Scope Mounting The US Model of 1917 Eddystone/En eld Rifle

US A model of 1917 Eddystone rifle was turned over to me for inspection and cleaning, scope remounting and general appraisal for insurance purposes. The outward appearance of the rifle was excellent. It had a Fajen style, high-grade walnut stock with rolled cheek piece and flared rosewood pistol grip cap and rosewood forend tip. The stock bore no dings or scratches and had an excellent finish. There was a 26-inch, heavy sporter barrel installed and chambered for 6mm Remington.

Overall appraisal of the rifle ranked very good. However, on inspection the scope-mounting job would require further work with likely remounting of the bases. Before we begin with scope mounting, some historical and technical notes on the US Model of 1917 Enfield/Eddystone rifle are in order that may be interesting and helpful to the owner. As the United States got into the first World War in 1917 there was an immediate need for more rifles.

As England became involved in the war contracts were given to the United States to produce Enfield rifles. These contracts were awarded to Remington, Winchester and the Eddystone Arsenal at Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Nearly as many rifles were made at Eddystone as the other two firms combined. The Ed- On right, the starboard side is shown with a double-bend bolt handle and factory trigger. Note the dog-ear-like wing guards at the rear of the receiver which protects the rear sight.

Center, this side of the receiver shows the port side with bolt stop/release and the wing guards used to protect the rear sight. This shows a very strong action. On left, atop view of the action with rear sight removed, exposing the oblong, milled groove that requires filling-in before a scope base could be installed. Overall we see a very strong bolt action receiver, well adapted to conversion to a wide variety of cartridges.

At this stage the receiver is drilled and tapped for scope bases in preparation for scope mounting. dystone/Enfield bolt action rifle was afi ve-shot, clip-fed, top-feed design with a 26-inch fi ve groove barrel. The American versions were chambered for the US caliber .30 rifle cartridge, Model 1906. They used the same clip and cartridge as used in the US Rifle, caliber 30, Model 1903. The front sight, mounted near the end of the barrel, was protected by two sight guards.

The rear sight was also well protected by lateral wing

Great care must be used to assure proper thread spacing and alignment when mounting a scope. guards. The battle sight is a sliding ramp peep sight with no windage adjustment. A thumb-operated safety was positioned on the upper rear of the receiver. A unique feature of these rifles enabled the firing pin and sleeve to be removed from the bolt without the use of tools. As issued this rifle weighed just under 10 pounds and was quite accurate and dependable.

They were produced at a cost of $25 each—less than the price of a box of factory .30-06 ammo today. Following the end of World War I these Model into the hands of sportsmen and riflemen who recognized the inherent quality in this rifle. This included a high number of the Eddystones. Some of these rifles were used in hunting and general target shooting just as received with the standard, military issue open sights. Those purchasing these rifles could readily see the adaptable conversion possibilities.

New stocks were installed as were new barrels in a wide range of cartridges. Still others saw the possibility of installing atop mounted scope. Early on there weren’t many scopes and mounts to choose from but as these became available the surplus mili- Here you would not know that the dog-ear-like protective sight wings were ground off and the receiver bridge radius was formed. tary rifles were there in abundance, awaiting a good gunsmith.

Scoping The Eddystone The bolt and receiver of the 1917 Eddystone were made from nickelsteel forgings. This steel can readily be drilled and tapped with quality tools. While some scoped the rifle with the existing, double-bend-back bolt configuration, others chose to

This shows a very strong, well-made action conversion from afine old military rifle. We also see a pretty rare piece of stock wood here complementing the old rifle. reshape or even replace the existing bolt handle. The crux of this scope mounting job involved reworking the rear receiver-bridge. As issued, these rifles had a pair of integral, laterally opposing wing guards protruding upward to protect the rear open sights.

All this had to be dealt with in order to make the rear receiver-bridge symmetrical to the front. These ear-like wing guards could be ground off and finished, sometimes with a tool post grinder, to a perfect radius conforming to the front receiver ring. However, following this procedure there still remained a rather deep, oblong groove milled along the top of the bridge where the rear sight was. This didn’t do much for the rifle’s aesthetic appearance, nor did it make scope mounting any easier.

This rounded linear groove was usually filled in with some material adaptable to scope mounting and shaped to the exact contour of the bridge radius. In this way both the front and rear scope bases could be of the same height parallel to the bore. A common method of filling this groove is to fitapiece of metal the size of the groove, silver-solder or weld it in position, and then shape the surface to the exact radius of the receiver and scope base.

Drilling and tapping holes in the Eddystone receiver isn’t difficult. I would recommend doing this in a mill vise moving the carriage for perfect alignment of the holes. These nickel-steel receivers don’t appear to be case hardened and a quality 6-48 bottoming tap will do a good threading job. A Weaver K6 scope was mounted using Weaver Top- Mount Scope Bases (#11) both fore and aft along with Weaver Quick Detachable rings.

Medium height scope rings allow the objective lens housing to just clear the barrel immediately ahead of its taper. The existing scope bases did require lapping and fi nal fitting for proper alignment with the bore. This was necessary to help bring the windage and elevation within the scope erector lens adjustment center. Prior to 1960, not all scope reticles were centered within the viewing field. The reticle on some scopes would often appear well off center of the ocular exit field, which was less than desirable.

Attempts to make correction for this involved shimming beneath the scope base or scope tube within the rings—never a pretty sight, or a proper cure. The earlier scope reference tables provided by Weaver listed a number of bases for the Enfield receiver depending on how the receiver was cut down.

These ranged from bases designed for the Remington 721 (base #36 and #35), Winchester Model 70 (base #47 and #46), or Remington Model 30 (base #11 both rear and front.) The Eddystone rifle discussed herein, with minor lapping, worked well with the Weaver #11 base rear and front. The receiver-ring and bridge were quite symmetrical, making this possible. If a scope with a larger objective lens than the Weaver K6 was later mounted, a higher set of rings would be needed.

The scope base threads required attention with careful, thread-tap clean up and an application of a thread locking material on the screws. All-in-all the old rifle wore its scope well. Conclusions Some of the older military rifles were quite adaptable to sporter rifle alteration, including scope mounting and the US Model of 1917 Eddystone/Enfield was one of them. When one considers the service these great rifles performed in the heat of battle it should make new owners should be proud to have one. AG