1903 with possibilities

[HILLBILLY-06]

You know how sometimes, you look for something so long, so far away, and in so many places, you just keep giving up? Then there are those few times in between you thought you found what you were looking for, and got the royal fake of all time, sending the seller into lauphing stupers all the way to the bank!
Then, out of nowhere, it's finally found you, when you werent looking at all, but still on the market for that "just the right one" that you had been looking for all this time. It just seems to fall out of the sky, and all at once there it is.
Well I don't have it in my hands yet, "I got the receipt" for it, but it has a special condition...."it must pass" a gunsmith inspection, have the (ME), (TE) and have the headspace inspected/corrected, then finally, hopefully get the all clear "safe to shoot" stamp of approval by the gunsmith. All this is already being taken care of now. But if the rifle fails the safe to shoot test, the owner will not release that particular rifle. I still get full credit either way, so it's no biggie to me, and it's a great way to feel perfectly confident about those "Low number 1903's".
But I hope this one passes, so I can finally put the overwhelming addiction to have a real good 1903 to rest once and for all. But this "one" is special, yeah it's old, its got minor dings & scratches, but it just looks and feels right this time. Plus it's the only time a Gunsmith has actually been involved in trying to check it out for me before I can take it home. I like that, because its a win win situation. If it don't pass, deemed unsafe, or wont headspace properly, or the erosion is very poor, I just get another one and go from there.
Now as to why it's special... It just so happens this one's autographed. "Lucky for me if it passes test, Oh well if it don't". Don't matter anyway, like I said I get credit for it either way. "Who autographed it?" Well, thats my little secret for now, until I have it in my hands. Then Maybe I will finally be able to put the digital camera to it, and post it on here for all to see. I can wait, it's no biggie, and I've waited this long for a good one to get within my grasp. If I remember right, its also got all kinds of catuches on it, proof marks all over it, it's real nice.
That's why I say its a 1903 with possibilities. If I get it it in hand, that means it passed all the tests, and "that" will be worth something to me. A Genuine article, signed...sealed...and delivered... so to speak.
So what do you all think? am I doing good so far?

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Rick the Librarian]

Kind of hard to tell without some "specifics".

[Claven2]

If it's a low-number springfield, no gunsmith in the world will be able to say it's "definitively" safe to shoot.

[ABPOS]

You don't write like no hillbilly. Except that you spelt cartouche wrong.

Sounds like a good find. Yeah, I hope you know what you're doing with the low numbered ones. Are you close to Anniston?

[HILLBILLY-06]

You don't write like no hillbilly. Except that you spelt cartouche wrong.

Sounds like a good find. Yeah, I hope you know what you're doing with the low numbered ones. Are you close to Anniston?

