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M1917 ammunition carts


robinb
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I finally closed a deal on these two M1917 ammunition carts. Only took 12 years to come to terms with the owner. One is complete while the other is missing a few parts. Not everything is pictured here. I'll post progress on the restoration in the vehicles section when the time comes.

 

 

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The March to Chateau-Thierry

The march that night was a killer. We lay about on the roads for a while letting

a lot of machine gun outfits pass us with their little horse carts......

Nice to see the real thing. From ' Toward the Flame', Hervey Allen. Thanks Robin.

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Robin has a very interesting collection of horse/cavalry equipment. In his new loft area pictured in the pinned Display thread he is in progress of displaying Phillips pack saddle hangers that carry all sorts of specific loads, eventually he will get around to filling up the hangers for display....hopefully in this century.

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These were found on a farm Idaho maybe 15 years ago by a friend of mine. He bought them with the intention of using the wheels for a home made civil war cannon. I talked him out of doing that and we did some horse-trading. I'm going to restore one for myself and sell or trade off the other.

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  • 1 year later...
illinigander

Nice project, I assume it is restored by now. I have an original 1917 ammunition cart, and original gun cart that was bare, so had to reproduce the boxes on it. The rare cart is the spare gun cart, I have never seen an original, though there is a MVPA member who has reproduced one. The regs. call for the use of a horse rather than a mule. The type of cart pictured in WW1 photos is hard to determine since they usually were covered with the men's personal gear.

Illinigander

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I realized recently that I never posted updated photos of the restoration. I think it came out pretty nice. The paint inside one of the tool boxes was just like it looked back in 1917 so I had paint made to match. It's all complete except for 3 ammo boxes and a couple of the tools. I have copies of the manuals from 1917 and 1925 so I've taken the liberty of using both books as a guide for the accessories. There were some omissions and additions made in the tool kit and accessories in the manuals.

 

 

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In 1925 there was an addition of 4 ammo box carrying slings made. Those slings are hard to find by themselves.

 

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The tool kit is almost complete. Several of the tools are US ORDNANCE or US PROPERTY marked. Nothing for this cart restoration was bought on line. Everything was found at flea markets or antique stores. I still need the canvas tool roll. Hint... hint...

 

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m1917 cart tool kit.jpg

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In an emergency the cart could be pulled by hand by repositioning the handle into the shaft's sockets that were provided for that purpose. The handle is stored underneath the cart's body.

 

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And if necessary the shafts could be removed easily and a draw bar pulled out from under the cart body and positioned for use as a hand cart. There is also a spare shaft stored under the cart along with a full size pick mattock and shovel.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
RustyCanteen

Excellent restoration, kept to a high standard.

 

The paint looks great too, where did you get it?

 

RC

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