Need some help with two 03 Springfield rifles

Hi, first post :o

I'm trying to help my father-in-law identify / value a couple of his old 03 rifles. He needs to sell these to cover some serious medical bills that my mom-in-law has racked up. He thinks that one is a 03 Springfield Match-T and that the other is an 03-A1 National match.

The supposed Match-T is serial #4,779,XX5

The supposed A1 is serial #1,520,XX2

I don't know if this helps you guys. I do have photos, which I can post if someone is willing to help.

Thanks very much in advance, God bless.

-L

first has too many numbers, second might be a 1903A1, pictures would help.

Here are the pics of the rifles.. they are pretty big (pics) so if they are too large I can resize them:

Index of /~legendre/guns/dans_pics

Gun #1 is pics #10251-10253

Gun #2 is pics #10264-10268

Thanks very much, hope this helps.

-L

Email me the serial numbers and I will check them against the SRS list. Your pictures are too huge for my dial-up.

Jim

Do us a favor and learn how to crop and size your pictures and include them with your thread. Asking us to chase down oversize, uncropped images seems a bit inconsiderate when you're asking for assistance.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../cropped-2.jpg

Without sharp close-ups of the receiver and barrel markings and the sights, it's not really possible to tell you much. This one has been extensively modified and probably re-blued. Its market value (as a target rifle of obsolete style) is minimal. The other one doesn't have the polished bolt characteristic of original M1903 National Match rifles but appears less extensively altered.

The M1903A1 doesn't look like a NM.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Legendre

Hi, first post :o

I'm trying to help my father-in-law identify / value a couple of his old 03 rifles. He needs to sell these to cover some serious medical bills that my mom-in-law has racked up. He thinks that one is a 03 Springfield Match-T and that the other is an 03-A1 National match.

The supposed Match-T is serial #4,779,XX5

The supposed A1 is serial #1,520,XX2

I don't know if this helps you guys. I do have photos, which I can post if someone is willing to help.

Thanks very much in advance, God bless.

-L

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The photos and serial number of the "Match-T" identifies the rifle as a heavily-customized Smith-Corona Model '03-A3. The rifle is valued strictly as a shooter and has very limited collectibility as a military rifle. The rifle, however, looks very nice and has strong visual appeal. And it probably shoots with exceptional accuracy. I have difficulty placing a value on it, but I would guess about $750 - $1,000. If the rifle was customized and marked by a well-known gunsmith, then it might fetch considerably more.

I see no evidence that the Model 1903A1 is a National Match rifle. It appears to be a common service rifle. The rifle has been gunsmith-modified by installing a receiver sight. The original rear sight is missing. I value the rifle at about $750.

Hope this helps. Good Luck! And I extend my best wishes to your mom-in-law for a full and complete recovery! :wave:

J.B.

though im far from a expert on taking picture, if you adjust the settings in your camera to email size pictures, they would easier to open.

lots of neet rifles, took me a while to open the pics, but i got it done.
the A1 doesnt come up on my list. neet old sight anyway.
are you going to sell these guns? or keep them in the family?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chuckindenver

though im far from a expert on taking picture, if you adjust the settings in your camera to email size pictures, they would easier to open.

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Good point ... :)

If the pic already exists on your hard disk and you're using a Windows PC comouter, this is the best program I've found and let's you re-size for "large" screen sizing if you want.

Microsoft's FREE Image Resizer (click here)

This FREE PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a simple right-click of your mouse

........ click on the link above and install it on your system.

Regards,
Badger

I agree with John Beard's comments. If, anything, he may be a little on the high side.(The economy being what it is) They look very nice, however. I wish you the best.

Just as a philosophical point, from my perspective as a health care provider, my patients racked up over $200K in uncollectable accounts receivable about 20 years ago when it got so depressing I just quit tracking it. As a practical matter, unless you owe money to a hospital that can hire a phalanx of attorneys, there is very little they can do to you to collect. In most cases of serious medical debt, $2,000 in guns being sold is little more than a symbolic gesture, unlikely to impress the entity billing you. And as far as denying you further care, a hospital can't do that. JMHO.

First, I'd like to thank everyone (and JB specifically ) who chimed in with helpful information after what was more or less a drive-by Frist Psot begging for free appraisals. My father-in-law also sends his sincere thanks on behalf of the whole family.

About the photos - I didn't take them.. this is all a remote control operation with the family down in Georgia and myself up here in Minnesota. I was debating whether or not to crop & resize, but I figured just as well to leave as much detail as possible and keep the big photos out of the thread for the dialup users.

As for hospital bills and defaults.. I only wish it were so simple. Mom in-law is going to be traveling to Korea to receive stem-cell therapy which is currently unavailable in the USA due to the policies of the previous administration. This is essentially a cash-on-the-barrel situation. It seems a bit risky to me, but both she and my father in-law are retried physicians so I will trust their judgment - as if I had any other option.

Also worth mentioning.. the guns in the photos were only the ones that neither he nor I knew how to value. There were a substantial number of others which were sold - but these were generally modern 'commodity' items with fairly straightforward valuations and no potential historical / collector value. Also sold (and probably for sale) was a large amount of ammunition which did very well for him. More than anything, we feared accidentally selling off a diamond as glass (or perhaps worse.. vice-versa) when it could be avoided with a little expert assistance.

Again, thanks for your time and kind assistance. Best to all of you.

-L