Many thanks on the hillbilly comment, and yeah i had trouble with that cartouche word, and didn't look it up. You all know a lot about these guns, and all I know is what I have seen in the past. It don't bother me at all about not shooting it, but the thing is, "The whole truth of the thing" Well, this guy accidentally, unknowingly, had recently sold me a lemon so to speak. Now before anyone gets started on that too bad, LOL let me please say this.... I have gotten plenty of really great guns from this guy in the past, so this one time I speak of, here in detail, was pure accident. The lemon rifle was smothered in cosmoline, and I had made a real assumption that becuase it was that way, it had been in storage a long time. I thought perhaps it had not been so abused, or misused, or dragged around all over, so I had chosen it solely based on how it appeared, knowing before hand, as I did so, he would stand behind it anyway.
Well, that night, kids are in the bed and the T.V. is on, so I grabbed the old shower curtain, spread it out on the dinner table, and quickly began to feast my eyes on taking that old war horse apart to get all that gunky goo out of it. Now mind you, up until this point, all is good in my world. I had three hooks on my war wall (some of you may have seen it) where I had stuff hanging there for my display. Well I had finally filled all three hooks on this venture, and was preparing for more posts and pics, the story telling gallore.... you know, the basic I had too much coffee all day long, waiting for this moment to happen. Then, as gently and careful as I could, I slowly began to wipe down and remove the grease, then sloted srews all removed... I lifted forward and up on the front hangaurd, and all is still good. Then as my rag passed over the barrel, it gripped differently. Still covered in goo, I began to remove the trigger group, so I could get a closer look at the barrel. I SEE some of you lauphing already, I know... keep going, so I turned the action over real easy, and my heart skipped a beat. I felt my breath pause, and I suddenly became sick at my stomache. "Dang'ed if I didn't do it again", I said.
So what I am about to tell you, is that it took several minutes before I could even blink, or take another breath, I saw, for the very first time in my life, something that I knew didn't belong on the bottom of that barrel, and then something that didn't belong on the side of it either. OH MAN I was in shock, I thought I did a good job picking out one that was all greasy... but NO, I done did it again. Much to my supprise, under the wood, where the store keepers wont let you look, was a "Nice, scarred up grinder marks all over it and a Shiney, Upside Down, Dovetail Sight Notch" AND Two holes drilled in the side of the barrel? UNDER the wood, where you cant see it in the store... @%@$#%@$#%#%@$#!!!!!!!!!
Well, I had it that far apart, So I kept looking.... Not only was that barrel off of god knows what, but when i wipped and scraped all the cosmoline out of the trigger group, I found the floor plate was pinned and welded shut, AND to top that off, I got the Bolt out, removed the cosmoline from the chamber face, and saw a dang groove cut into the chamber face from the bolt. OH MAN, i suddenly felt aweful, it took me all night, till way past midnight to settle down, Because I forgot for a molment that he stands behind his stuff. Well, I finally remembered that, but it was 1:00am Sunday morning, SO I started pacing the floors, drinking coffee till it ran out my ears, I knew I had to wait until Monday morning, just to tell someone. Even then, I wasnt sure how they would react, they might might get mad, they might blame me, I didn't know what they would say.
So I started trying to practice, how I was going to approach this, and not make things go wrong, or bad for me. I wanted to figure out, how to say all the right stuff, so I just wouldn't get off on the wrong foot, or make them mad at me. OH all kinds of things were running through my head... I felt bad, i felt really bad. But I kept remembering, he stands behind his stuff, he said..."If you have a problem let me know" I just felt so aweful bad, I was nervous when I called Monday morning, I didn't know where to start or what to say.... "But I must have said it right" and I must have done O.K.........Sorry, pause for the cause, back in a minute....O.K got my coffee, had my smoke, dog walked.... I should have warned you, this is a long story, but I think in my honest opinion, it has a good ending....bare with me....
The guy took my call, listned to what I had to say, and told me to bring it down, "He was going to make it right" No problem, nobody got bent out of shape, nobody got all angry and mad, he made this a simple transaction, and handled everything quite well. I was very calm, the whole time I was there, he was eager to work this out, and after explaining what I found wrong, here is what he did.... "He went and grabbed up one that was out of my price range so to speak" One that I had not looked at before, because he already knew before what my budget was going to be. At first, I didn't like it on the first glance, because it had squiggly writing all over it on the wood, all over the buttstock, "and I don't mean with a pencil either" This was some kind of gauddy ugly looking paint, that stood out like a sore thumb. You could see it from all the way accross the room once he picked it up. So my first impression was, "well I hope that crap comes off" then he showed it to me up close. It wasn't just some dumb kid with a freaky crayon addiction, and terrible artistic tallent. "This Rifle Was Autographed" and not just by one person either. Yeah, it's still another low number receiver, I hear you lauphing again.... Bare with me.... it gets better....
The first thing he offered to do with this rifle, was take it apart on the counter, right in front of me, to be sure nothing was obviously amiss. Then he began to tell me about the signatures on the rifle, and how he came about them. O.K. "I'll take it" said I.... but wait.... there's more... The whole gunsmith thing, well yeah, this ones going to get thouroghly checked out.... and I wont be able to take it home yet. Plus if the gunsmith says anything is wrong with it, I believe he said not to worry, we will work this out and still make it right. Now mind you, I got a receipt for one, but I still have to do a little more waiting. I hope the gunsmith says it's O.K. I hear the questions already, and I think I saved the best for last.... I had mentioned earlier that this rifle is signed by three guys.... Yes it is, and no I don't have a picture to prove it, I don't have a letter of Authenticity either, but I guess that dosn't matter as much as a guy would think. I am not trying to sell the rifle, I am trying very hard now just to wait out the process of going to pick it up.
Those three guy's you see, have known each other for a very long time. They took a bit of a trip together, and went someplace many years ago, of great significance and of great historical value to us all. These three men, on this trip they took, volunteerd to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, flying ove 100 miles per hour a couple hundred feet or so off the ground. They jumped out of that plane, and many more like them, jumped out of many more planes. These three guys, made history what it is today, through many hardships, and with great sacrifice. They Endured many things back then, things some of us often take for granted. But these three men will never be forgotten, nor those brave men who stood and stayed beside them. They are three of the remaining survivors of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. They came to a Gunshow, here in my neck of the woods, on March 17th and 18th 2012, at the BJCC in Birmingham Alabama. They signed lots of autographs that day, and as I said I don't have a photo of the signing, nor a letter of authenticity, and I really dont care. Like I said, I'm not trying to sell it. It was offered to me, And I accepted it. That's the story that I had to tell, about my experience with a low number 1903 rifle. Yeah, I know it would be just too cool to have a signed M1 Garand, but it is what it is, and I hope soon to have it here. I have not told this story in whole to anyone else. I tried talking about it in another forum, I wont mention which one, and that conversation got all out of hand, so I hope I do a better job this time, and I hope you all like my 1903 story. It's just something I wanted to share, with others, who may also read this, and have a story to tell.................. HILLBILLY-06.

