Originally Posted by
JB White
All the M1917s I have had contained a few different parts. All had been through either post service rebuild or foreign aid rework. They still do. For many folks (including myself) if a service rifle has all matching parts then its been monkeyed with in the private sector. Unless of course it happens to be one of those prized like-new specimens that for some reason missed all the excitement.
When I used to maintain the rifles at our post I ran into a few coil spring mods. So, either veteran rifles went out the door to the posts having been modified, or someone ahead of me at the post knew the coil spring fix? Its an old trick.
I'll add that I have a Winchester P14 which has an encircled star mark. That is said to be Winchesters marking indicating the rifle has the extended lug.