chrome plated parts?

[ssgross]

Oh, If I get it, I sure will be removing the plating. I've brought back a few 1903 sporters that had bolt bodies polished and in the white. A couple I left white but fixed the neglected metal by polishing to mirror bright again. On one the bolt body was fine the extractor claw was pretty bad and ugly...so I cleaned it up and polished away the pitting. It looked so nice against the blued bolt I left it.
Some sources report the USMC marksmanship team had highly polished receiver rail, highly polished and blued bolt and bottom metal, highly polished extractor. The picture in at least one book looked like the extractor was in the white, all else blued. Meh.

Fit and function are of primary importance, and in my mind at least allowing myself some liberties at the end in the finish preserves some of its service "history", including perhaps some reference to its years spent as a sporter. It doesn't really change the value of a parts queen, but makes me smile when I pull it out of the safe and take it to the range.