Need Info On Remington

[Marty T.]

Looked it over tonight. Has Rem rec. and barrel, E bolt, W stock, not able to check internals. Has rebuild stamp on stock, so mixed parts are a given. Said he would take $450 bottom dollar. Forgot my gauges for go, no/go, but he has been shooting it so apparently it functions and bullet test on muzzle was good.
No rust or pitting anywhere and wood is solid. What say you all? Worth it?

[Merc]

I'd say $450 is a bargain for a shootable '17. They were durable battle rifles with a very robust action. Lots of Remington parts seem to be out there if you need them. It must have had good basics if they thought enough of it to do an armory rebuild. It probably only saw a few months of war-time action if it was made in 7/18. The war ended 4 months later.

It's interesting that it wound up with a Winchester stock. They are in demand these days and yours could be worth a few hundred dollars alone if it's in good shape.

If you're comfortable, then I say go for it and enjoy yourself. Let us know how it shoots.

Merc

[IditarodJoe]

I agree with Merc. Barring any as yet unmentioned defect, $450 sounds like an excellent price and the rifle in question sounds like a good "representative example".

For years, I've heard stories about WWI "cleaning parties" where soldiers would strip their rifles and toss all of the smaller parts into a communal pot of solvent. As the story goes, after cleaning the parts they'd reassemble their rifles without regard to which part came from which rifle. No idea how true this is, but in my experience truly original Model of 1917 rifles are extremely rare. So much so, that I would automatically consider any 100% correct 1917 to be the product of some collector's "restoration" project unless there were other really compelling evidence to the contrary.

As Marty T implied, a rifle with a rebuild stamp will invariably have a mixture of manufacturers' parts. My 1917 has two rebuild stamps: RA-P (Raritan Arsenal) and 3GM-K. Last I knew, although the 3GM-K stamp is common, nobody as yet knows its source. Has any progress been made on this front?

[Merc]

Iditarod Joe,

I Googled "3GM-K" and found it mentioned on several forums. One particular forum contributor says it was a rebuild mark of the Light Division of General Motors.

Go to: http://myplace.frontier.com/~aleccorapinski/id9.html That sight is for the M1 and has a number of marks listed and says the 3GM-K mark has a connection to WW2.

Merc

[IditarodJoe]

Thanks Merc.

The link you posted doesn't work for me, but I've heard speculation in the past that the GM might stand for General Motors. That's an easy leap considering the auto industry's involvement with the military during and after WW2, but I haven't heard of any credible confirmation. Keep in mind that there are still collectors out there who believe 1903A3 bolts marked "CC" were made by Chrysler Corporation although that's been disproved. Maybe 3GM-K is destined to remain one of life's great mysteries.

[Merc]

The '17 is probably the only exception I can think of to the rule of mixed parts rifles. Most other antique rifles would be considered devalued if assembled with mismatching parts. However, it's more acceptable in the case of '17s because mixing parts was such a common practice.

A '17 with original parts is more interesting to me. I began replacing several R and E parts on my W rifle out of necessity. They were either worn or were OK but didn't fit very well.

The magazine box was a R and would fall out of the rifle if the trigger guard was removed. The replacement magazine box that I found on eBay is unissued NOS W and must be a bit larger than the R because it fits tightly into the stock as it should. The W magazine box that I bought would probably be too large to fit in a R stock. This would qualify as a parts compatibility issue that kept the early Ws in the US.

The trigger and sear were both E and were worn and loose. I took the assembly apart and found the holes were enlarged and trigger pin had been "worked" by someone with a chisel in an attempt to tighten things up. Replacing those items was needed to restore proper function. This is a good example of the dangers of mixing parts when cleaning several rifles at once. Worn parts from a war-weary E that was possibly fired several thousand times wound up in my (star circle stamped) W that never left the US and was possibly fired a few hundred times.

I'll continue to replace all the non-W parts with originals when I can find them. Certain parts will work better since they were made for the rifle (although my minty E bolt that head spaces and works perfectly might be hard to give up). Besides, chasing all these parts on the Internet has given me something to do and has kept me off the streets.

Merc

[Merc]

Joe,

Try that sight again. I left something out. It works now.

Merc