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received a pile of parts to build a rifle from today, while taking note on the parts kit, sent to this guy from sarco, i notice this little gem.
hard to spot from the untrained eye,
but it is a cast reproduction, not all that bad, but still a repro..
My eye is still in training,. Please point out how those are repros. Thanks....
I have heard there is a nice milled repo band floating around. Made in China and well done. So Scrapco is shipping them? Another reason to avoid those guys!
Do they MENTION that these are repro parts? That would be the key for me.
if you look at the inside you can see that its indeed cast, the groove isnt deap enough, or straight, the U is too low, and not struck right,
the edges are ground on, and not as well finished as a real GI..
not to mention, its hotsalts blue, not rust blue.
i also noticed the swivle is a repro Garand, and the cocking rod is a bad repro as well with this kit.
i think the bayonet lug is suspect, and will try and share some pics,
none of these parts will work with the guys project anyway, as he sent me a Remington 1903A3, Sarco C stock{nice} and what he said is an A4 bolt as part trade for my labor...isnt an A4 bolt and not even a nice sporter bolt.
ill educate the customer as to what he sent me, isnt what was pictured, and that he doesnt have the right, or enough parts to finish the project.
looks like somebody tried to force a 1917 screw in the front hole for the guardscrews, and blew out part of the hole, not bad enough to unsafe, but still nasty.
if this were a SHT or DHT SA or RIA, id skip the project, and send it back, but however, its a NS A3, and should be fine.
I needed (wanted) a nice lower band for a HN SA that Chuck refinished for me--the one that came from the CMP was servicable but dinged up and not quite befitting the nice condition and new finish on the other parts. Given the proliferation of these repro bands, I bit the bullet and went to Joe DeChristopher. He sent me a beautiful NOS part with finish matching the one Chuck put on the rest of the parts. I was glad for the part, accepting the price I paid as a sign of the times.
The 1903 small parts that were blued were niter blued rather than rust blued. This is an early niter blued lower band and swivel.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../2yxm0ea-1.jpg
SCRAPCO claims its parts are "GI". What does that mean? Real? Repo? Whatever. SCRAPCO had a horrible habit of "losing" orders. Went on for years. If the customer didn't complain that was it. Not only got interest-free loans but many folks just went away, so they kept the money. Avoid these guys.
Sometime in the early 1990's, I bought a low numbered SA in the 50,000 serial number range with a SA 05 barrel. This rifle had a white stock and white handguard. This rifle came from a small group of 1903 rifles on auction by the state of PA and the dealer that I bought this from had won the bid.
The interesting part is the band, it has the groove but is without the sideways u stamp !
looks like a band that was heavy polished at one time, i can see the remains of the U in your 3rd pic.