Early Production 03 Safety Concerns

[Chuckindenver]

so.
what do you think those old timers would say about all the plastic guns being made today...
or the majority of modern hunting rifles made with Cast steel??
Ruger, Browning, Weatherby, and im told that Remington has went to cast steel... things that make you go hmmmmmm.

[0311Shooter]

Got in on this topic late but here's my opinion.

I have a 4 digit Springfield. The friend I bought it from bought it off a widow who said her husband hunted with it. My friend never fired it, he didn't fire any of his guns, he was handicapped. When I got it, the bore was full of carbon, apparently someone had fired the hell out of it. Took some doing to get it clean.

I took it to the range, covered it with a blanket, put on my old Corps Steel Pot, safety glasses, put my head down and fired. Loaded, fired again. Ok, it fires.

Now it's a safe queen as I have other 03's. But if the need ever came about, it could be loaded up and fired. I am confident about that.

Are you that confident about your low number 03's?

[Michael Petrov]

“Michael Petrov took several SHT rifles, fired a 8 mm Mauser cartridge in one, and did some other crazy stuff with another. The rifles did not blow up.”

Just to clear this up a little.
Because it had got to the point where several people were parroting the idea that a case failure would blow up ANY low-numbered 1903 I did some experimenting. I took five (5) low numbered actions both RI & SA checked the headspace and fired at least one arsenal AP that I cut the head with a hacksaw so that it would fail. A lot of gas and brass particles and because the actions were designed for a case failure they held. I had one action that was not in any shape for a rebuild or sporter so I fired a couple 8mm Mauser cartridges through it. These were Remington and nothing happened, I suspect if I was using German ammo the rifle would have failed.

[Calif-Steve]

The crazy thing is, at least some of the LN's were properly made. They present no risk at all. But, how do you find one? When I was in Viet Nam we always looked for the person with a small propeller on his straw hat. That's how we spotted the VC. Perhaps someone could come up with a similar solution.

[Jim Tarleton]

The crazy thing is, at least some of the LN's were properly made. They present no risk at all. But, how do you find one? When I was in Viet Nam we always looked for the person with a small propeller on his straw hat. That's how we spotted the VC. Perhaps someone could come up with a similar solution.

Propellers? I missed those completely. If only I had known!

Jim

[Chuckindenver]

awesome!!
heres a good one..
my dad, the one thats started me down the 03 path, purchaced a nice Remington 700BDL varmint in 25-06, that i doubt had ever been seen more then a box of ammo.
my dad being the hard headed fellow that he is, refused to trash the NM 06 brass that he loaded some 10 times for the 25-06, loaded one more time a load 10 grains over the max, by mistake, thought he sit it 52 grns and ended up with 62 grns, making for a case head failure..
hands me the rifle with the bolt locked.
so i wrap the receiver in and ice pack, open the bolt, and observe the bolt head cracked, first 700 bolt ive seen do that.
shot the same load, in his 1903 chambered in 25-06 that i built, same issue with a case head failure, bolt opened ok, split the case, no damage to the 03 what so ever..
ill convert the 700 bolt to a M16 extractor, though i did send the rifle with no bolt off to Remington with a letter saying the bolt was lost, so 200.00 later he will have a spare bolt.
i had to ask him. if he had an issue with the 700, why shoot them in the 03??
said he shot the 03 first, and didnt notice the case issue until later, after the 700 problem.
iv told him time after time, through that box of old brass in the scrap bin, some new brass, and to get his eyes checked...
told me he didnt want his eyes adjusting to the glasses..gawd..

[Vi Shooter]

and I'll say it again because I appear to be the only one saying it.

The LN rifles were made more than 90 years ago. Since then, they have been rebuilt, welded into drill rifles, loaned to foreign countries, and been through who knows whose hands. The few in original condition command pretty high money. The more typical inexpensive LN rifle has a history that you don't know.

The first '03 I ever bought was a LN. I didn't know about the LN SHT/forging issue at the time and I just never got around to firing it. Glad I didn't because when I finally tore into it and examined it in detail I found that it had probably been a drill rifle for part of its existence and had a thin, irregular receiver ring under the wood line. I doubt that welding and grinding improved things for it strengthwise.

So here's my take: There's lots of HN rifles with a greater margin of safety and less tendency to come apart in sharp little pieces if something goes horribly wrong. The risk to the shooter (wearing proper safety equipment) in a failure is minimal but the rifle won't heal up afterwards. The nice original ones are too precious to shoot and there's no good reason to shoot the un-nice ones. I recommend shooting something else.