Replacing M1917 mixed parts and an Ejector with a Coil Spring

[Merc]

I'm slowly replacing all the non-Winchester parts on my M1917 Winchester mixmaster and recently disassembled the Bolt Stop/Ejector assembly to see if any parts were Ws. No such luck. All were Es & Rs. I was able to find a W Bolt Stop at Springfield Sporters but nothing else. None of the other big parts dealers I've found on-line ID their M1917 parts. Does anyone know of another parts dealer that replicates Springfield Sporters parts ID business model? I'm still looking for a complete Winchester Bolt, Stacking Swivel, Bolt Stop Spring Rest, Ejector and a Bolt Stop Spring.

The current E ejector on my rifle has an interesting small coil spring installed on it instead of the original leaf spring. The end of the spring is bent upward into a hook and is attached to the ejector through a small hole drilled near the center of the ejector. It presses downward on the bolt stop spring and the ejector successfully ejects an empty case. Since a broken leaf spring was a common M1917 problem, I'm guessing the coil spring was probably an armory modification (?) assuming the demand for replacement ejectors became greater than the supply.

Has anyone else had a similar experience, or heard of M1917 ejectors with coil springs?

Merc

[M1Garandy]

Numrich sells ejectors for the M1917 and the Pattern 14 with a coil spring.

Much more durable than the originals.

[musketshooter]

The modification was never an armory job. The instructions for installing a spring are in "Gunsmithing" by Dunlap.

[Merc]

M1Garandy - I know Numrich has M1917 ejectors but they don't separate parts by OEM. I'd like to have all W stamped parts at the end of the day. The only dealer that I know of who separates M1917 W, E and R parts is Springfield Sporters plus the dealers on eBay and gunbrokers.com. I also inquired at Liberty Tree and Sarco but they also won't separate parts by OEM.

I saw the ejector with the coil spring for sale at Numrich that you spoke of. It looks like a well made part. The coil spring fits in two milled slots in the ejector which keeps it always pointing in the proper direction. The coil spring on the ejector in my M1917 flops around and requires detailed positioning in order to point in the proper direction. I can definitely see a durability advantage in the Numeric coil spring ejector over the original leaf spring ejector.

Musketshooter - It looks like whoever did the coil spring replacement work took the time to do a nice job. I can see where the broken spring stub was filed off and the ejector was dressed up and blued. Too bad it has an E or I'd consider letting it stay in the rifle.

Merc

[Dan Shapiro]

From what I've been able to find, the 'coil spring' mod was made by civilians in pre-internet days when tracking down rifle parts was more difficult. They were also the ones to ground down and slope the rear of the follower so that the bolt could be opened and closed without having to push the follower down.

[Merc]

Dan - The civilian retrofit made a lot of sense since adding a coil spring was an effective and easy fix to a broken leaf spring. It's clearly superior to a leaf spring in this application. It's surprising that the Army found them to be acceptable. I read in another forum where an owner of a M1917 used a spring from a ball point pen to replace a broken leaf spring and it worked fine. I wonder how many rounds the average leaf spring cycled before failing.

Merc

[Merc]

Totally wrong about Numrich. I found a very helpful customer service person today at Numrich (Maria) who went above and beyond to have her people search their M1917 parts inventory and they located several W parts I've been looking for. I inquired about a W stacking swivel and she called me later in the day to tell me that they only had E stacking swivels which allowed me to successfully bid on a W stacking swivel on eBay last night so now, only the W bolt stop spring rest and the always elusive W bolt remain to be found. Nothing but good things to say about Maria and the excellent effort she made.

It's going to be a shame to replace the E bolt that's currently on my M1917 W because it's in such excellent shape without any corrosion or visible wear. It fits tightly in the receiver and with it, the rifle passes a head space field gauge test. The extractor is stamped CV (chromium vanadium steel). Any W bolt I buy will almost have to be nearly NOS to be equal to this E bolt. It could be the single item that will keep the rifle from being pure W because it's almost too good to let go. I've seen some junk for sale.

Merc