New Zealand Lend-Lease Remington 1903s

[Roy]

There was a good lot of 1903 parts in Wellington and the late Din Collings went home with saddlebags full on an old Indian motorcyle. I bought Dins parts at Teds auction. Supposedly a guy from Numrich came to McCarthys and bought all the bands, trigger guards, and sight collars. I am a regular customer of Adam.

There are two styles of NZ marks, NZ^D and N^Z, I should do some research as to whether there were two distinct shipments or just two depots marking them. The highest NZ number I have seen is in the 15K's

Stunning bayonet, I do Covet

[tristan]

Here are some of the requested pictures, just let me know if you would like to see anything else. Great information here from the guys in NZ which I will add it to my documentation on the rifle. Thanks again!

Attachment 92514Attachment 92515Attachment 92516Attachment 92517Attachment 92518Attachment 92519Attachment 92520Attachment 92521

[browningautorifle]

What a nice rifle...

[Roy]

Thanks Tristan. It looks like your bolt has been played with, it has a A3 cocking piece and an odd stamp '39' on it, but it is a lovely rifle and that GG box RLB stock is exceptional.

[P246]

I have a close one to yours and have a NZ LE #4.. The bolts on mine have the NZ applied number stamped on the bolt where your number 39 is. I’ve read a lot of the 03 bolts are mismatched but the LE due to design were not. My 03 bolt has a mismatched NZ Number. My No. 4 NZ numbers on stock and bolt match. Both rifles seem to have saw little use.

[Roy]

Hi P246, Would we be able to see pics of the bolt number on your NZ 03? the few Remington 03's ive seen in NZ do not have any extra stamps on the metal. Indeed Tristans one is the first ive seen.

[mrclark303]

That is very interesting, I would assume the nessasary fact of matching up Enfield bolts with Rifles, just carried on with the lend lease Springfields.

[sakorick]

My Lend Lease rifle ended up in burial duty somewhere here in the States. The bore is pretty rough but the stock is nice. It was one of about 10 rifles that JB inspected from AL/VFW turn-ins and I bought it on the CMP Auction for $1200 about 10 years ago. Does your floorplate have the lightening cuts/milled? I think they were replaced in the Jan/Feb 42 timeframe with stamped ones.

[Roy]

. Does your floorplate have the lightening cuts/milled? I think they were replaced in the Jan/Feb 42 timeframe with stamped ones.[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

Lightening cuts in the floorplate? The only lightening cuts I know of are in the rear sight collar. In any case the last shipment of American arms to NZ appears to be in May 1942 well before any 03/A3 crossover stamped parts sometime in 1943.

Do you have any pics of your rifle?

[sakorick]

. Does your floorplate have the lightening cuts/milled? I think they were replaced in the Jan/Feb 42 timeframe with stamped ones.[/SIZE]

Lightening cuts in the floorplate? The only lightening cuts I know of are in the rear sight collar. In any case the last shipment of American arms to NZ appears to be in May 1942 well before any 03/A3 crossover stamped parts sometime in 1943.

Do you have any pics of your rifle?[/QUOTE] Yes, the early 1903 Remingtons had lightening cuts in the floorplate. I own SN3004295, 11-44. It's been a labor of love finding all the correct pieces. At this point and 8 years of searching I think everything is correct. Most all of the rifle was rust blued and had all milled parts. This requirement was amended in Jan 1944 to speed up production so during or after January 1945, we started to see stamped parts. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.