http://cdn-max.s3.amazonaws.com/Enfiield.jpg
I have been perusing the local gun stores and pawn shops in greater Las Vegas. This place has no shortage of guns stores. And while the ones closer to the strip may be for tourists, most are for locals. Virtually all the firearms on the pegboards are 'tactical' and that turns out not to be to my taste. I really miss the old rows of hunting rifles.
I went into Peacemaker Firearms today and saw an old M1917 Enfield on the wall. It was not there 2 weeks ago.
I looked it over - the stock had been modestly sportsterized long ago (maybe in the 1950s). We had a heck of a time finding a light to shine up the bore, but it looked pretty clean to me.
The bolt action felt like brand new. The sights feel like they were made yesterday. Mine does not have a magazine cutout; you need to manually press down on the cartridge slider to close the bolt with no ammunition in the magazine. Everything felt brand new, which was in stark contrast to the somewhat beat up stock.
I bought the rifle for $199 and took it to MK3 Gunsmiths where Matt looked it over and said it was like new - he said "shoot away" (just use standard pressure ammunition).
I bought 3 boxes of Sellier and Bellot 150 gr M1 Garand ammo. Next weekend I will take it out to shoot.
I took my new baby home and cleaned her up. The bolt and assembly really look like there have been fewer than 100 rounds put through this rifle. After cleaning and oiling, the barrel and rifling look basically new.
The stock looks a little better with some oil on it, and of course, the parkerized finish has some wear marks where the bayonet holder was removed to cover it to a hunting rifle.
This was a good day.
As I was cleaning the rifle, I opened the small nickel sized latch on the butt. I had to carefully remove 3 live cartridges that may have been in there since the 1950s or 1960s. (In the stock, not the magazine.) YMMV, but as a former Marine, there is zero chance I will 'test' the 60 year old ammo. It is going in the range bucket for disposal.
The Danish army use a variant of this rifle today in Greenland (nothing else will work in the upper arctic.)
I would rather shoot .308, but .30-06 is a great cartridge - I'll ammo up for this rifle.
I have not fired it yet, but you just need to move the sight elevation up and down to feel the integrity of this weapon. The sights are far better than the stock M1 Garand sights - I am hoping I can keep shots on target at 150 to 200 yards just with the iron sights.
And I forgot to give credit to my wife who is a trained jeweler. She cleaned up the corroded butt plate to look (not like new!) uniformly clean for a 100 year old rifle.
[Larger Image] M1917 Enfield (AKA American Enfield)
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Last edited by max129 on Sat Oct 27, 2018 10:04 pm, edited 6 times in total.