sad looking 1903a3

[ssgross]

you chose wisely

You did tempt me further for a moment with grandeur thoughts of being king of the zombies. I've been known to chase the impossible in my day job and even win from time to time, but I don't think I'll be quitting for a second career as zombie overload anytime soon.

[Roy]

A sectioned display rifle is all I could see coming out if that mess.

[sloporsche]

with a plaque ................"you should see the other guy's"

[Chuckindenver]

my first real job of sorts as a gunsmith was to do fire and flood restoration and or repair.. for a large insurance company. my guideline was, if the springs are dead, the rifle or pistol is dead.. no ifs and or butts about it.. keep this in mind,.. you have a 46000 PSI bomb in your hands, and 10 inches from you face... some lessons dont need to be learned... personally, i would have welded this thing shut, or cut the feed ramp area out of this action so it cant ever be fired

[browningautorifle]

personally, i would have welded this thing shut, or cut the feed ramp area out of this action so it cant ever be fired

Eventually some enterprising sort will buy it and bead blast and park. It'll look perfect. Put replacement parts on and it's as new. Stand by after that.

[ssgross]

it's good you made note of the serial number by preserving the pics. I'm surprised the bid keeps going up.

Eventually some enterprising sort will buy it and bead blast and park. It'll look perfect. Put replacement parts on and it's as new. Stand by after that.

assuming someone makes it look perfect again, new barrel and all, how would one be able to tell? other than, of course, googling turning up this thread with

BUYER BEWARE 1903a3 Springfield serial number 4014675

[browningautorifle]

new barrel and all

I wouldn't think anything would need replacing, except springs. Just scrub the bore out with abrasive and make it shine a bit...and the rest complete strip and bead blast. You'd be surprised how beautiful it would be. New wood...and you have a bomb. Chuck has the right idea, render it helpless and then it can't be brought back. It's dangerous, no other way to describe it.

[sloporsche]

it's good you made note of the serial number by preserving the pics. I'm surprised the bid keeps going up.

assuming someone makes it look perfect again, new barrel and all, how would one be able to tell? other than, of course, googling turning up this thread with

BUYER BEWARE 1903a3 Springfield serial number 4014675

i told you....its gun broker .....where you are surprised if you are not surprised by prices

[ssgross]

my copy of hatcher's notebook just finally came in the mail. I skipped right to chapter 9 "Receiver Steels and Heat Treatment". More details can be found in a textbook, but Hatcher gives a nice common sense summary that the reason re-heat treating "burnt" steel doesn't work is it produces very variable and uncontrollable results. There was no process to control adding back in carbon acquired during the initial heat treatment (receivers packed in charcoal and heated, carbon is absorbed), and permanently altered or lost during re-heating (as in the wildfire). This was of course the reason their experiments on re-heat treating the low numbers failed in practice. Some receivers came out fine with re-heat treating, others didn't. Their conclusion was there was no way to practically control the results, and so gave up.

[browningautorifle]

It was nice to find that there is at least one company out there can properly heat-treat gun metals as a service. I'm sure they know what they are doing, which is why they have been able to make a business of it.

Some receivers came out fine with re-heat treating, others didn't. Their conclusion was there was no way to practically control the results, and so gave up.

So we come back to what I said it seems, with company that says they can but us not being certain after. I'd always have that seed of doubt and with that, this re-heat treated rifle would remain as new. Unfired for all time. No one would ever know.

Guess we'll see if it sells, not quite two days left.