new 1903 owner...

[hershey]

greetings all, just found the website, it seems to be a pretty active sight, so i chose here to figure out what the heck i stumbled onto. this rifle found me, a fellow gun novice offered me a trade that i accepted. i know almost NOTHING about 1903's, i don't even know how to break the rifle down yet. the story on this one is it was a WWII bring back and just surfaced out of an estate.

i am hershey on almost every web sight out there, i most commonly appear on fal files and ak files...

bore is decent but defnately showing age, i know allot of the value is based on the barrel date, which i do not yet know how to access, but i am sure you'll point me in the right direction.

Information

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[NRA]

Great looking family you have there

[hershey]

that was my motivation to buy the 1903, to round out the family, a springfield krag (if such a thing exists) is kinda in the though process next. the m1a is a sept 1976 reciever w/ a 1982 barrel, configured as a national match and bought within 30 miles of camp perry. the garand is 1944 w/ a 1952 rebarrel, it was bought right off the rack at CMP. the story on the 1903 has yet to be discovered, i am slowly finding out stuff on it, the stock looks later than the late 1919 build date, it seems to be pederson compatable, and beyond that i am still learning. i need to figure out how to properly dissassemble to i can investigate further.

discovered the barrel date code. S A 1-20 A, so i believe i got the real deal original barrel. the stock has no proof marks on it, so i believe the hunt is on for a proper peterson compatable original stock.

[Rick the Librarian]

Regarding the M1903, it is a Mark I. The barrel is original, but not much else. The stock and cutoff, at least, are replacements. The stock should have a "cut" to completely expose the ejection port and the Mark I cutoff has a "carved out" portion. If you look on another discussion about Mark Is, you'll see some pictures Iposted of correct Mark I parts. In looking at the M1903 in the "group" picture (I assume it is the one you're discussing), the stock is a "Scant" from WWII. The original would have graping grooves.

You should have little or no problem finding a "Springfield Krag" the armory made over 450,000 of them - M1898s are very common in the $500-850 range.

[hershey]

it came into my care as WWII bringback, so it is no surprise that much of the stuff is not original to the rifle, parts were swapped out as necessary between its born date and WWII. probably the best part of the rifle is the bore is still a very servicable bore, it is far from perfect but definately has full length rifling intact and is still reasonably strong. if my desire to return it to original 1920's vintage arises, i believe the core parts are there. i am gonna see if i can put a name to the rifle as to whom brought it back, and beyond maybe advancing my learning curve a bit more, it is just gonna be in good company in the safe.

the "correct" stocks do seem to exist in various conditions from numrich, ebay etc. and a nice reproduction is on CMP's websight, i do like the original cartouches and such .

if you would like other pictures to comment on, tell me what you would like to see, i would like to see what i can learn about the 1903's. at this point and time i do NOT see myself traveling the road of a 1903 addiction, but i've been bit by other rifle platforms in the past.

[Alkali]

hershey - Nothing like a new rifle in hand to encourage some research. The 1903 was in service for half century and there is no shortage of written information. While it is a worthy endevour to put any rifle back as close to original as possible, older parts are scarce and pricey. At least be able to recognize a correct part should you stumble onto it. Congrats.

[NRA]

Myself I would not mess with it, It is its history.

[Rick the Librarian]

It will extremely difficult to put a "name" to the rifle. If you mean a "veteran bringback" from WWII, thst happened VERY rarely with a U.S. military rifle.

If you want to read an amusing story on the Mark I, read Dick Culver's piece he did for a CMP a few years back:

Pipsqueak Pistol That Never Was

[hershey]

the name is very possible to come up w/. , the vet that brought it back passed just recently, the grandson sold it to the brother of the individual i got it from, now wether the story will be true is hypothetical, but i should be able to at least research the name to see if it is plausible..,

it is now tucked away in the back row of the safe, probably to only see daylight during an occasional cleaning, might take it out to shoot if i find a few buddies that appreciate the old stuff and want to go.

[Aragorn243]

I believe what they mean about the "bringback" is that it would be very rare for a US serviceman to bring back a US owned rifle. They were US government property, not the soldiers so it would have been "theft" for him to have brought it back. Bringbacks are foreign captured weapons that soldiers were permitted to bring back.

A more plausible explanation would be that he used such a rifle during the war and once they were placed on the surplus market after the war was over, he bought one to own. They were something like $7 back then.