Hunting Rifles for Greenland: M1917 Enfield

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Greenland is a remote and desolate land without a significant industrial base, but there is a demand for hunting rifles there. As the place has long been a Danish colony since 1814, its trade was restricted to Denmark - including rifles. The Danish military received a substantial number of M1917 Enfield rifles in .30-06 caliber, and they were used by the Danish Home Guard after World War Two until being eventually sold as surplus. Some of those surplus rifles were modified by the Greenland Trade conglomerate ("Kalaallit Niuerfiat") and sold as commercial hunting rifles.

The conversion pattern used was to mill off the rear aperture sight and replace it with a fixed open notch dovetailed into the chamber area of the barrel. A new front sight was installed to match the height of the rear notch, and the bayonet lug was ground off for some reason. This particular example was originally manufactured in 1917 and used by the Canadian military before being sent to Denmark and eventually sold as surplus.

The M1917 was the standard rifle for the Sirius Patrol, a Greenland military force established during World War Two to prevent establishment of German outposts on Greenland (and very effective in this work). The force still exists today, and still uses M1917 rifles, now paired with 10mm Glock 20 pistols. The commercial sporterized M1917s like the one in this video are not made from Sirius Patrol rifles, however.

Thanks to the Southern Iceland Shooting Association for helping me film this and other cool guns in Iceland!

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