Pretty. Hope you get a good barrel.
I like the O3A3 a lot. I've heard and read all the Mauser guys complaints about un needed parts and mods like magazine cut off and two piece firing pin and while they may be able to "tell a Mauser rifle from a javelin" I still likes the O3A3.
The straight stocks do bring back one bad memory.... WHen I started Highschool JROTC we had nice Garands, then my senior year we had M-14s and both worked though we removed the firing pin, extractor and ejector and associated springs from most though kept a batch for use by the after school "Counter Guerilla Organization" (what the army called small unit tactics clubs) with blanks and the occasional ball or AP ammo. Juast after I returned from service the Army replaced the county M-14s with 03A3s with straight stocks. I was there as they were uncrated and many appeared to have never been issued. I played with a few and went off for a summer of fun. Upon my return just before the school year started I dropped by to see the old Sargeants and the Colonel and one handed me one of the Springfields.....the army had sent "armorers" over the summer to ruin them. All had been turned into "parade rifles" with a bronze rod welded inside the barrel, firing pin hole welded shut and the magazine cutoff welded on so the bolt could not be removed......all 400+ of them. The stated excuse was concern that weather underground types or folks like them might steal JROTC rifles so they were made worthless......and this was 1976....
-kBob
