M1917 JA barrels vs the Remington 2 groove A3 barrels

[milboltnut]

I noticed the rifling in the JA barrels and the A3 barrels (wide lands and narrow shallow grooves) and also the front sight keys ways.... they are the same. The original 1917 barrel front sight key way is a single cut unlike Rem and JA.

What say you fellas?

[fjruple]

I believe there is a military drawing that specific to what you are saying. I will have to chack and see if I can find it. It's been a while since I reviewed the drawing.

--fjruple

[RC20]

My brother has a reference that the JA copied the RA barrel design.

Not only the rifling but the throat. Original 1917 I bevies had a square setup, the 1903s had a more tapered setup in the throat.

They followed the 1903 throat. I have found my JA reload differently than the 1903s do (I have several of those as well)

My JA 1917 has a standard 1917 front sight. I have not removed it so no idea what the cutout under it looks like.

The JA would have been longer at 26 inches vs the 1903 at 24.

[RC20]

Looked in Ferris.

He shows JA, HS and RI with a the 1903 cross cut fairly wide fore and aft and a slot between them.

Its been a long time since I saw a bare original 1917 barrel.

I found Criterions 1917 Replacement barrel with just the slot you are talking about and cross checked (pun) a 1903 barrel front as I am not familiar with those.

The 1903 Criterions barrel has the cross and slot combo front sight cut, not sure how they handled the difference between 1903 and 1917, you would think it would be the front they cut off not the rear.

Did 1903 have cross only and then changed to slot or?

As they were making barrels for both 1903 and 1917 (all the mfgs) then maybe easier to just put the same cut on all the fronts the same after cut to length.