Sorry... I am not confused, as to me the 1903 and 1903A3 are only different in the rear sight. The fact of the matter is that 03's and 03A3's were used by combat troops in WWII and not merely relegated to rear echelon cooks and such. It took a long time to ramp up Garandproduction...that was my only point. In retrospect, I was referring to the bolt action rifle vs the semi-auto rifle and it is certainly true by the time the 03A3 was fielded it was relegated primarily to rear echelon soldiers. Regards, Rick.