Model 1917 American Enfield

Hey guys, welcome back. So today I'm out here shooting my K98 Mauser and this is a World War II era rifle. Now I'm not out here to talk about the K98 Mauser, I'm actually out here to talk about a rifle that's based on the Mauser's action, a rifle that we used during World War I. Many rifles during the First World War were based on the Mauser action on both sides of the conflict. Let's take a look at the rifle I'm talking about. The rifle that I'm talking about is a U.S. service rifle, caliber .30, model 1917. The model 1917 was designed by the British during the First World War and it is based on the Mauser action. The British were looking for a new service rifle during the First World War, just prior to the First World War, and they were working on the SMLE rifle, and they were working on new caliber. They were having some production problems with the caliber and the rifle, so they had a backup plan, and the Pattern 14 rifle, which this rifle is based upon, was that backup plan. The British contacted the U.S. government and worked out a deal where Winchester-Remington-Eddystone would manufacture the P14 rifle, or the Pattern 14 rifle. When the United States got involved in the conflict, and the war I should say, we also found ourselves kind of with our pants down. At the time we were using the 1903 Springfield, but we didn't have enough rifles or the manufacturing capabilities to meet the demands of the war effort. So the War Department, or the Department of Defense, took a look at the Pattern 14 rifle, and we already had the production facilities and the training staff to manufacture the Pattern 14. All we had to do was rechamber it for the .30-06 caliber cartridge, and we would have another service rifle that we could put into the war effort. And that's exactly what we did, and that's how this rifle came to be, the model 1917. Now oftentimes this rifle is inaccurately referred to as the P17 because people are confusing the P14 with the model 1917. The correct nomenclature is the model 1917 rifle, .30 caliber. The model 1917, which my left hand is touching, is very similar, but still different, than the Mauser action on which it's based. Let's take a look at the Mauser. First of all, the safety for the Mauser is back here on top of the bolt. The safety for the model 1917 is over on this side of the receiver, and is actuated by the firer's thumb. You can manipulate the safety, the safe position on the Mauser, and it will lock the bolt handle in place. That's the safe position on the model 1917. If it's in the safe position, you can't open the bolt on the rifle. You can only open it once it's in the fire position. Now, you just saw that this rifle did something rather unique when I opened the bolt. When you open the bolt on the model 1917, the bolt doesn't cock the striker on the opening stroke. It only cocks on the closing stroke. See how it's pulling the striker back? On the Mauser, I'm going to go ahead and dry fire the Mauser. I need to take it off safe there. Dry fire the Mauser. Now when I open the bolt handle on the Mauser, watch what it does. It's drawing the striker to the rear. It's the opposite of the model 1917. That's a British design. The British always make their bolt-action rifles cock on closing. They feel it speeds loading of the rifle, and the British prided themselves on how fast they could fire bolt-action rifles, and that mechanism aided in that. You'll notice that both rifles also have stripper clip guides. They both have non-detachable box magazines. I can get six rounds in the model 1917. You can get five rounds in the Mauser. You'll notice the difference in sights. The Mauser has a sight mounted forward of the receiver. The model 1917 has the sights mounted further to the rear over the trigger of the rifle. It gives the rifle a substantially longer sight radius. The rear sights on the model 1917 are adjustable for elevation, pretty optimistic for volley fire, well out over 1,000 yards, and then it has a standard non-adjustable peep sight for closer combat distances. The thing that's kind of unique about this is, as fancy as these sights look, they're not adjustable for windage. You can adjust windage with your front sight blade by drifting it, but you can't dial in windage to the rear sight on the model 1917. The same is true of the Mauser. It's adjustable for elevation, but not windage on the rear sight. Both of the rifles use the same bolt for the most part. They're very much similar. It has the same—the model 1917 has the same large extractor as the Mauser, and it has the locking lugs in the same place. Both of these rifles have very strong and robust actions. That's one of the reasons why it was so popular, that it's a very reliable action. But the model 1917s were manufactured in large numbers during the First World War. Over two million of the rifles were produced, but not very many of them survived on the surplus market because a lot of them were chopped up after they were sold as surplus and turned into sporting rifles that could chamber large magnum rounds. That's because of how robust the action is. As you can see, these rifles are capable of extreme accuracy. This group is just a little over an inch in diameter, and it's a four-shot group I just fired at 100 yards using surplus ammunition. Very impressive. Now, the accuracy of the rifle can be attributed to a number of things. First of all, it has a 26-inch barrel, and that barrel length coupled with the sight radius really makes for a precision shooting machine. It also has a very fine front sight blade and a nice peep aperture on the rear. It has better sights than the Mauser that it copies. This rifle, the one that I'm shooting out here today, is manufactured by Remington. My rifle was re-barreled after the First World War, probably right around World War II, and its original barrel was replaced. The original barrels used a five-groove left-hand twist barrel, similar to the Pattern 14 rifle, that it was based upon. When we re-barreled the rifles for the World War II effort, the rifles were re-barreled with either a five-groove right-hand twist or a two-groove right-hand twist. My rifle has a two-groove barrel. Even with that two-groove barrel, again, I'm very impressed with how well the rifle shoots. Shooting the Model 1917 is actually quite pleasant despite its .30-06 chambering. The weight of the rifle, coupled with the smooth action, the long barrel, makes the rifle point very nicely, and the recoil isn't that bad. It's a great weapon, very, very capable in the hands of a U.S. soldier. The Model 1917 rifle is an amazing piece of American history. This is a rifle that Sergeant York used in his exploits that earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. This rifle was probably the most common rifle in use by American doughboys in the First World War than even the 1903 Springfield, which was our official U.S. service rifle of the time. This rifle went into storage after the First World War, and the 1903 Springfield continued on as our primary service rifle. These rifles were again pressed into service during World War II. They finally officially went out of service in 1953. These rifles are available in the surplus market. They're not coming into the country from foreign sources, and the NRA and the United States government released all that they had many years ago, so there's not a new supply of these rifles coming onto the market. You have to shop like I did around in the used rifle section of your local gun shop, shop online like Guns America or some other website like that, and you might be able to find one of these rifles. I paid a little over $400 for this example. It's in beautiful shape. It looks like somebody lacquered the stocks on it. It was rebarreled by the U.S. government during World War II. As I mentioned earlier, it has the two-groove right-hand twist barrel put on it, but it has all the armor proof marks on it, the JA mark with the bomb ordinance on it. The rifle itself is a Remington. It was made by Remington, Winchester, and Eddystone during the war, and a little over two million of these rifles were produced in the years between 1917 and 1918. The rifle was loved and hated by U.S. forces. The thing is, three feet, ten inches long, I'm six foot four. This rifle is big, especially when the guys back then, their average height was maybe five, eight or so. These rifles with their 16-inch bayonet affixed were typically bigger than the dough boy that carried them. They were heavy. They're heavier than the Mauser counterpart because of the receivers that are beefed up, and again, being long, they weren't very handy in the trenches of World War I, but they did earn the respect of the soldiers because of the Mauser action. They were known to be reliable and extremely accurate rifles. If you guys have any questions about the M1917 rifle, feel free to swing by our Facebook page. You can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com forward slash military arms. As always, everybody, thanks for watching. Thanks for those subs, and we'll talk to you guys soon.