Shooting a early 1903

[dod03-52]

I am new to your sight--it is great. I have a early 1903 . Made 1907 ser# 307,xxx
excellent condtion, all original, What about shooting it?
Bob

Information

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[Rick the Librarian]

You might do a search on this or several other military rifle forums - the subject has been discussed and rediscussed to a fair-thee-well!

[Calif-Steve]

Honest query or merely trolling? Lots of hot-button opinions on this topic.

[browningautorifle]

I agree with Steve. Search and ye shall find.

[dod03-52]

I read thru 6 pages of the questions and answers and saw nothing about the subject, so I asked the question....Seems to be a touchy subject.

[m1903rifle]

Any Springfield made M1903 with a serial number below 800,00 ( 286,000 for Rock Island ) is said to be one of the "low number" ones, and is considered to be unsafe to shoot because SOME of them were not heat treated/forged properly. The problem occurs when the cartridge has a head separation ......... the improperly heat treated low number action does not have the strength to handle the escaping gas and "blows up". Just remember though, WW1 was fought with low number M1903's.

[Johnny Peppers]

If you have an excellent original rifle that early, I wouldn't want to make a shooter out of it regardless of the debate on the brittle receivers.

[Coopdog]

If you have an excellent original rifle that early, I wouldn't want to make a shooter out of it regardless of the debate on the brittle receivers.

+1, you could probably buy two, or more, WWII era mixmaster shooters with excellent bores for what an "excellent" 1907 all-original rifle is worth. Maybe pick up both a M1903 and an A3. But maybe that's not what you want.

By the way, just go to Google and type in "low number 1903 receivers" and you will pull up plenty of articles on the issues with the metal on those things.

This is a good article: Information On M1903 Receiver Failures

[browningautorifle]

I read thru 6 pages of the questions and answers and saw nothing about the subject, so I asked the question....Seems to be a touchy subject.

If you serached through the 1903 forum,(shoot early 1903) you would get 9 hits on the first page and 4 of them deal with this. Easy to say it isn't there. Search.

[Claven2]

In all liklihood, if you use factory (store bought) 150gn ammo or relead to M2 specs with virgin brass, you will almost certainly never have a case head separation and would likely be OK - but nobody will guarantee you that for liability reasons.

IF you shoot hot loads or use brass of unknown heritage or experience a major case failure, there is a small chance your receiver is not one of the good ones and you could get hurt.

Interestingly, ALL M1903 receivers survived a couple VERY hot proof loads and didn't fail. Also, a good many of the WW1 era failures were traced to a GI accidentally chambering an 8mm Mauser cartridge. Hatcher wrote extensively on the subject, as did Brophy.

All those things considered, MANY Free French troops also fought WW2 with low-numbered Springfields, as did most of the USMC until mid-war 2. If memory serves, ordnance did not report any blown receivers after 1929 or so...