1903 Springfield Rear Sight Cylinder

[Shagslayer]

I inherited a 1903 Springfield (1926 production year) from my father; he had it sportrized back in the 60’s. The gunsmith removed the front & back sights, removed the back part of the upper forearm wood, removed the stacking/bayonet ring, and added buckhorn sights.

I have purchased about all the necessary original parts to restore this classic but am unsure how to properly fasten an original rear sight cylinder to the barrel. It looks to need a key as there is a keyway on the barrel that matches up to a keyway on the cylinder, I can’t seam find an key for this sight but I can fabricate one.

My question: does anyone know if this rear sight cylinder is driven on and simply friction fits the barrel, or will it require silver-soldering or other means of attachment?

 

[dfariswheel]

The "key" should be inside the rear sight sleeve and made as part of it.

These sight sleeves are pinned on the barrel with a small pin on the bottom of the sleeve that interlocks with a groove in the barrel.
NO solder, NO silver solder, NO glue.

To install a sleeve, use a hardwood bock to carefully tap the sleeve on the barrel, making sure the key on the inside of the sleeve aligns and slides into the groove on the barrel.
Do this carefully. If you start hammering away, you can bend or distort the sight sleeve.

Here's a site with a GI Ordnance manual showing full disassembly and repair of the 1903 series.

NOTE: the password and user name to use near the top of the page:

http://www.biggerhammer.net/manuals/

 

[Jim K]

There is no key in the rear sight fixed base, only the alignment pin, which was a temporary means of keeping the sight aligned while the lower pin was installed. The alignment pin can't always be used for sight alignment since the hole was drilled after the sight base was put in place and not all are in exactly the same place. The same is true of the lower pin; the alignment of the holes in the fixed base with the slot in the barrel might or might not be perfect, so you might have to cut the barrel slot. I don't recommend just drilling through the existing holes in the base unless you have the proper tools to drill into a curved surface without the drill drifting.

The best way to align the rear sight is to locate the barrel draw line on the left side, and install the sight with the "shelf" line on the left side of the fixed base directly over the draw line.

I suggest you polish or sand the inside of the fixed base until it is a tight slip fit on the barrel so you don't risk damaging it by having to drive it on, and can remove it easily if necessary.

Be careful with that alignment pin. You can't just put it in the sight and then drive the sight on because the hole in the barrel does not extend all the way out. You have to put the key in the barrel hole first, then drive the fixed base on. (In manufacture, the sight fixed base was installed first, aligned on the draw line, then the hole drilled for the alignment pin.)

In service use, the fixed base was not normally replaced by field units. Spare barrels came with the fixed bases installed and if the rear base was damaged, the barrel was replaced.

Jim

 

[Shagslayer]

Thanks dfariswheel and Jim!

With your help I now see how the base sleeve goes on. I believe I can attach it correctly and permanently. I hope to have some time soon to restore this great old rifle.

My father, brother and I have taken a lot of deer with the rifle. It was re-barreled in 1942 right after US entered the war and appears to have gone overseas with someone whose initials were RS. The initials were carved in the stock, and still are, when my father purchased it military surplus at Fort Leonard Wood. I now hunt a Remington 700 w/ Leopold scope and the 1903 will be retired from hunting but I intend to have many target shoots with it and show it off when restored!

dfariswheel, that is a wonderful site for manuals! It will help me on this rifle and I will visit it often for manuals for many of my other rifles and guns. I did not see any manuals for the Enfield 1917 on it though, my son has a 1917 his grandfather (mothers side) gave him, do you know a site that would have similar manuals for it?

Ken