1903a3 sniper rifle.

[m1903rifle]

Probably built on a recovered 03A3 drill rifle receiver. I won 100 of the drill rifles in the CMP auction several years ago, and all of the big guys such as Sarco and Numrich called me to try to buy mine. I believe that all of the FAUX 03 A4 rifles were built on recovered drill rifle receivers. Nothing wrong with with the receivers for that purpose, but none of the companies disclosed that fact.

[browningautorifle]

I won 100 of the drill rifles in the CMP auction several years ago

Wow...even at auction, good luck and maybe a steal of a price that would be a bag of US green. Most of us just want a decent shooter, you get a pile of possibles. With work that is...

[Frederick303]

In both original and Dave's pictures the scope does appear to be the commercial 330 scope. If you can find the 3/4 and 7/8 rings a M81, M82 or M84 scope are correct for post war use. The issue with those scopes its the eye relief is not correct for use in the prone for an average sized guy.

The M73A1 scopes broke at a much higher rate than the rifles, no spares were bought in WWII, most of the DCM sales rifles in the 1960s came without scopes, hence the mounting of the commercial scopes.

None of the commercial scopes with the non-click adjustments were correct or were authorized for use. The military click sight adjusters I seem to recall had a different screw pitch, but I am not sure about that.

[Frank46]

The bolts on the 1903A4 sniper rifles can cost a chunk of change. Last one I saw which was an original was going for $300 for the complete bolt. I bought mine from a dealer friend over 30 years ago and even then it cost me $75. but bubba had used his dremel to enlarge the cut portion of the bolt handle so it would clear a modern scope. Cleaned it up and looks good but it is what it is. Still looks great on my 1903A3 sporter. Frank

[728shooter]

Most obvious giveaway to me is at the front of the barrel where you can plainly see where the original front sight was removed. Original 03a4's never had a front sight installed, hence the Parkerizing was continuous at the sight base. Yours shows the original bluing underneath.

Scope on yours is most likely a Weaver 330 Commercial with screw adjustments. All Weaver scopes for the military had "click" adjustments.

One other note: the serial number on yours looks to be "Z4001" Z-prefix rifles are rather rare (only about 2,920 made), and they always had a 7-digit s/n, Z4001083 being the first in the series, ending at Z4002980. Yours is just a nice clone....

If the seller did not disclose that this was a re-pro, I would be skeptical at doing business with him again. Just MHO....

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