1917 ENFIELD 308 NORMA MAGNUM - SAFE?

ENBLOC

I've a Winchester 1917 Enfield that has been gunsmithed by contouring the rcvr, drilled & tapped and original bbl. re-chambered to 308 Norma Magnum. I've glass bedded the Fajen Stock. I've a Burris Scope getting a Ballistic-Plex reticle fitted at the Factory. I've just came accross an article that said the Original Military barrels "split" after firing 6000 rounds. They do not recommend re-chambering these Rifles to any Magnum Chamberings. I'm sure it has been fired in the Past. Rifle & Barrel were produced one month after WWI ended. High serial # for Winchester in the 500,000 block. Need I worry?

62fuelie

First thing, on any re-work, have a good gunsmith examine it. The 1917 is a very strong action and is fully capable of being re-chambered to .308 Norma. A chamber cast will reveal any flaws in the chamber job. One up-side is that it can be recut to .300 Win Mag if there is a problem in the shoulder area. The 1917 tends to be a bit heavy, especially toting in high-country. The best modifiaction you can make to it is to replace the cocking/firing portion with a speed-lock cock-on-opening system - Brownell's has them. I hunted with a friend who used one rechambered to .300 H&H, that took some more surgery in the magazine box due to the length of the round, but it took several elk before he retired it for a 7mm Rem Mag.

Ambrose

It has been common practice down through the years to rechamber, rebore, or rebarrel 1917's for various magnum cartridges. I'm sure there have been problems as with any mechanical device but those would be rare. I have never heard of the 6,000 round barrel splitting. War time barrels did split occasionally usually due to inclusions but almost immediately rather than after several thousand rounds. I would think that 6,000 rounds is about the useful life of a .30/06 barrel anyway. I have a couple of 1917's, both of them Remingtons with original barrels and in the original .30/06 and shoot them regularly. If your rifle were mine and it was in good condition I wouldn't hesitate to shoot it.

BTW: The original barrels were 5-groove, left hand twist.

Also, if you need loading dies, one of my local gun shops has a set (at least they did when I was there last).

ENBLOC

Thank You! I am a reloader and have dies and gathered up the "rare" .308 Norma Brass, & other components. From other research I've discovered many consider the .308 Norma Magnum superior to the 300 Winchester Magnum. It's supposed to be "more accurate" etc. I've just ordered a new Wolff Spring set from midway for replacements. I'm pleased so far as to how this all coming together. I plan on leaving the 2 stage trigger & cock-on-closing alone. I'm used to this with my 1891 Argentine, Lee-Enfield, etc.

eastbank

338 mag winchester brass can be necked down to 308 norman,it may need to be trimmed alittle. i have used it in my 308 norma before i sold it. according to T.S. albert,one of the don,t get it crowd.

Ambrose

One of my 1917's has been considerably gunsmithed including modified to cock on opening. That modification reduces the firing pin fall and I have had misfires with certain primers. I switched to Federal 210 primers with that rifle and the problem went away. So, at least in that regard, you're better off with the origional system.

The .308 Norma Magnum is slightly shorter in the body than the .300 Winchester Magnum but I haven't heard of an accuracy edge for the .308 NM. However, the .30/.338 is similiar to the .308 NM and, IIRC, it was the target cartridge for the USMC rifle team at Camp Perry some years ago.

sandwarrior

ENBLOC,

No, you need not worry about your rifle. If you have any issues with firing it, then just fire it first under some sand bags.

Barrels don't usually split with that many rounds down them except when they are fully or partially blocked.

All the 1917's are very strong actions and were a favorite to sporterize a magnum on. As far as punching out the 30-06 chambering and cutting a magnum chamber of any size should have been done with a different barrel. Those barrels are contoured for the 30-06 and cutting a magnum in the remaining thick area of the barrel leaves less metal to reduce or dampen vibration. It's a 'tightening up accuracy issue' though, not a 'safety' issue.

As far as brass goes, you can neck down and trim .300 Win Mag to .308 Norma. You will also need to to turn the necks as you will get thicker body brass up where the neck is on the Norma. A .338 Win (7mm Rem mag as well) is not long enough to neck to .308 Norma. If you do this you need to false neck up then neck down to .308. And still end up short. I suggest you use .308 Norma brass as it's the easiest route. That is what I did with mine and I'm not at all sorry for it. Working .300 Win Mag brass down was a pain and I wanted accuracy. So, I did away with the idea of running 7mm RM or .338 WM brass through a die to get something to fireform then fit the next time.

Also, NO, the .308 Norma is NOT more accurate than the .300 WM. Each can be as accurate as the shooter can when he properly uses uber-accuracy reloading techniques. And, has the rifle set up for the kind of accuracy each is capable of. The only thing you get is the same velocity on about three less grains of the same powder. The .300 WM can edge out the .308 NM for total velocity if you want to try that hard.

Mobuck

I'll relate what happened to a 1917 that I had rebarrelled in 1996. The action had already been D&T an apparently had been annealed to make the process easier. On Dec 20, 1997, the front action ring split through the scope base holes while shooting at my range. The left action rail broke off and struck the left side of my face shattering my jaw and bruising my carotid artery. I lost 3-4 pints of blood, was in the operating room 4 hours, had my jaw wired shut for 3 months, missed 8 weeks of work, a still have severe nerve damage to the left side of my face.
I pledged to NEVER use another rifle that had been modified to use a round operating at higher pressure than original design. I had two of these rifles the second of which had been rechambered to .308 NM and traded the remaining rifle as soon as I could.

TRAP55

Eddystone receivers that were re-barreled by Johnson Automatic Rifles were prone to coming apart. The barrels were over torqued in the receiver on the early ones they did, and it caused stress fractures in the receiver ring.
Your Winchester receiver was made, with a then new process, of high nickle steel. This overcame the problems Springfield had trying to get the 03 into production. That's why many times the numbers of Enfields went to France, than did the 1903's.
Nothing to worry about with a Winchester receiver.

MIKE WISKEY

as to "Those barrels are contoured for the 30-06 and cutting a magnum in the remaining thick area of the barrel leaves less metal to reduce or dampen vibration.'.......I stongly disagree with this, the 1917 barrel are very 'stout' and not contoured for any specific cartridge. I've seen and had many that were rechanbered and shot just fine.

Hawk Carse

The .308 Norma was designed for rechambered .30-06 rifles. Short enough to fit the magazine and not such a large shoulder diameter as to make the barrel too thin.

It was commercially obsoleted by the .300 Win Mag which has a larger case volume. The similar .30-338 hung on for a while with target shooters amidst cries that the "short neck" of the Win Mag could not align a bullet well enough for great accuracy. That was disproven and the .30-338 faded along with the Norma.

I think Mobuck was victimized by a botched gunsmithing job, not any inherent defect in the cartridge or rifle.