03a3 questions

[jd25q]

I just got a Smith Corona 03a3 from my dad. It's been sporterized, probably in the 50's, and not a bad job either. I know I may loose a few of you, but I plan on keeping it this way. It's got a Fajen stock, which looks new after all these years. Lyman 48s peep sight and it has been blued. As I said it's a Smith Corona, and checking the serial # indicates a 1943 build. It shoots great when I tried it with some 165 grain nosler partitions over imr4831. In fact 1/2" @ 50 yards from a barrel that hadn't been cleaned in 30 years. I've cleaned it up now and it looks like a 2 groove.

1. The barrel is stamped R.A. and 7-44. Is this a Remington barrel? If so how do you suppose it came to be on this rifle? I'm thinking either Remington sent some to SC, or it was rebarreled after being sold to a civilian.

2. What is that third lug for on the bolt. It misses contacting the receiver frame by about 1/16" when the bolt is closed. Normal?

3. Anyone know where I can find a reasonable .280 remington or 7x57mm barrel? I've seen .243 and .270 on Numerichs, and don't want to spend the bucks for a custom barrel like from Pac-Nor. If it continues shooting so well I'll leave it as is, but I've seen what looks like slight pitting in the bore and think maybe the 2 or 3 groups so far are just a fluke.

I've had a lot of fun working with it to this point. At just a bit over 7 pounds it recoils severely. Much more than my other 30-06. Maybe I'll get a recoil pad as well.

 

[MarshallDodge]

I can't help you with your questions but I have a sporterized 03-A3 I bought from a friend for $200.

It has a Timney trigger and a Walnut Monte Carlo style stock. When he first bought it I was spotting for him while he was sighting in the 3x9 Tasco scope he had just put on. He took his first shot and I could see the hole. He took another and I could not see it the second hole. He shot again and I still could not see it. We went down range and there was this little ragged hole where he had put all three shots at 100 yards.

I told him that if he was to ever sell it that I was first in line. He sold it to me a year later because he felt the trigger was too light for a hunting rifle.

My recommendation would be to leave it be. The load we used the day we sighted in was Winchester 147gr. spire points over 48.5 grains of IMR 4895.
Later I was told that this is THE recipe for Springfields.

 

[Barrelmaker]

Third lug is the safety lug. Supposed to save your bacon if the two primary lugs should ever fail. Probably never needed and action would've been easier to sporterize had it been designed without this feature. Makes the rear bridge a bit high and not much meat to drill and tap on the earlier versions.

The barrel could be original to the receiver but no way to really know. As for rebarreling, don't bother if it shoots well now. Two grooves can be very acurate indeed.

 

[DMK]

1. The barrel is stamped R.A. and 7-44. Is this a Remington barrel? If so how do you suppose it came to be on this rifle? I'm thinking either Remington sent some to SC, or it was rebarreled after being sold to a civilian.

Yea, that's a Remington barrel. It could have been built like that towards the end of the war or rebarreled due to damage or wear in an armory. It also could have been shot out and then rebarreled with an NOS barrel by a civilian gunsmith. Hard to say. Doesn't matter much it it was done right.