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Springfield 1903 Receiver with Remington Barrel
Have a chance to get a M1903 Sporter from a friend. The rifle has a Springfield receiver with a s/n date of about 1934 and a Remington barrel dated 7-43. The receiver and bridge have been drilled for a scope rail (not buy my friend he got it that way) and my friend pulled the sporter stock off and stocked the rifle in a scant stock to look like an M1903a4. What I'm wondering is if I can return the rifle to its M1903 config. with the 7-43 dated Remington barrel. My friend doesn't want to take the stock off to look at the barrel so right now I only have the barrel date to go by.
Thanks in advance...CaptMandrake
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06-05-2019 05:38 PM
# ADS
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Advisory Panel
Is the existing barrel an 03 or 03A3? If it is an 03A3, there is no provision for the rear sight, so configuring the rifle as an 03 would be problematic.
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Yep that's the problem my friend just doesn't have the time to remove the stock and hand guard to look at the barrel. I would assume that it's an 03 barrel since the receiver is late Springfield but not sure if Remington made 03 barrels with that late a production date.
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Advisory Panel
The rear sight base should be visible on the top of the barrel just in front of the receiver.
I suppose that Remington could have made replacement 03 barrels.
I suspect, though, that the barrel is for an 03A3.
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I have a 1270xxx SA receiver (1930's) with a new, 4 groove, RA 6-44 03A3 bbl, ("tell" is the 03a3 front sight), but all the old 03 hardware, only the bbl and stock are not original.
The bbl must have been turned down in diameter, to fit the old style scalloped '03 rear sight sleeve and a slate gray parkerizing. The gun also wears a mint K marked 03A3 pistol grip stock.
I surmise that was put together by a rebuild facility at some point in its history; seems to be in line with many other period rebuilds that wear 1940's bbls. Plenty of old '03's got Sedgley USMC marked bbls or RA marked bbls.
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"...assume that it's an 03 barrel..." Where is the rear sight? Like tiriaq says, an 03A3 barrel has no rear sight base. The rear sight is on the receiver. An '03 barrel will have a place to install the rear sight. And there's no putting one on.
To restore any 'sporterized' milsurp to military configuration is prohibitively expensive these days. It's not so much the stocks(a used, fair to good condition walnut stock with no metal runs $118 at Gunparts. A new hand guard runs $12.45. Nothing will come close to matching.) and barrels as it is all the wee metal bits(screws and barrel bands) that go on 'em. A new repro front sight band runs $11.75. A butt plate screw runs $5.40 each and you need 2. All that stuff adds up in a hurry.
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Well I know when my friend got the rifle there was no rear sight base collar on the barrel also no front sight. I know there was a front sight installed at one time because you could see the marks on the barrel left by the front sight band. The 1903 receiver had already been drilled and tapped for a one piece scope base and was wearing a sporter stock.
I only assumed the barrel might be an 03 because why would someone put an 03A3 barrel on a 1903 receiver, but then again they might have already planned for the scope and just didn't care.
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The date makes it a M1903A3 barrel.
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--George Orwell
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