[Les Staley]

Marked E R A on receiver ring, several broad arrows, some small E's (Eddystone?) barrel interior looks good... bright lands, full of cosmoline.. all metal under handguards has a finish of glossy black paint.. wood has lots of character.. but complete, no cracks.. only thing missing is front stacking swivel. number "17" visible through cut out on left side rear of upper handguard, a letter E on right side barrel through a similar cut-out .. looks like a shooter to me.. any cautions I should be aware of? Thanks Les

 

[John Sukey In Memoriam]

Yeah, don't point it ant anything you don't want to destroy

 

[cousinkix1953]

Marked E R A on receiver ring, several broad arrows, some small E's (Eddystone?) barrel interior looks good... bright lands, full of cosmoline.. all metal under handguards has a finish of glossy black paint.. wood has lots of character.. but complete, no cracks.. only thing missing is front stacking swivel. number "17" visible through cut out on left side rear of upper handguard, a letter E on right side barrel through a similar cut-out .. looks like a shooter to me.. any cautions I should be aware of? Thanks Les

I found a stacking swivel for my Eddystone on EBAY a few months ago. It was a bit over priced; but a friend gave me an extra bolt stop and ejector box for nothing...

 

[Les Staley]

found out a little..

Guess its a put-together rifle, as the stock and forearm have the hole drilled through for a rod welded into the chamber area of it's former tenant.. shot her this morning.. hits high with the battle sight.. normal.. groups well...feeds well... barrel cleaned up bright all 'round, grooves and lands.. gonna try the stand up peep this afternoon.. should hit lower at the lowest setting. Paid $240 for this one, cheapest milsurp other than Mosin-Nagants in a long time.

 

[A square 10]

thats a shame , but do have her checked out carefully , the "E" is the eddystone parts mark

 

[berserker_boy]

correct me if i'm wrong but I thought that the 3 P14 manufacturers made rifles with parts that were unique to their rifle and that a winchester rifle parts would not be interchangable with a remington or and eddystone

so if this is a rifle made up of parts would it not be all eddystone??

 

[JB White]

Due to some of Winchesters tolerances and tooling setup, some of the Winchesters and their parts will not *readily* interchange with the others. Most problems are with the magazine box and followers. However most other parts are interchangeable and it's common to find mixed bits this late in the game.
Especially after the WRS program for WW2. What some may call a parts rifle is really correct more often than not.

Also, a great number of parts will swap out with the M1917's, although there are a good number of model/pattern specific bits that cannot be substituted.

 

[berserker_boy]

Due to some of Winchesters tolerances and tooling setup, some of the Winchesters and their parts will not *readily* interchange with the others. Most problems are with the magazine box and followers. However most other parts are interchangeable and it's common to find mixed bits this late in the game.
Especially after the WRS program for WW2. What some may call a parts rifle is really correct more often than not.

Also, a great number of parts will swap out with the M1917's, although there are a good number of model/pattern specific bits that cannot be substituted.

I heard that with the entry of the United States in world war 1 the American Military made the 3 factorys standardise their tolerances and that M17 parts are interchangable. Is that right>?

 

[JB White]

Still a problem with Winchester bits and that's why Winchesters were eventually held back from issue to the AEF.
Winchesters were selected for the sniper role due to their overall better performance

 

[stovepipe699]

The finish on the reciever of my ERA isn't the most fantastic, but the trigger is quite good for an old military rifle. Might be wise to get the headspace checked, just in case. Have fun.

 

[LVSteve]

I have a Winchester that never went to Weedon and I can confirm that the mag boxes and especially the followers from ERAs and Remingtons do not fit. The headspace on mine is tight but it is reluctant to feed certain brands of 303 FMJ. Unusually, it feeds Remington RN SPs very well indeed. It seems to be that the extractor is too tight for some of the FMJ ammo. It could also be that the Winchester follower is a poor design.

 

[Deputy Dan]

Stratton's book on the P14 and M1917 has a chart with interchangability of parts between manufacturers. Eddystone and Remington have a higher degree of interchangability than Winchester's product.