Me and my 1917

[Culpeper]

I took one of my M1917s out for a spin. The load was HXP brass, CCI34 primers, 45.8 grains IMR4895, and 175 SMKs. I had the rear sight pushed as far down as it could go.


The rear sight was set at 100 yards for the red group. I had verrtical stringing but I figured I was the problem. The center of the string was low so I moved the rear sight to the 200 mark. The result is shown in the yellow group.

Hmmm. I am still low excluding the flier. So I decided to move the rear sight to the 300 yard mark. That should pull everything up. "Sure thing, Culpeper. Any thing you say." The green group is the answer to that insanity.

Well since that did not work let's try something else that might not work. I moved the slide up to the 500 yard mark. I had five rounds left in the box so I figured what the hell. Please see the blue group.

The target was mounted at the 100 yard line. The other one was at the 50 yard point.

But! What the ultimate purpose of this endeavor? To get out in the Fall sun and enjoy life and any day on the range is better than a day at work.

[RickyG]

Wonderful, pretty good shooting. The vertical stringing is likely heartbeat, if you were slung in, or breathing, most likely. Still not groupings to sneeze at.

Whereabouts are you? Im in the Phoenix area. Hoping once it cools down and my shoulder is healed, from surgery 2 weeks ago, to run some of the old war horses out. Krag, eddystone and 1903's

Dont know if we have anyone from the board in my area or not

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[Culpeper]

At the moment up in the Gettysburg region. Dear Lord! I've never seen orange, green, and blue bruising like that. And in a pattern too. When do you think the Doc will give the okey-dokey?

I was shooting from the bench with one of those new fangled bags with the two lobes. Will get a bench photo.

I was hoping for a group that was some where in the nine and ten ring. I'm just funny that way. At least I know it will shoot angle of man out to three or four hundred. We go over the top at 0530. Ypres would be a nice place if it wasn't for the war with the Huns.

[RickyG]

Not sure when he will clear me. I asked if I would be able to deer hunt by oct 26 and he just laughed at me.

[Culpeper]

Maybe you should ask him if you'll be able to play the piano.

He will know the punch line if he is on his game. If not then you can lay it on him.

[FredC]

RickyG that looks like a major ouchie!

Maybe you could hunt by that date with a 22 Hornet?

Remember a story of an old Indian that used to hunt with a 22 rimfire. Went back to the gun store and asked for a magnum rifle as his eyes were not so good anymore. Gun store owner showed him a 7mm Magnum. Not what the old guy wanted, he wanted a 22 magnum rimfire.

Maybe a 22 hornet would do in your local? My secretary used to hunt deer with one in the hill country here in Texas.

[RickyG]

Ill start another thread in chit chat to avoid hijackjng.

Culpepper... was the rear stock lying on bags as well or just the front? Im sure you likely know but as coarse as most of the older military sights were if you could drop into a 2" group at 100 it was good. Your group looks pretty decent, the vertical stringing maybe could be from front post placement? It might cover so much target hard to be sure? Have you considered a lollipop zero?

[Culpeper]

So it was back to the range since it was a nice day and I had 25 rounds left to dispose of to add to my -ahem- indignity. I pretty much used the same nuttery with the load I had built. I will note to you, dear readers, that load was created to run through my M1 Garand. So they were not, as some would say in other climes, hot rodded.

Given all that I can see the "center" of the group with the rear sight at 400 yards is spot on. However the spread is horrible. The group for the 500 is better albeit high as tall cotton. I was using pumpkin on the fence post alignment. (It is the Halloween season, dontcha know)

Back to the drawing board.

.-added-
Rear sight 100 = red
Rear sight 200 = yellow
Rear sight 400 = green
Rear sight 500 = blue

[RickyG]

Not bad. That group would hold the 10 ring no problem. Cant complain on that at all.

[waterman]

I really like 1917 Enfields, think they were far better battle rifles than the 1903 Springfield. But how accurate were the issue rifles on paper? You can read all the details in Hatcher's Notebook, but they differed in bore and groove diameter than the rest of our "real" .30-06 rifles. They were British Pattern 14 rifles, .303 British caliber, redesigned to fire .30-06 cartridges. They changed the bolt and the extractor, but nominally they had .311 bores and the grooves were not opposite one another. The chambers were for .30-06 and they were intended to fire only 150-grain service bullets. Not sure when the 165-grain AP load showed up.

I don't have one, but will they chamber a .311 bullet? If so, that might improve accuracy.