a .270 Win (what I had sitting around the house) shell in the head space of the disassembled action, it looked like a fit.

To me it seems that this gun has a lot of personality because of how it was put together and personalized. The "character" of the worn stock doesn't add much in my opinion. Obviously if it were an original 1917 this wouldn't be a question, but being there is really no collector value to the stock, if it were mine I would refinish it. What do people here think????


Sorry for being so long winded, and thanks for you input on both the stock refinishing and the barrel question!

Andy

 

[Art Eatman]

Given that the wood is nice, yeah, I'd refinish it.

Did the trigger convert it to cock-on-closing? If so, it might be a Dayton-Traister instead of a Timney. (Of course, maybe it says "Timney" on the trigger assembly. ) Anyhow, I haven't kept up since I sporterized a 1917 way back in the years-ago.

Odds are that it's the original barrel, cut back. That was the common way to get rid of the front-sight step.

Original pregnant-whale floorplate? Or after-market straight floorplate?

Good hunting gun. Those old Enfields were about the strongest actions made, until Remington came out with the push-feed 721.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

I currently have my Father-in-laws sporterized 1917 that he received from his uncle when he passed away. My wife and I snuck it out of his house when he was away with the purpose of refinishing. It had some light rust on the bolt handle and the safety and was kept in the attic of his three season porch and I wanted to get it cleaned up a bit to prevent any further degradation. We figured we could give it to him as a present after it is refinished. With that being said, I have some questions.

First, I am debating whether or not to strip the Fajen Monte-Carlo style stock down and refinish it. The stock has been bedded. The existing finish is not too bad, but there are some scratches here and there and it appears that a refinish would really make the nicely figured walnut "pop" out. The only question is whether he would prefer the "old and used" look it has now. For what it's worth, my father-in-law is not a hunter and not a gun guy.

The gun has a Winchester receiver with the sights milled off and a very nice Redfield 4x12 scope mounted. Someone (presumably his uncle) also added a Timney trigger, and it was either re barreled, or the original barrel was cut to around 23". Anyway to tell If the barrel is original or aftermarket? The blueing on the receiver has started to turn a very faint purplish color, while the barrel is a deep blue. I assume it would have had to been re-blued after the sights were turned down? The barrel has "R B Olson" stamped on the side. There is also "K21" with what looks like a flame stamped on the bottom near the receiver, and a "P" stamped a little further up. I do not know if it is still 30-06 for sure, but the bore measures .300" and when I put a .270 Win (what I had sitting around the house) shell in the head space of the disassembled action, it looked like a fit.

To me it seems that this gun has a lot of personality because of how it was put together and personalized. The "character" of the worn stock doesn't add much in my opinion. Obviously if it were an original 1917 this wouldn't be a question, but being there is really no collector value to the stock, if it were mine I would refinish it. What do people here think????

The barrel is original. The "flame" is a flaming bomb, common on US rifles. The receiver is purplish because of the difficulty in blueing the high nickel content 1917s.
A keeper. My 1917 Win is the slickest bolt to operate I own, and I own a LOT of bolts.

 

[mooner]

Yep, it says Timney right on it.

Pretty sure it is the original floor plate if pregnant whale refers to a slight bow on the bottom. The floor plate release mechanism is pretty sticky and I'm pretty sure that the spring in there is doing nothing to keep it latched. Seems to be held in position by friction and needs to be pried on from above to release. Tried tapping out the pin with a punch, but not having too much luck and don't really want to tap any harder.

Thanks for the response!