RIA USMC 1903 rifle - a LN, DHT receiver!

[Kirk]

John Bear graciously provided information, in an article authored by himself & C.S. Ferris, about Low Number, Double Heat Treated RIA rifles!

Common lore says that only RIA receivers 285507 & after were DHT. John says that when the SHT problem was recognizes & that many receivers were brittle, RIA was ordered to halt production. When they did, there was about 15,000 finished receivers on hand, all serialized & marked. 5000+ had already been heat treated - SHT. The rest, almost 10,000 had not been heat treated. When ordered to resume production using the new DHT process, RIA destroyed all the SHT receivers. The untreated receivers received the DHT. No records were kept as to the S/Ns of the destroyed receivers or of the DHT receivers; they were not in sequence. Therefore, the Army lumped all the LN DHT receivers in with existing SHT receivers and established s/n 285507 as the first DHT receiver. So, in reality, almost 10,000 LN DHT RIA receivers were made. John also said many of these went to the Marines, including this one. Since it and the bolt are both DHT, I took it to the range.

Bear in mind that this rifle was neglected and grades as "Fair" condition. There are many spots of rust & pitting on the outside. The bore also rates fair. After a thorough cleaning, the bore is surprisingly bright but shows both wear and some pits. MW measures 2 & TE goes 4; headspace is perfect.

I've had several requests to post photos of both parts & the whole rifle. Shown here are some photos of parts & angles not posted before.

Information

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