Accuizing an 03, legal for DCM

Over the years I've built many, many 03 Springfields for a varity of reasons. If anyone out there that has an SDH with or without a 3 digit number stamp on it, I built it and chances are its a match grade gun. If you have an 03 of a "NON COLLECTABLE" varity and its not shooting to good, there are a few things you can do to drasticlly improve the accuracy and still be completely legal for DCM style matchs.

First and most important is the bore must be in good to mint condition, If you have the stuff on hand you may want to consider lapping it, starting with a lap grit of 600 going to 1500. Then find a bolt that minimizes headspace, i.e. closes the head space gap as close to nominal as possible, then lap it in using the 600 grit, blue the locking lugs and check for maximum contact. Last thing on the reciever is clean out the lug raceways with a very, very fine grit block, I use 1500. Using a dremil sytle tool, polish the feed ramp area til it shines like a new floor. Then completely rince the parts off with cleaner, I use #2 fuel oil.

Stock fit on a N.M. rifle is 7 lbs. pull from the stock, it is not free floated (althought it might run better, its not how they are built). The concept is simple, place the unloaded gun on the floor, hold the lower stock with your right hand and pull the barrel off the stock with your free hand, it should just start to come off with 7lbs. of pull, no more or less. I have found over the years the stock gets bound from moisture and the first steps should be to correct that condition (mostly adjusting the top wood by material removal, then apply sealent). Then torque the stock down tightly (around 25 to 30 lbs) and test the pull, If you find the barrel rides light, add shims under the rear tang screw until you have reached the desired pull. If it rides tight, add shims to the front reciever screw until you've reached the proper weight pull. You may also consider wood removal, but, remember, you can't put it back, if you do choose to remove wood make sure you seal it when done. In a few cases I had to remove a very small amount of wood at the very front area of the stock to get the desired pull off. I did it with a brownells rasping tool then sealed it with Mil grade linseed oil. The good thing about using shims, they can be removed if need be.

You need to square up the front sight, either in a sight grinding fixture or on a surface grinder. It must be dead nuts flat in the sight picture. Then apply blueing or perhaps sight black. The rear sight ladder (if you have one) may be polished bright with a 600 or 800 grit block to match the early N.M. sights. If there is "ANY" movement in the sights, stake them on using a fine punch, in a an area that won't be seen easily.

The trigger angles and take-up adjustment should be done on a surface grinder if you have one, if you don't you need construct a fixture that allows for squaring angles at a very small amount at a time. This is a little touchy feely thing, I first get everything squared up, then go about reducing material until I get the desired 4lbs. pull. Some folks remove the hump for single stage pull and some folks don't, I don't care one way or the other, in a perfect world the first stage is around 2.5 lbs w/a 4 lb let off.

Re-assemble the rifle torquing the stock down exactly as you did for the stock adjustment. Clean the rifle completely and check everything, including headspace again if possible, just to make sure.

I full well realize you can get far more accuracy from a free floated barrel, glass bedded reciever and drop in trigger assembly. I build them all the time. But, if you like the traditional fix give this one a try. The most time will likely be spent making the fixtures for squaring things up, but, it's part of the fun and you only have to do it once. HTH-SDH