Please help me with this m1903 a2

[andy_ita]

hi guys
Merry Christmas

i found on a gun store this rock Island 1903 A2. i know nothing about it. could anyone tell me if it is real or a fake??
thanks
andy

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[tomwatts]

Well I am far from the premier expert in this early model RIA, but I am 99% certain this is no 1903A2, and I have never seen any thing that looked like those cartouches before.


I don't remember much about the A2 but I know they were stamped cleanly before being hardened and this receiver appears to have the A2 chiseled in with a bit!


The stock is a 1903A3 Scant, definitely not a early RIA, so even if those were legitimate cartouches they would not be for that early RIA.


For $100.00 dollars I would add it to my oddities collection but it's not anything I would pay real money for!


My .02
Cheers


Update:
I take that price back, I like the late model barrel, I would give 200.00 for the barrel, and as a parts gun to be disassembled and sold as parts or used on other projects the whole gun might be worth 400.00, in MHO

[303tom]

That is what is called a Sub-Caliber Rifle made into a regular Inf. Rifle !................
Here maybe this will help, you have a good one there & yes it worth about a Grand !.................
Ten Oddball '03 Springfield Variations

[tomwatts]

Please see this link:
http://auction.odcmp.com/auctions/de...d=52&pic=0#img
Notice the quality of A2 stamping! Just saying!
Waiting for some more opinions on this one!

[M1903Guy]

The "A2" designation does indeed indicate that at some point the receiver at least was used as a sub-caliber device for either a tank or anti-tank gun (sometimes even artillery). It would fit inside the barrel / breech of the larger weapon and allow the crews to train in reduced space. Many moons ago in Korea we had .22 sub-caliber devices for the 105mm main guns on our M60A3 MBTs. We'd drive up to a field about half the size of a basketball court where and entire model 'village" was set-up and dozens of scale model T-55s and BMPs were scattered about and we'd blast away with British made .22 tracer rounds - practicing the entire sequence of identifying the target, giving the fire commands, etc.. Now it is all done with computers. Sigh.

Of Note on the stock. The Boxed "O.G.E.K. = Ogden Arsenal Elmer Keith. He's the well know gun writer, worked as an inspector for a short while.

[andy_ita]

I found this on the net



But i dont if the arsenal repair is correct. I mean the stock cartouche is correct?

[tomwatts]

I have done some more research, and both Chuck in Denver and Rick the Librarian say they have seen both stamped and scribed A2, so I will say that the receiver is most probably an A2.
Everything else on this gun does not look like a correct rebuild. Still wondering about those cartouches!
Just saying!
Tom

[andy_ita]

Hi Tom
May i know why for you it doent look a correct rebuild?

[andy_ita]

So for what i found,
The rifle was used as A2 , as it marked. The sent near 1944/45 at the odgen arsenal where it was rebuilt and rebarreled. As the cartouche odek say.
Than sent after the ww2 to greek for the civil war (1946-49) as the Marks says ( the X, the O and the 2 T on the stock and the B on the floorplate) coukd it be correct??

[mark1]

The rifle is a Greek return. Most likely the receiver was put back into commission by the US and than was sent to the Greeks at some point in time.