Excess Headspace in the 1903 and '03A3 Springfield

[Newsfeed Hound]

GunReports.com shows how to excess headspace in the 1903 and '03A3 Springfield rifles better than the way Granddad did it. If you have access to a lathe, use this method to correct excess headspace easily, without the need for an expensive chambering reamer.

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Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Chuckindenver]

interesting..
talk about re inventing the wheel..
these rifles were built simple for a reason..why make them complecated??
i agree, you can remove the coned breach, but why??
you loose some of the safety that a 1903 has over the K98 Mauser.
took the other longer to write that , then it would for me to rebarrel an 03.
a couple other reasons to finish ream a new chamber..first is to have the correct headspace, and the other is to smooth out a rough chamber..
liked the write up though..thanks for sharing..

[JGaynor]

interesting..
talk about re inventing the wheel..
these rifles were built simple for a reason..why make them complecated??
i agree, you can remove the coned breach, but why??
you loose some of the safety that a 1903 has over the K98 Mauser.
took the other longer to write that , then it would for me to rebarrel an 03.
a couple other reasons to finish ream a new chamber..first is to have the correct headspace, and the other is to smooth out a rough chamber..
liked the write up though..thanks for sharing..

i dunno. read the article a couple of times. Doesn't sound like it will work on a military rifle if you want to retain the issue sights. Maybe on a sporter??

Regards,

Jim

[locknloadnow]

interesting..
talk about re inventing the wheel..
these rifles were built simple for a reason..why make them complecated??
i agree, you can remove the coned breach, but why??
you loose some of the safety that a 1903 has over the K98 Mauser.
took the other longer to write that , then it would for me to rebarrel an 03.
a couple other reasons to finish ream a new chamber..first is to have the correct headspace, and the other is to smooth out a rough chamber..
liked the write up though..thanks for sharing..

old thread but worth reviving, if you look inside the breech of a 1903, and compare it to a Mauser, you'll see the Mauser is actually safer, because it exposes less of the brass shell case. The Mauser has a collar into which the bolt face goes into, and the barrel butts up against, and that collar surrounds most of the case head, that's what makes a Mauser so strong. The only sacrifice with a Mauser, if the cutout in the bolt face, for the controlled feed design to pick up the case head, allow it to get behind and be captured by the extractor hook, and carry the case forward into battery, as the bolt passes over the magazine. The 1903 has no collar in the receiver, just the barrel breach, and it's coned, and exposes a ring of the case head all around.

The 1903, or any other high powered rifle with a coned breech, is actually a pretty dangerous design, even if it used the finest steels or titanium- because the only thing holding the pressure in with a 1903, is the case head for about 1/8" of the case. And that's right where the brass cases start to exhibit shiny marks and stretch, and eventually break. A case head separation in a Springfield, regardless of low/high number, would be disastrous, and more dangerous than a Mauser.

That's why Remington 700 and Weatherby is so strong, they have no exposed case head in battery, and the bolt face is recessed, and surrounds the case head 360 degrees with steel, and bolt head is then countersunk into the barrel breach as well, and the barrel breach is surrounded by the receiver. It's called the "3 rings of steel" design.

although I have many controlled feed milsurp sporters and are quite fond of them, the push feed, recessed bolt face design is definitely stronger, and safer.

A real hot rod would be, take a Mauser, Springfield, Enfield, Arisaka, etc. and modify it to push feed, with a recessed bolt face. Then you'd be cookin' with gas !

and strange enough, that's about what a Mosin Nagant is

[Chuckindenver]

i was thinking the same thing..
iv talked about this before with Mauser lovers, and guys that love playing with lathes..
nobody should ever use a lathe or other power tool to barrel or finish ream a 1903 or A3.
i fix a lot of rifles and shotguns that have been powertooled.
too many {gunsmiths} and i use that term loosely, want to jump on that lathe and re envent the thing so to speak..by the time they have that tool set up.
ill have it barreled, testfired, and going back in the box to send home.
the short chambered barrels, both military and commercial have pretty rough chambers, and not only need to be longer, but smoother as well.
so that shoots the no finish reamer thing in the butt.
and why would anyone own a lathe, and not a 100.00 reamer for a common cal? dont know..
you can rent one from rentareamer.com for 50.00 in any cal, that you want.
when is see a good deal on a finish reamer on the net or gunshow, i snatch it up, likely it will pay for itself in a couple jobs.
also. you still have to finish the back of the chamber face, flat or coned, so why not do it it right the first time, and not have to do it over, and save the time of making shims, screwing the barrel in and out..sheesh..sounds like an all day job out of a 1/2 hour one....
like my old mentor said...back away from the fancy tools, and use the best tool god gave you...your brian. and some elbow grease.

[purple]

...or just install a new or less worn bolt that is good on the no-go gauge.

[Calfed]

Or try a different field gauge. Mine would not pass a Forster field but was fine with a Clymer field gauge.

[JGaynor]

In any case its a technique most of us would avoid with an 03 or 03-A3 in military trim as it would instantly identify the piece as one that's been screwed with - big time.

Keep in mind this was a cure for EXCESSIVE Headspace. In otherwords the bolt already closes on a no-go and probably a field gage. I would think the first order oF business would be finding out just why the rifle has excessive headspace? Maybe shooting those compressed charges of Bullseye wasn't such a great idea after all!


Regards,

Jim

[Chuckindenver]

remember.
KISS

[gjungle56]

I would try one of the Brown& Sharpe bolts. They seem to be "long".