This is a very interesting film/video and to my mind an important one both to gun/rifle enthusiast as to historians of the same.
I suggest that when you view it that you select the "Settings" star at the bottom right of the screen and change the playback speed from "normal" to ".5" as the normal speed is much too fast.
That was great! I'm guessing this might be the old Remington Plant in Ilion, NY? The Pattern 17 is one of the great old bolt action rifles, and extremely strong too. Fred Wells of the Wells Custom Gun Shop exclusively used Pattern 17 actions for his .500 Wells custom rifles until the actions and rifles dried up. Then he built his own actions to handle the big .500 Wells. My first real hunting rifle is a custom built on a highly modified Pattern 17 Remington action. It's was heavily reworked so only the safety remains to be able to know which action it started from. I still have it simply because it was my first and took so much game with it.
Two more rifles I should never have sold were Winchester made Pattern 1914 (P.14) in 303 British.
One was a P.14 (F) fitted with the fine adjustable (F) back sight developed for sniper use in the First World War.
The other was a rare P.14 (T) (A), or Rifle No. 3 (T) (A) built by Alex Martin as part of a Second World War contract utilising Winchester P.14 rifle and Aldis scopes that had remained in store after the First World War SMLE sniper rifles, on which the scopes had originally been mounted, were broken up after 1919.
Both were very accurate although the Alex Martin No. 3 (T) (A) had clearly had a great many rounds through it. The scope was offset 1.5” to the left.
I found as a southpaw that I could shoot it comfortably by leaning my head over the low comb and aiming through the scope with my left (master) eye. I even managed to double tap a 200 yards snap target in a single 4 second exposure.
They way the straightened the barrels is fascinating.
I have a spare barreled action with the ears trimmed off if anyone wants to build a big boomer. I have a composite stock for the bent floor plate also. I have a straight welded floor plate too. All the other parts and a couple half-finished scope mounts I never was quite satisfied/done with. I think I have a Redfield peep. I was going to build a dark timber elk stalker brush gun but, my little rifles seem to put them down just fine, so I don't need this.
I really enjoyed the video Stephen, thanks for sharing it. I thought the patriotic music was a nice touch! For me, watching the video, took some of the mystery out of how the manufactured those rifles in high volume. Too bad, we don’t have more videos like that, they could help take away some of the other manufacturing mysteries. One I’ve heard a lot of debate about is, how did Colt accomplish the carbonia blueing on early 1911 pistols. It’s a beautiful finish. It looks like Turnbull now has the closest version. Maybe someday we’ll find a video of Colt’s manufacturing process!
They way the straightened the barrels is fascinating.
I have a spare barreled action with the ears trimmed off if anyone wants to build a big boomer. I have a composite stock for the bent floor plate also. I have a straight welded floor plate too. All the other parts and a couple half-finished scope mounts I never was quite satisfied/done with. I think I have a Redfield peep. I was going to build a dark timber elk stalker brush gun but, my little rifles seem to put them down just fine, so I don't need this.
Ryan;
I thought you would like to know that final barrel straightening using an over head press is still done the same way today. Light from some distance away cast a show down the rifle bore allowing an experienced craftsman to judge if the barrel is not straight and then using the same shadow the craftsmen bends the barrel to straighten it. In the time that this film was made light came into the room from a high window.
The British referred to the first two versions of the rifle as Pattern 13 (.276 Enfield) and Pattern 14 (.303 British). When production began in the US (.30-06), it was officially designated as the Model 1917. The US didn't use "Pattern" to identify our firearms.
In Canada, in the early 1980s, when I was active in Bisley-style prone long-range target shooting, there were more than a few shooters who had 7.62x51s built on these actions. They always called them P17s.
Just setting this on the table for vernacular's sake.
Here's a description of the barrel making process at Hoffman Arms in the November, 1925 Outdoor Life magazine. There's also a nice photo of a young Eric Johnson (even then, a famous barrel maker) using the overhead press to straighten barrels.