Remmington 03A3 sniper rifle?

A lot of general shooters out there refer to any 1903 based rifle as a "Springfield" Springfield made the 1903 model as did Remington. The model 1903A3 was made by Remington and Smith Corona. The 1903A3 rifles destined to be snipers were called "1903A4" rifles and marked as a normal 1903A3, but offset on the receiver so that the markings could be read with the scope base installed. Never heard of chrome lined barrels on the 1903A3 issued rifle. Be prepared for a BIG $$ investment to return to original sniper quality.

thx gsimmons

Check the stickies section at the top of the 1903 forums as well... ;)

M1903/1903A3/A4 Springfield Rifle Forum

Vi Shooter's Web Pages - Extensive Information on M1903 & Variants

Regards,
Doug

thx, it may not be chromed its just extremely shiny, i mentioned it to someone and they said it was probably chromed, i have yet to have the gun inspected. I think I understand a little more now.

also the scope mount says redfield.

zadmat,

Well worth restoring, as its the real deal to start with, as Vintage Hunter states parts are out there, the cost is all down to you, maybe the scope and Rings are the biggest outlay, Just remember the original scopes fitted were off the shelf weaver 330C scopes and only when purchased under contract were they marked M73B1...... keep a lookout on ebay etc.

Its worth a mention on the M1903 forum too, or at least mention the rifle you have and tell them its on the restorers corner...... you never know what parts etc folk have stashed away.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bigduke6

zadmat,

Well worth restoring, as its the real deal to start with, as Vintage Hunter states parts are out there, the cost is all down to you, maybe the scope and Rings are the biggest outlay, Just remember the original scopes fitted were off the shelf weaver 330C scopes and only when purchased under contract were they marked M73B1...... keep a lookout on ebay etc.

Its worth a mention on the M1903 forum too, or at least mention the rifle you have and tell them its on the restorers corner...... you never know what parts etc folk have stashed away.

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Thanks bigduke6, and especially for the pointer on the scope, and i have just posted on the 1903 forum, didn't realize they were related for sure! Still learning and from what i have researched they are hard to find parts for also when it comes to sniper, glad to hear you agree I have the real deal, I was wondering myself.

Zadmat If there is any way for you to swing one of the original A4 stocks we saw on the auction site I would do so quickly. Originals are few and far between and you could literally wait years of another one to surface. About the only source for these are takeoffs from sporter projects and a few that were left over from the governments destruction program in the 1990's (600+ rifles!).

The two incontrovertible features that nail your rifle as an A4 are 1. the serial number and 2. the location of the receiver markings. Since your rifle shows some signs of an inservice rebuild the parts may have become mixed. i would not be overly concerned and i would ignore completely any suggestions that A4's were configured one way or another because of the wishes of some branch of the service. There was a war on - no time to send functioning weapons to Santa's workshop for tinkering.

Regards,
Jim