RIA M1903 SRS check please?
I have serial number 236331, which I believe is a Rock Island Arsenal,
1913 production rifle.
Some of the online information is contradictory, but I am fairly certain the receiver, bolt and barrel are all 1913, but the stock was replaced with a sporterized stock sometime in its past.The trigger guard also has the NRA
and flaming bomb stamped on the tang.
With this early S/N, I am under the belief that the receiver and barrel should
be blued, and not parkerized, but, I hear many different 'facts', especially if
this is such an early rifle.
The receiver is very sharp, the lettering on all the parts are also very sharp,
Which I would suspect that they would be polished and rounded if they had been refinished from parkerizing, to being blued.
Another area of my interest is the receiver. There are no holes drilled in it
for a peep sight or scope. I was under the assumption that a peep sight was added before being sold to the public? Or would this have been a CMP sale rifle and kept original till someone else modified them?
The more I read, the cloudier it all gets. I am looking at getting some
books to learn more!