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Does anyone know if every single Enfield was retooled or not? I was just given an Eddystone 1917 Enfield by my wife's grandfather and it appears to be made the last month of WW1 or the month after. After looking at some of the parts all of them appear to be marked with the "E". It started to make me wonder if these are all original parts in the gun. Does anyone know if this is plausible and what would an all original Enfield be worth? Thanks for y'alls time and help in this matter.
not all were. biggest clue is if it has been parkerized, or still is in its original bluing.
The immediate post WWI government inspection program of issued M1917's was short lived. For the most part worn weapons, along with many which were unissued or little used were warehoused and forgotten. At the start of WWII a large quantity, but not all, of the unissued 1917's were sold to Great Britain. When the U.S. entered the war there was an emergency inspection/rebuild program created to make the inventory of M1917's ready for issue. If a rifle was judged to be new, or nearly so, it was deemed ready to go and sent out the door. As 1917's were generally issued to "service" outfits many rifles never saw harsh field use and stayed intact through the war and until they were "surplused" off following the end of the war. A considerable number of the rifles sold to Great Britain made their way back to the U.S. through commercial channels in new condition during the late 50's. Those rifles will be stamped with British commercial proof marks and usually the stamp "NOT ENGLISH MAKE" on the receiver.
I should add too that the M1917 was sold through the old NRA-DCM program in the 1920-1930's era, along with 03', Krags & Trapdoors. Of the offerings, the M1917 was highest priced of the bunch, presumably because of their superior overall condition, but they apparently they weren't a big seller as the price was lowered over time. Of course by the time the depression started it was even more difficult to sell a $30 dollar rifle when Krag's and Trapdoors could be had for $10 or less.
Machines are "retooled", not rifles.
Thanks very good information there. I believe mine was purchased though the NRA-DCM program, I believe he told me his great uncle purchased it and gave it to him. I wish I could still get these rifles for $30.
Thanks for the clarification dave, although I'm pretty sure most people knew what I was referring to though.
were issued for newly formed state guard units after the "national Guards units were federalized.
If your's is blued and matching likely to be considered as manufactured, if parkerized the arsenal overhauled prior to storage.
Back in 2006 saw an Remington marked action with Winchester barrel, didn't have the $450 tha shop was asking.
If everything is blued there is a good chance the parts are original to the rifle. Some very late war Eddystones were Parkerized at the factory. The Eddystone factory Park is very dark black and nearly looks "blued" unless viewed in bright sunlight. Also, the factory parked rifles will still have "crisp" inspection marks - Eagle Head stamps. If it was park'ed after the war, it will look more grey-green and the inspection marks will look worn since the bead blasting rounded off the stamps. If it shows signs of being park'ed after the war, then it is more likely that the rifle was put together later by some collector to match. There was no effort to retain all R, W or E parts on a given rifle once it went through arsenal repair or any sort of rebuild/cleaning program.
Weapons were typically detail stripped, all the parts were dumped into a drum of gasoline or other de-greaser and cleaned and then the weapons were re-assembled. They didn't take the time to try and match parts.
I had an Eddystone, probably from December 1918 or January 1919 that was not a WWII mixmaster. It was beautiful.
I sold it to pay the mortgage when things went south.
Shortly after a very similar Eddystone was on the back of American Rifleman in the "I have this old Gun" section. I'll probably take some heat for saying this but if I remember correctly, NRA was saying the value of that rifle was near 2k.
some of them did come down through the ages unscathed.