I have a M1917 "U.S. Enfield" service rifle; it is Eddystone production with a barrel dated 8/18. I can check the barrel tonight when I get home, if that would help the discussion.
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>Do you have a photo of a spent bullet from your gun?<
No, I am sorry to say, never thought to try and find one. Ground is frozen now so it is unlikely that I'll shoot the gun and try to dig out a spent slug until summer…..Comment
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Ok - I checked the barrel (8/18) of my Eddystone production M1917 rifle last night. It was very difficult to see (I think that I now, at age 44, need reading glasses for close-up), but the barrel appears to have 5 lands and grooves, left hand twist.
Not trusting my visual inspection to be entirely accurate, I checked the below reference work. This book (which, IMO, contains the most in-depth information available on the M1917 rifles) confirmed that both the original British P17 rifle (from which the American rifle was derived) and the U.S. M1917 rifle barrels have 5 lands and grooves, left hand twist. The cut of the lands and grooves is slightly different between the British and American versions, with the American land and grooves not cut quite as deep as the British. Very subtle differences, measured in thousandths of an inch. . . .
What sort of battle was fought where you found the expended projectiles (i.e. what units were involved)?Comment
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Thanks for the Enfield rifle info.
The place where I found the bullets was under fire from troops of the First Special Service Force. I have never found the five groove to the left bullets elsewhere, so I suspected there may be a link to a special weapon used only by the FSSF...
I will have to pull out the bullets and see what percentage are 5 twist to the left...Comment
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