Another 1903/A3 cartouche question

[oldmartins]

That's my idea of the perfect fix, I've seen receivers, of course not when you are looking for them, but I think that's the way I'll go. It will repair and potential rust damage- assuming it's
better that this one which is not difficult to find....and hopefully eliminate the serial number issue. I really like the barrel, it's too good to throw out, but the receiver is too big a question mark... That seems like a reasonable way to go. I think it's a good rifle, aside from the obvious.

[Chuckindenver]

your welcome to contact me outside the forum for my rates if you like, my contact info is on the banner add you see..at Warpath Vintage.

[oldmartins]

email sent, thanks very much Chuck

[oldmartins]

OK, so Chuck can do the work (barrel replacement, headspace etc.) just need to find
the receiver. Simple, right? I wish. Thanks for everyone's contributions.
Best
Bruce

[highpower3006]

I don't currently have one, but I may be able to find you a receiver for a reasonable price. PM me and we can work out the details.

[oldmartins]

Thanks! PM sent.

[oldmartins]

So, I thought an update would be good. I appreciate all the help here and decided to see what I could do to turn this into a better Remington.
I started by taking the reciever/barrel to an old armorer who looked it over carefully and said he'd seen this kind of thing a few times before Extreme wear and salt water damage, nearly obliterating the serial number and making the rifle nearly useless. They were allowed to clean and rebuild the rifle and restamp a number from a list given them and use the fonts they had. It was the end of the war (barrel date 1945) and they just wanted it cleaned up and stored. So it was stripped, the largest part of the corrosion removed and a new number stamped, done well, but wrong font. Seems fonts were not the biggest concern these armories had. Getting the rifle out and with a number that could be read and recorded was.
Still, that left me with a rifle that had been somewhat seriously sanded down in the barrel ring area of the receiver, and a lousy fit for the stock ring against the receiver.
I decided to try the parade rifle route. Welded up barrel, bar in the barrel up to the muzzle
and welded cut-off. I found one for a good price and it seemed ok. All I had to do was get the welds off, remove the barrel and save it for re-bar and get working on the receiver.
Here's how it looked when I got it.

And the weld at the barrel/receiver


The cut-off lever was first, not a big fight but a lot of smoothing, this is about half-way through.

Then the barrel from the receiver..

Not too bad, some care with a cut-off wheel and some serious rotational pressure to get that barrel off and the receiver looked like this after some clean-up:

And during clean-up of the mating surface, almost done...


So, the receiver is a 1943 and not bad after some work. The barrel on the rifle originally was very clean, probably un-fired as the measurements were perfect, gauges just right so I wanted to re-use that. I had to parkerize both parts and used a zinc based parkerizing. I'm no expert, obviously, but with some care you can get a pretty decent result. I know there are guys on this forum that do it right and can get that green color pretty close but my funds into this rifle at this point did not make that a good option. Doing everything myself was about the only way. Now if I could find the photos before the barrel and receiver were joined it would help but I can't imagine anyone is awake after reading this far so I'll put the final photos up.




So I left the old receiver with my FFL, just to be rid of it and he'll record it properly. It will
never be a collector's piece but I hope to find out soon how well it shoots as that's exactly what it will be, a shooter.
Thanks again for the help and advice offered by all, I appreciate it.
Bruce

[oldmartins]

Well, that last post was a disaster, photo problems I've not run into before, I'll try again.
If this does not work, I'll just say I went the route of the welded-up receiver/barrel and have a shooter. Maybe that's enough anyway but I'll try a couple of photos. Just pictures of the
pre and post weld removal and parkerizing, rifle back in working order and at least looking like
a 1903/A3 that won't win any awards but should be fun to shoot...







And receiver ready for parkerizing


So I'll stop here and see if this works then finish on the next post with the final photos....

[oldmartins]

Photos are not working, at least on my end, will try more later....

[browningautorifle]

somewhat decent rifle

Well, it looks like one I'd like to have...