Enfield Rifle Serial Number Search3/20/2021
It was so popular as a sporting weapon that Remington manufactured about 30,000 new rifles as the Model 30 from 1921 to 1940.Numerically, it was the main rifle used by the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I.The Danish Sirius Dog Sled Patrol on Greenland still use the M1917, which performs reliably in Arctic conditions, as their service weapon.Compared to the German Mausers or U.S.
Springfield, the SMLEs.303 rimmed cartridge, originally a black powder cartridge, was ill-suited for feeding in magazine or belt-fed weapons and the SMLE was thought to be less accurate than its competition at longer ranges. The long-range accuracy of German 757mm Model 1893 and 1895 Mausers in the hands of Boer marksmen during the Boer War (1899 -1902) made a big impression on the British Army, and a more powerful, modern rifle was desired. Thus, even though improved LeeEnfield variants (the SMLE) and.303 British Mark VII ammunition with pointed (spitzer) projectiles entered service after the Boer War in 1910, a committee was formed to develop an entirely new design of rifle and cartridge. The starting point was to copy many of the features of the Mauser system. The rifle was developed at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield ( arsenal ) in the United Kingdom. The design carried over a LeeEnfield type safety at the rear of the action and a bolt that cocked on closing to ease unlocking of the bolt during rapid fire. An advanced design, for the era, of aperture rear sight and a long sight radius were incorporated to maximize accuracy potential. However, the onset of World War I came too quickly for the UK to put it into production before the new cartridge could be perfected, as it suffered from overheating in rapid fire and bore fouling. They decided to ask these companies to produce the new rifle design in the old.303 British chambering for convenience of ammunition logistics. In the case of the P14 rifle, Winchester and Remington were selected. A third manufacturer, Eddystone Arsenal a subsidiary of Remington was tooled up at the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Thus, three variations of the P14 and M1917 exist, labeled Winchester, Remington or Eddystone. The Springfield Armory had delivered approximately 843,000 M1903 Springfield rifles, but due to the difficulties in production, rather than re-tool the Pattern 14 factories to produce the standard U.S. M1903 Springfield, it was realized that it would be much quicker to adapt the British design. Although it might have been faster to retain chambering for the.303 British military cartridge, the design was modified for the U.S..30-06 Springfield cartridge to simplify ammunition logistics. The Enfield design was well-suited to the.30-06 Springfield; it was a big, strong action and was originally intended to employ a long, powerful, rimless bottlenecked cartridge. Eddystone made 1,181,908 rifles more than the production of Remington (545,541 rifles) and Winchester (465,980 rifles) combined. Although standardization with interchangeable parts was intended, early Winchester rifles (including the first five-thousand with a simple W on the receiver rather than Winchester) used slightly differing parts, causing interchangeability issues with the rifles produced by Remington and Eddystone until Winchester corrected the problem in later production. The markings were changed to reflect the model and caliber change. A 16.5-inch blade bayonet, the M1917 bayonet was produced for use on the rifle; it was later used on several other small arms including the M97 and M12 trench shotguns and early M1 Garands. By November 11, 1918 about 75 of the AEF in France were armed with M1917s. York on October 8, 1918, during the event for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor, as the U.S. Divisions (which York was a part of) official history states the division had been issued the M1917 (Eddystone), then replaced them with the No 1 Mk III Lee-Enfield while training with the British in the north of France, then were reissued M1917 rifles (Eddystone). According to his diary, Sergeant York also used a Colt M1911 semi-automatic pistol on that day. The film Sergeant York starring Gary Cooper in the title role, had York using an M1903 Springfield and a German Luger pistol.). Many were sporterized, sometimes including rechambering to more powerful magnum hunting cartridges, such as.300 HH Magnum and.300 Winchester Magnum.
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