My dad gave me a Sante Fe 1903A3 with s/n # 5,005,375. He didn't know much about it.

[Jeffrimerman]

He gave it to me a couple days ago so I did some research. I'm going to guess it was WWII production, but maybe someone can chime in and tell me with that s/n about when it was made. It has a sporter stock, so I don't know if it was former military and then converted or was it made by sante fe for civilian use. There is two holes on the top of the receiver, but I don't know if that was done by Sante Fe or by someone after the fact. Here is some pics.

Information

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

[Johnny Peppers]

You have what was a civilian version of the 1903-A3 rifle, and instead of having a forged receiver, the receivers were cast. The company assembling the rifles had most of the GI parts to assemble the rifles with the exception of the receiver. The holes in the receiver were probably done when someone sporterized it and added a scope mount.

[Jeffrimerman]

Ok thanks. I used the s/n on a link here and it said it was manufactured in 1942. So does that mean it was never issued for combat, but instead the company assembled it from surplus parts? So they got a military surplus receiver and then had the GI parts built on to it? The barrel doesn't have a site at the end, so the barrel wasn't original to it in 1942 when the receiver was made?

[Johnny Peppers]

Your rifle was not a military rifle, but made and sold commercially in the 1960's. Whatever link says it was made in 1942 is way off. The receivers were supposedly made in India, and most of the other parts were surplus WWII GI.

[Jeffrimerman]

I used the site that is here on our forums U.S. Military Dates of Manufacture (OldGuns.Net). So you're saying this site isn't accurate? It was free, so it doesn't matter to me. So all Sante Fe stamped rifles are made of surplus parts I take it.

[Rick the Librarian]

Which of the tables did you click on? The Remington 1903 and M1903A3 ones are inaccurate, as was stated. There was no U.S. military M1903s over the 4,990,000 range. Anything 5,000,000 and over is a civilian-made cast receiver.

[Jeffrimerman]

I used this one:

U.S. Military M1903, & M1903A3 Rifle: Remington:
Covering numbers: 3000001 - 5784000.

I got this result:

The year of manufacture for serial number 5005375 is 1942.

Remington 1903A3 production started in 1942 at number 3348086.

I would think the last serial number of 5784000 would be easy to figure out and would be it their records. Do you have a better site or reference I could read from?

[Jeffrimerman]

I found this guy talking about it also because someone else asked a similar question on another board.

"hello,,golden state was a company from ca i beleive if memory serve me right,,they bought a bunch of military rifle and had the bright idea to turn them into inexpencive sporting rifles in the early 60's they never actually made rifle they just converted milsurps into sporters ,,they did anything they could get there hands on but you will usually see british enfields and us springfield with the golden state name on them ,,value is as a sporter hunting rifle and not so much as a collectors item but they are from a time when military rifles were very plentiful and could be had for pennys compared to todays prices ,,

,,back in the 60 you could buy springfields for around 20 bucks and enfields even cheaper because the military market was flooded with ww1 and ww2 surplus ,,rifles and pistol alike were offered for prices collectors today do anything to go back in time with 1000 dollars and come back with what they could buy ,,you wouldn't be able to carry all the guns you could buy then,,and today the investment would proably be worth 20 times what ya paid then on most of the rifles..m1 garands were 69 bucks ,, mausers from just about any country were 10-30 bucks ,,colt 1911's were 29 bucks ,,lugers were around 20 and up ,,and you ordered them direct and no paperwork no insta check.. nothing,,and all ya needed was an address and the cash and you were a gun owner! then kennedy got shot with a mail order gun and everything went to the dogs ,,

,,anyway as for a value for your rifle i'd say somewhere between 200-400 as a sporting rifle in todays market depending on the condition ,,they are intresting examples of what a company did to satisfy the market for hunting rifles by converting cheap military rifles into something that was in demand for a low price ,,and they were done nicely to boot!!
bigcurt "

It sounds like they converted existing surplus rifles to sporters. Not sure why they would get pieces of guns and have a receiver made in another country since they could get complete rifles for nothing here in the USA. Sounds like they stripped down a complete 1903A3 and changed the stock and added a scope and resold them as hunting rifles.

[emmagee1917]

Jeff , you've been given a lot of bad info. Johnny and Rick know of what they speak. Believe them. Spare parts were plentiful and cheep when they made these recievers , complete rifles were not. They made copies of the military version because you could not get one then. When the military released the '03s as surplus in volume , these companies started sporterizing them or closed thier doors. Most of these copies did not have the stripper clip grooves milled , I'll bet dollars to donuts yours does not. No military reciever would be so made.
Chris

[Jeffrimerman]

Ok yeah, that does make sense. There is no grooves for stripper clips so the receiver can't be military production. So were the receivers really made in India or somewhere here?