1903 at the D-Day Museum

[PhillipM]

I went to the D-Day / National WWII museum in New Orleans yesterday and gathered data on the lone 1903 represented.

It is a Remington in a 2 bolt S stock sn 3048272. All I could see of the barrel stamp was a 2, so I presume it's a 1942. It was in similar condition to the Greek return CMP rifles.

The museum itself is a must see. It was my first time to see a German 88, about which Ambrose wrote that the 88mm converted more men to Christ than Peter and Paul combined! Most of the museum tells the story of WWII and has many personal narratives. Also interesting were invasion maps carried ashore by our troops and a panoramic photo left on board a landing craft at Normandy.

I think my favorite humorous story was a gunner on a cruiser, I think it was the USS Augusta. In the heat battle on D-Day, he saw the ship's pennant break free and fall, so he left his post and caught it before it went overboard. On his way back to his post he was confronted by none other than Omar Bradley, who just said, "I think you should get back to your post." The man was so scared he would be court martialed for leaving his post under fire he hid the pennant. After the battle the Captain ordered a search. Now he was so scared he wore it around his waist under his clothes till he could smuggle it home.

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[Bob Womack]

I loved the story from the USS Augusta!

[ralfus]

I believe the curator from the New Orleans WWII museum posts occasionally on the CMP forum and maybe on the old Jouster forum too. He wrote an article in the American Rifleman about having to flee after Hurricane Katrina.

[Jim Tarleton]

Great story. I used to live in NO and never knew about the museum. Criminy!

Jim

[Lancebear]

That's because it didn't exist when you haunted the Quarter. You were probably more interested in other things back then anyway. Maybe. It opened in the nineties.

Have a friend that works there. Maybe I could make a call and go down and do a data sheet on the rifle. It's a rare early Remington right, in the first fifty thousand they made. Too hot to shoot, ain't sweatin' all over my rifles. A thirty minute trip might be in order. Like to see what that rifle is wearin'.

Robert...... and yea, death to bad guys

[Rick the Librarian]

Lancebear, the M1903, especially if it has been rebuilt and/or refinished, is not especially rare, or even uncommon. It would be interesting to see a picture of it.

[Lancebear]

Hey Rick,

Was under the impression that the early Remingtons are especially desirable. Is that only in original configuration?

LB

[Rick the Librarian]

Yes -- as mixmasters, they are fairly common.

[Lancebear]

Hey Phillip,

Do you remember if that was a grasping groove "S" stock and was it Remington?
I need to see it and take some photos and post them.

Death to "Hope and Change", I see change but no hope,

Lancebear

[PhillipM]

No grasping grooves, the only other thing I could tell was it has a Remington bolt shroud. Sorry for the cell phone pic, I'd forgotten my camera. I never have had any luck taking pictures of an object behind glass anyway.