[ABPOS]

Wow, I thought I was uptight and anal. I think you got me beat.

Cool score on the signed rifle. Who signed it? Richard Winters?

I'm watching something on Netflix called "D-Day". And it's a documentary. The 5th episode is all about the 101st Airborne. You'd probably enjoy it. Looking forward to pics.

my M-1 Carbine is bubba'd. Drilled and tapped on the side. You can't see it with the stock on. My Dad bought it and I don't remember if the seller told him before hand. I wanted to shoot it anyways, so... it was a little cheaper than the other he bought that day, but it probably should've been less. IDK. He paid $475 back in like 05 or somewhere around then. Just my little story. Either way, it's got historical value, and I can shoot it. It's all good.

[HILLBILLY-06]

Cool score on the signed rifle. Who signed it? Richard Winters?

No, I am sorry to say It dont have his autograph. But I will tell everyone who did sign it....
Earl McClung
Brad Freeman
Bob Noody
March 18th 2012
That's the arrangement on the stock too, only in handwriting not printed.

---------- Post added at 10:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 PM ----------

Wow, I thought I was uptight and anal. I think you got me beat.

I wasn't trying to come off that way, I guess looking from the point of view of the reader, is different, I didn't notice it when I was writing it, sorry it looked like that.

[HILLBILLY-06]

Sorry all, ABPOS is right, maybe from now on I should just say something like... "to make a long story short" and just give the short story version.

I tried to give the whole perspective, maybe thats just too much reading material. I will do an EDIT if you want me too, maye just try to sum it up in two paragraphs.

Yall tell me, its up for votes:
keep it like it is?
OR just give the high points and skip the story part?

[ABPOS]

Well, fwiw, I read the whole thing. It's fine. It is a bit long, but I've been known to leave long ones too, so... We're in good company.

[jmoore]

If it's good reading, then leave it long. My posts run short because #1, I can barely type, and #2, there's usually something else going on! Can't stay at the comuter long.