Front sight band marked "A"

[Chuck Russell]

I wasn't sure what the difference was between a Springfield "7" and a Rock Island "7" on the sighting scale. I have a Springfield that was overhauled by Rock Island during the WW1 period. The elevation slide must have been replaced by Rock Island using one of their manufacture. The difference is obvious: Rock Island-straight leg; Springfield-bow leg. The third form of "7" can be seen in a photo from Nick Ferris' book, "Rock Island Rifle, Model 1903". The "7" on an original RIA 1905 modification M1903 rifle is pretty fancy. I hope the photos are helpful to fellow newbies.

[John Beard]

You need to trade rear sights on your rifles. Your Rock Island has a Springfield rear sight and your Springfield has a Rock Island rear sight.

FWIW.

J.B.

[Chuck Russell]

OK. Switching sights was a good idea. Now the Rock Island has a Rock Island leaf. There are collector's who flinch at "changing the history" of the rifle, but I've done my share of restoring M1 rifles and carbines so I'm not without sin. In the process of changing the leafs I noticed that near the base of both leafs on the non graduated side there are letters. I checked the leafs on three other pre-WW1 Springfields. They all have either a letter or a number stamped into the metal. Is there any significance to these markings? All the drift slides had a 5 stamped on the back. A 1.27 million SN Springfield with a 11-26 barrel date has a 6 on the drift slide. What is the significance of these numbers?

[John Beard]

OK. Switching sights was a good idea. Now the Rock Island has a Rock Island leaf. There are collector's who flinch at "changing the history" of the rifle, but I've done my share of restoring M1 rifles and carbines so I'm not without sin. In the process of changing the leafs I noticed that near the base of both leafs on the non graduated side there are letters. I checked the leafs on three other pre-WW1 Springfields. They all have either a letter or a number stamped into the metal. Is there any significance to these markings? All the drift slides had a 5 stamped on the back. A 1.27 million SN Springfield with a 11-26 barrel date has a 6 on the drift slide. What is the significance of these numbers?

Generally speaking, the marks on the back side of the leaf at the base are subinspection marks.

The number stamped in the drift slide represents the aperture diameter in hundredths of an inch. Early rifles have a No. 5 aperture and later rifles have a No. 6 aperture. I don't recall where the changeover occurred. During overhaul, No. 5 apertures were enlarged to No. 6 and the number on the back was "X'd" out and re-stamped.

Hope this helps.

J.B.