SEDGLEY M1903 BARRELS, good & bad

[Tom in N.J.]

Winchester made at least 20,000 barrels "of the Springfield contour" for Segdley in the early 1940s. I do not know if they marked them for Sedgley, or if Segley marked them latter. At SA the date and shell was stamped prior to machining the bore.

[stonewall56]

I bought at auction a Springfield M1903 barreled with a Sedgley 10-43 barrel. Bullets would keyhole the target at 25 yards. I found a NOS Springfield 08-42 and had my 'smith, a WWII vet, put it on & headspace it for me.

[Wullie]

I am clearing out some stuff that has been following me around for years. I came across a boxed barrel that was shipped to my grandfather from TOM FOREST in San Diego, Ca.

I'm pretty sure it was in the late 60's or 70's as there is a zip code on the box.

The box contains what appears to be a new USMC 12-43 1903 barrel with the rear sight base installed. There is circled "S" under the date. The barrel was still in the cosmoline. I cleaned the bore and it looks new as does the barrel. It is a 4 groove barrel and I can detect no visible bends, warps, dark spots, etc anywhere on it. I've sighted down the outside of the barrel ( like I used to check shotguns for bent barrels) and the reflection shows to be straight.


I've no way to gauge it.

Question is, is it worth selling or should it be tossed?

Thanks in advance,
Willie

[John Beard]

The barrel is definitely worth selling. Serviceable M1903 barrels with sight bases are fetching several hundred dollars.

J.B.

[Wullie]

Thanks for the info.

I'll clean her up a bit more and see who wants her.

Willie

[Cecil]

I just traded for a 4-67 wrapped Sedgley barrel. The barrel is dated 10-43 and appears brand new. Mine also has the sight base installed. Anyone have experience with barrels repacked in 64 with this barrel date?





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[Calfed]

I bought a sported Rock Island 1903 that had a beautiful non-USMC marked Sedgley barrel, dated 7/44. I can see no indication of bending and the rifle shoots very well.






My son and I recently took it to the range, with these results (We were using LC 62 MATCH ammo)

First he shot it at 50 yards, just to see if it was centered and on paper. His first 5 @ 50



Since it was hitting pretty good at 50, he tried the rifle at 100 yards.



I tried it at 100 yards, but wasn't able to keep up with my son.

[Randy A]

Seems to me, Chuck had a quick easy method of checking them. He'd mentioned a certain size long drill bit that could be dropped down them. All this talk of bent Sedgleys makes me want to go check them,, I bought a few in the wrap years back, because I knew they were going to get hard to find. Now you've got me concerned,, I think I'll go dig them out.
What size bit was that?