VFW Eddystones

I went to a gun show today and one of the vendors had 4 Eddystone ‘17s for sale. I got there early and was the first to look at them. He claimed up front that they were VFW rifles which means they probably fired corrosive blanks. The bores were in poor shape and 3 stocks had been sanded and varnished. The asking price for 3 of the rifles with varnished stocks was $475. The 4th rifle’s stock looked original and had a sling and was selling for $575. I looked at each bore and could see some rifling but lots of corrosion. The vendor and I agreed that the barrels will need to be replaced if whoever bought them planned to shoot them. He sold all four rifles within 3 hours. So, has anyone ever successfully rehabilitated a VFW rifle bore?

I picked up 5 in an estate over the summer
all were rebuild and used for blanks

I googled the best foaming bore cleaner and bought 4 of them,
muzzle down in a plastic bin, and shot ea full of cleaner, let them sit at least a week

giving each a shot ever day or so as the stuff settled,


bin was covered in a thick layer of dark blue goo, bores scrubbed out decently,
one may benefit from a few rounds , then a redo,
the other 4 cleaned up ok,

serviceable, somewhat bright bores, not perfect by any means but they should shoot well,

one , as mentioned, was a bit more pitted and funky than the rest,

I had bought two of these Model of 1917 rifles. The two I had purchased came out of the CMP and were used my the American Legion, so the story goes. In both cases the barrels first six inches in front of the chamber were toast. Could not hit paper accurately at 100 yards. I replaced the two barrels with Criterion M1917 barrels and they shoot very accurately. You can put perfume and lipstick on a pig and its still a pig. You are probably going to have to to replace the barrels to shoot them with any accuracy.

The other thing I wondered about - the metal components on all 4 appeared to have been painted with black paint, possibly the same stuff you would find on LEs. I was not looking for a project rifle, plus I had no clue on the condition of the muzzle, throat or headspace so I passed.

I never found out my 17 history, but I got a rubber stopper for plugging the chamber.
Then filled the bore with new Hopp'e' and let soak overnight, repeated for five night, with bore brushing with a new bore-brush. [replacing when needed.
finlaly got to strong and clean rifling and sighted @ 200 yds getting a group with in the 10ring on a standard 200yd target,

Final cleaning was with shooters choice and used after every match.