M1917 stock with a "T" makers mark

[mannparks]

Not inspectors Mark this is on the nose of the stock underneath the bayonet lug

[Merc]

Notes from the gun show I attended in Monroeville (near Pittsburgh) last Sunday.

A vendor had a M1917 for sale with a replacement stock. It was completely unmarked (no T) but, like mine, it was in nice shape and fit the rifle perfectly in every way.

The one thing I've always been curious about were the shape of the stock finger grooves. I noticed that the finger grooves of the original M1917 factory stocks had crisp edges. However, the grooves on my replacement T stamped stock were somewhat rounded as if someone had sanded them down during a refinishing attempt. I noticed that the replacement stock on the rifle that was for sale also had rounded edges on the stock finger grooves which now makes me think that they were originally made that way.

My '17 is still a blast (no pun intended) to shoot and still attracts lots of attention at the range.

[RC20]

Grove shape like the bolt handle recess are unique to each original MFG.

I don't have any non E, W or R stocks to compare, I think my brother has one and while not stamped it matches up as one of the other (R I think)

[RC20]

Three different sizes of the M1917 stocks would make sense since the rifle is such a monster. You have to wonder how 145 pound doughboys hauled them around France.

I wonder how those 98 pound Philippineoes and Chinese hauled those monsters around!

For them it had to be a crew served weapon.

[RC20]

If your serial number is 78,000 range and the rifle is parkerized then it's been rebuilt and refinished for WW2. There were WW1 rifles that were parkerized but those were towards the end of production and not early on like yours. About the first 3/4 of production were all blued. As to the parts changed between makers. The answer is no they all used their own parts. Parts will generally interchange except for the very early Winchesters.

They underwent a re man after WWI initially. If a W or R or E b arrel got onto a differen receiver (or versa visa) then that's when it would have occurred.

There was an issue with storge and I belive they pulled them out and reidd them but found many had corroded due to poor applicaothn of cosmo.

WWII would have been JA, RI (not that many) and HS who all made replacement barrels.

I would doubt any barrels got swapped, receiver would have been indestructible for all practical purposes If done it would have been at best rare

On the other hand, as it was not uncommon to change calibers on these in between WWI and WWII when in civilian hands there had to be a number of OEM barrels drifting around.

Its possible that some of those guns that owners wanted to keep 30-06 and took a gun in with a bad barrel, would get a replacement WWI used barrel that was good.

Great history and all sorts of intriguing gaps.