Newly acquired 1903a4

[31pickemup]

Arisaka
I totally agree with you and I know its not the norm. Im not trying to be difficult by any means. Its just weird my buddy has one earlier than this one in almost pristine condition with the same setup and done the exact same way. His rings are also blued. He states that the early rifles like these we seen leaving with blued instead of parked rings. He's been collecting for over 40 years and has been researching these from vets and armorers since then. I know theres variants of everything.

Information

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[JGaynor]

FWIW, Stith Mounts of San Antonio, Texas was selected by the USMC to provide an improved telescopic sight for the M1C rifle. The Scope was the Stith 4XD manufactured by Kollmorgen Optical of Brooklyn, NY. The USMC designated this sniper system the M1952 and the scope and mount the MC-1.

The only published source i am aware of that suggests that the MC-1 Scope (Stith-Kollmorgen) might have been used on an M1903A4 is J.C. Harrison, "The Collectable '03" pages 170 & 233.

The rifle that Chuck depicted above is an M1952 with MC-1 scope and mount.
I note it has the late style flash hider. The one thing thats interesting is none of the USMC documantation that i have specifys the use of the leather cheek pad. (another minor mystery?)

The original Stith-Kollmorgen scopes had aluminum tubes, black anodized(harrison reports late production was gray/black)
they were marked:
Stith Mounts S.A., Tex
Telescope, Rifle 4X Double
Kollmorgen Optical Corp. Brooklyn, NY
Pat. Pend.
FSN 1240-6471106 US

Reportedly a Marine Corp serial number was also electopenciled in the side of the tube.

In 1956 Kollmorgen decided to market scopes under their own name. Stith scopes disappeared at about the same time. It is not known whether or not Kollmorgen remained a supplier to the USMC.

In 1959 Redfield aquired Kollmorgen Optical which became the basis of Redfield's scope business. It's also interesting to note that when the USMC updated their sniper system during the Vietnam war a Redfield Scope was selected.

As is the case with the Weaver K60B there were some rifles so equipped in government inventories. The quantities are very small and the details of how and why they came to be remain a mystery. Do they exist? - yes i have some of the serial numbers. Were they standard issue? - Nope! seriously doubt it.

Regards,

Jim