Bubba done it again

[ssgross]

I wish I had kept the old stock.

You want this one? It's yours if you do, firewood otherwise. Send me a PM.

[baltimoreed]

Here are my unbubba the bubba ‘03s. A 21 inch from 1930 and a 1919 Mk1. The short one had a couple extra holes in the barrel but non in the recvr but the Mk1 has a couple on the left side along with the Pederson ejection port but none on top. I added a Sarco 10 round mag extension to the short rifle. I shoot cast in them in my cas clubs BAM matches. Run them mad minute style without removing my fingers from bolt. Great rifles.

[ssgross]

Let's play a game of "find the cross pin". I have a brand new barrel - don't think I'll need it but no telling till we get to the range. In the meantime, doesn't hurt to think up contingencies (plan for worst hope for the best eh?) Did Remington use a cross pin? My other Remington build I had the barrel off of, and it has the parallel pin ~1 o'clock to prevent rotation. But of my now 3 Remington's I can't see a cross pin on any. Here is the base on for the subject of this thread...


Should be a pin about where the oil stain is on the second pic. If you use the pop-out, the resolution is super large.

I don't think there is a pin. If there is, it was blended in very, very well before finishing.

EDIT: Saw this post...here. It would help if I were looking at the right end! Nonetheless, I don't see it. Plenty of Knicks and dings, but no pin...on any of my Remington M1903's.

[ssgross]

Took most the day off work after a rough couple weeks. Not too bad for a quiet afternoon in the shop. Sorry about the lighting.

This stock is an early M1903 (no groove for A3 hand guard ring) CMP stock, back when the quality wasn't so great. The inletting was tight, but slightly off. Tang screw hole was drilled big with a chincy thin brass thingy for a bushing, and the outside profile was pretty far off (band shoulders needed to be set back). I cleaned it up, finished the inletting, and reworked the outside a few months ago, and then finished and oiled a couple weeks back. The upper band came from another rifle waiting on me to finish it's stock (hence I didn't put the front sight back on here) and had to be shimmed with a piece of notecard to keep it snug because the nose of the stock was a bit small.

I was able to save the lower band! I think bubba lost the screw, and reamed it out to fit his with a nut on the end. There were some threads left, and I happened to have an A3 band screw in my tub-o-parts, which is slightly bigger than the m1903 band screw. The only difference is the dimple at the end of the screw to peen and keep it from backing out.
I had a nice early tight-checkered buttplate in the tub as well.

The rear sight was loose, and easily wiggled once the base was cleaned of dried grease. Easy fix...with sight assembled, give a couple raps on a large brass drift behind the front of the sight base to push the windage screw closer to the sight. Perfect now.


I posted above that the chamber was weirdly short. It was still a bit short after I polished the chamber. Well, after getting everything all cleaned up I checked the lugs...90% contact right but <50 contact left. So I lapped the lugs even, and got ready to finish ream. Well, no point to that now, lapping the lugs was just enough to barely close on the go gauge. I suppose now all that's left is going to the range? maybe next week.

[baltimoreed]

Nice work. Wish mine had ‘C’ stocks.

[butlersrangers]

The 1903 rear-sight collar cross-pin is normally rather hard to find. The metal finish kind of hides it.

I've circled the areas, on your photos, where I think I see the pin.

(Rubbing the finish in those areas, with a piece of solvent soaked #0000 steel wool,
will likely make the ends of the pin more obvious).

[ssgross]

I've circled the areas, on your photos, where I think I see the pin.

that's closer to the edge than I would have thought after looking at pics of takeoffs.
I'll get to the range first before I go down this road. I think the barrel will be ok, and we'll get some worthy groups.

[ssgross]

This one is back in action!

Took a bit of patience to get on paper. The front sight blade is slightly bent to the right...slight, but noticeable. Once I got in the black, shot a string of 10 shots. Solid 4 at the bottom touching inside an inch. I keep telling myself to get a few rear sight slides so I can enlarge the peep. With 1903 sights (and my Krags) my eye seems to always bounce back and forth between two consistent sight pictures, but not with the Garand, 03a3, or ar.

[Chuckindenver]

i see the cross pin, you can rub cold blue on the area, the pin will show up darker then the sight base,

[ssgross]

Thanks, Chuck. That's a great tip to make life a lot easier the next time I need to swap an '03 sight collar.
Fortunately though...not this one! I think it shoots better than me, and that's what matters most.

I'll add a progress report...the range isn't the last step. While my alkanet + raw linseed oil produces a wonderfully authentic aged finish, it takes time for the alkanet root smell to gas out. We're about halfway there...it's only noticeable with your cheek against the stock shooting now, whereas 2 weeks ago my wife made me hang it in the garage.