The rear sight had a folding leaf adjustable for elevation, but not windage.

The government had approximately 600,000 Model 1903 Springfields on hand along with some 160,000 obsolescent Krags, numbers totally insufficient to meet the projected demand.

Production of the standardized Model 1903 rifle was ordered to be increased at both Springfield Armory and Rock Island Arsenal.

The U.S. Ordnance Dept.

It was apparent that the combined output of these two national arsenals could not meet demand, and large numbers of additional service rifles would soon be needed.

The former was explored at length, but the lag time required to find suitable firms capable and willing to manufacture the 03 rifle, negotiate contracts, procure the necessary materials and machinery, then train workforces would be too great to alleviate the potential crippling shortage of rifles within a reasonable period of time.

While it was unquestionably fortunate to have these production facilities on hand, the Ordnance Dept.

If the three plants converted from Pattern 1914 to M1903 production, troops would be issued the familiar 03, but it would require an inordinateand unacceptablelength of time to get a totally new rifle into production at three different factories.

But this would introduce a non-standard cartridgeone generally viewed as inferior to.30-06 Sprg.and add likely troublesome supply problems.

Finally, the Pattern 1914 could be modified to accept the.30-06 Sprg., which would reduce supply issues, but would cause some delay in getting the modified rifle into production.

In 1919, a report issued by Assistant Secretary of War Crowell stated: The decision to modify the Enfield was one of the great decisions of the executive prosecution of the warall honor to the men who made it.

An article in the widely-read New York Sun about the newly adopted rifle was entitled Why our forces in France must use an inferior rifle, and it cited a number of facts that were either misleading or outright falsehoods.

Interestingly, this article appeared before any M1917 rifles had even been issued to American troops.

A subsequent July 28, 1917, article in American Rifleman s predecessor, Arms the Man, soundly refuted the previous newspaper piece and gave logical reasons for the adoption of the M1917 as a supplement to the Model 1903 Springfield.

The M1917 possessed a strong, nickel-steel action that could handle the pressures of.30-06 Sprg.

The fact that the Pattern 1914s predecessor, the Pattern 1913 rifle, was originally designed for use with a rimless cartridge (the.276) actually made the M1917 more suited to the rimless.30-06 Sprg.

British round.

Most of the parts were hand-fitted, resulting in a lack of interchangeability among many of the components.

Obviously, total interchangeability of parts was desirable, but to totally rectify the situation would require a significant delay in getting the critically needed guns into mass production.

Despite the pressing demand, it was decided to postpone so engineers at the three factories, assisted by the Ordnance Dept., could reduce or eliminate the interchangeability issue.

On July 12, 1917, each contractor submitted a second sample that reflected some improvement, but component interchangeability was still judged to be less than satisfactory.

The Ordnance Dept.

Remington and Eddystone delayed production until the drawings could be obtained, but Winchester proceeded with M1917 manufacture.

Assistant Secretary of War Crowell later commented, It would have been well if the same course (waiting for final specifications) had been followed at the Winchester plant, for word came later from Europe not to send over any rifles of Winchester manufacture during that period.

While the interchangeability problem was never totally eliminated, a 95 percent interchangeability rate was established, which was acceptable to the Ordnance Dept.

Eventually the interchangeability problems with early production Winchesters were eliminated, and later rifles were equal in all aspects to the Remingtons and Eddystones.

It weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces, and had a magazine capacity of six rounds.

The same type of five-round charger (i.e.

M1917.

This resulted in five rounds being routinely carried in the magazine, although a sixth cartridge could easily be manually inserted.

Model 1917 Rifle Serial Numbers