Quote Originally Posted by Rick the Librarianicon View Post
ALL Remington M1903s were called "M1903 Modified." The term as you use it is a collector term (much like "P1917") that is incorrect.
Rick, your comment above got me to thinking that I recalled something different regarding the “modified” Remington’s so I did some looking.

According to Bruce Canfields excellent work, “U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War II”, page 73, under the heading Remington M1903 (Modified) Rifle, he states;

“As the demand for the rifles increased, the workers at Remington became hard-pressed to meet the production quotas . . . Remington’s engineers working in conjunction with the Ordnance people proposed several time-cutting changes . . . These new features began to be incorporated into production rifles beginning in December 1941 and were phased in over the next couple of months. By March of 1942, The Remington ’03 evidenced a number of revisions from the original production rifles. In order to properly identify these rifles, the designation was changed to the “U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1903 (Modified).”

Echoing Canfield’s information would be that in the book “The M1903 Springfield and it’s Variations” by Joe Poyer. On page 60 under the heading U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1903 (Modified) Remington Arms Company, he notes;

“In early March 1942, the third supplement to the original contract with Remington Arms designed the new model as U.S. Rifle, Cal. .30, M1903 (Modified) and doubled the quantity of rifles produced.”

So, it would seem, at least according to these two references, that all Remington M1903’s were not in fact considered “modified” and there was in fact an official designation which differentiated early production M1903’s manufactured by Remington from the later “modified” Remington’s. Therefore, unlike the so called “P1917”, there is an official designation for M1903 (Modified) rifles made by Remington and it’s not just collector nomenclature.