High Standard Barrels

[swede49]

Picked up a sporter 1917 last week at a LGS: excellent metal, front sight intact, sn 852XXX (1918 mfg). My question is about the High Standard barrel; is it a WWII replacement? It is the green parkerized finish while the rest of the rifle has a beautiful dark bluing. How many 1917s got this treatment and who were the rifles issued to? Bright bore, headspaces on no go and field gages. Paid $235

[twh]

WW II replacement barrel also made by Johnson Automatic and I think RIA as well.

[kcw]

For the most part M1917's were issued to service troops during WWII. In some cases they were issued to troops that were destined for combat duty but were in a long term holding situation. For example my uncle spent over a year in Britain with his 90mm AA battalion which did eventually go ashore on D-Day. However while in waiting their Garands were removed and they were issued M1917's with which they did extensive infantry training. They suspected that the invasion was drawing near when they were issued M-1 rifles again. Sure enough, within a week or so, they were in France.
I don't know if there are any numbers on how many M1917's were re-fitted at the beginning of WWII but it would appear that there were a great many. My understanding is that the effort to rehab issued rifles at the end of WWI was rather short lived, a high % of those rifles were simply put into storage "as is" and left. A curious thing about the rifles rebarreled for WWII was that the arsenals never took the time to sight them in. Commonly, the newly rebarreled rifles were fitted with reclaimed front sight assemblies with their original, WWI arsenal fitted blade insert still in them, which might be near useless when fitted to another rifle.

[swede49]

Thanks. My example is all Eddystone except for the front sight base and blade, which are both Remington. Also, the peep portion of the rear sight is not there, but there is no sign of any scope ever having been mounted.

[kcw]

Thanks. My example is all Eddystone except for the front sight base and blade, which are both Remington. Also, the peep portion of the rear sight is not there, but there is no sign of any scope ever having been mounted.

It may be that the battle sight (the peep viewed with the sight ladder laid down) was accidently broken off. It could also be that it was found to be useless with that Remington front sight assembly. Of course the WWI factory regulated the battle sight for around 450yds I believe. It could be that the 1st civilian owner of that rifle found the far more adjustable ladder sight to be more useful with the Remington assembly. Replacement GI ladder's are available, as are replacement front sight inserts of varying heights. The insert can be drifted within the base for windage adjustments. My personal preference has been to find the insert which puts the M1917 "dead on" @ 200yds with the battle sight. That arrangement makes for more practical shooting on the ranges available in my area. Your rifle looks like the basic "sporterized" job that was popular in the late 1950's, early 60's. At that time the popular idea was to shed the rifle of its military look in an effort to make a relatively inexpensive hunting rifle. As your rifle still has its rear sight "ears" (commonly milled off in more extensive sporter configurations) and an unaltered GI barrel, you could restore it to GI configuration, something which has become popular in recent years. Following WWI, Remington Arms purchased the huge quantity of leftover M1917 parts still in its factory from the U.S. government and used them to make their Model 30 type rifles over the next several decades.

[swede49]

Thanks. Appreciate the info. It is restorable, I have all the parts in my bin except for the buttstock.

[p246]

Alot of M1917's during WWII were also lend leased to our English cousins and Canada. Mine was sent to Canada and has the circle V stamps and red paint to diferentiate it from th P14 rifles.

[jjrothWA]

Johnson arms, (JA) and High Standard (HA) were authorized barrel makers for the 1917.

JA were two-grooves, ( which was accpeted forboth the 17 and the 03A3's) and HS were four-grooves. I thought that RIA sent all equipment to Remington for making 03's???

[Dan Shapiro]

Actually, it was SA that send the equipment to Remington. IIRC, RIA's equipment was found to be relatively useless once they got it unpacked.

[coppertales]

My 03 Mk 1 has a HS, High standard, barrel on it. If you need any parts for your restoration, ebay has quite a few 1917 parts under enfield parts.......chris3