1903 Springfield

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"Those in the trenches. The action was smoother and faster."

Obviously you read this somewhere. I am just trying to learn more about the rifle. The 1917 doesn't get a lot of coverage. I have known what a 1903 was since I was a kid but only discovered the 1917 a few years ago. Obviously the Army didn't think it was the superior weapon since the 1903 was considered the standard issue rifle. It would be interesting to read what the GI thought about it.
As I mentioned, I own one, but I have never fired it. I just bought it within the last week. Today was the first chance I had to play with it. Right now it is completely torn apart. I spent several hours today cleaning off old grease and cosmoline. I would say I got 95% of it at this point. I cleaned the stock with mineral spirts and have it outside in the sun in a black garbage bag to try and extract some of the oil in the stock. Tonight I am going to work on getting the red paint off the end of the stock and try to steam out some of the dents. I also ordered all new screws for it. In a few days I am going to start working some tung oil into the stock. Once I get a few coats on it I will put it back together and see what it will do. If it is as accurate as my 1903 I will be very happy.
Right now I am in a quandry as to what rifle I am going to shoot for the next year in our local Vinatage Bolt Action Rifle matches. For the last year I have been using my K31 Schmit-Rubin. Now I want to try one of the Americans. I kind of like the 1917 but it is unproven to me. It will definitely be a contest between one of my 1903s and my 1917 with the winner going to the most accurate rifle.

 

[lbmii]

I will try to get some good sources to you. The US had been producing the Lee Enfield for the British and then made some modifications to the Lee Enfield and created the M1917. The M1917 far outnumbered the 1903 in the actual European Theatre. The 1903s were mostly Stateside. The troops really liked the M1917.

My grandfather carried the M1917 in trenches of WWI. I never knew him. My Dad passed on to me as his dad passed to him, how to properly cycle the action of a bolt action in combat. The M1917 and the Enfield can be fired very fast. In fact they can be fired at or above the speed of a pump rifle of similar recoil.

 

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My grandfather was also in WW I. However I have no idea if he carried a rifle at all. He was an officer and in the pictures I have seen of him he was carrying a 1911. I know he was artillary so maybe he wasn't issued a rifle at all. I am sure he trained with rifles. Unfortunately he died in 1968 and my mother doesn't seem to have much information about his service. I do have his dog tags and his uniform blouse. I have been wondering if there is some source I can find that will provide me with his service records using the information on his dog tags.

Update on the 1917: I sat the stock out in the sun yesterday to try and get some oil/cosmoline to seep out of the stock from the heat. I got very little however I didn't get it outside until after 1500 hrs. I am going to do it again today. After bringing the stock in the house last night I wiped off the little bit of oil and wiped the whole thing down with mineral spirits again. I then used a clothes iron to steam out some dents. I pretty much went over the whole stock other than where the markings were on the stock. It did a pretty darn good job of raising the dents. I then very lightly sanded the areas of the dents. The stock isn't like new of course, but it is pretty darn good: I am not trying to refinish it, I just wanted to improve it a little. I ordered some Behr #500 Tung Oil yesterday that I am going to rub down the stock with, it should get here at the end of the week. I got most of the cosmoline off of the metal parts. I could see there was some pretty heavy grease under the bolt release so I assumed there would be plenty in the trigger also. I really don't want to take the rifle apart anymore than I have already so this morning I submerged all the metal parts in boiling water. First with soap, and then with clear water. I brought the water to a rolling boil and dumped it into a bucket. I then scrubbed each part with a toothbrush to dislodge any remaining grease and cosmoline. The parts of course dried instantly since they were very hot. I then wiped everything down with SHEATH rust preventitve. This is probably unnessessary since I live in the desert, but I figured that I don't want dry metal anyway and wiping down every nook and cranny would further clean things up. The metal is ready to go. All I need now is the Tung Oil to finish the stock. By next week I should have a very nice 1917 to take out and put through it's paces.
I spoke to Sierra this morning on the phone asking about a reduced load for the .30-06. I like to baby my guns I guess. I have shot a lot of full power loads out of my mil-surps but I figure, why subject them and myself to the pounding if there is no reason for it. Since most of my shooting is at 100 yards on paper, I figured a good reduced load would do everything I need for practice. Of course I will shoot full power loads in the matches. They suggested a 150 grain MatchKing and between 12 and 15 grains of Unique. They said this has proven to be a very accurate load. I will get some loaded up in anticipation of finishing this rifle.

Once I get this baby up and running I will finish the stock on my carbine. Then it is time to start on my newest 1903. The stock on it is pretty bad. I doubt I could do much with it short of resorting to sandpaper which I am not going to do. I checked last night and my 1903 action was made in 1931 and the barrel is marked 7-44 so obviously it has been rebarreled. The metal on the 1903 is very nice, hopefully it is just as nice under the wood. I am thinking about buying a Boyd stock for it and keeping the original stock in the closet. This will give me a very nice looking rifle that I can return to original if I want to. One thing holding me back is that the pictures on the Boyd website don't show their stocks having finger grooves. The stock that is on the rifle has finger grooves and of course I would like to make it look just like it does now with nicer wood. I will have to call and see if I can get finger grooves or explore the possibility of having some routered into the new stock. I am going to have a pretty nice collection of US military rifles: M1, M1 Carbine, 1903, 1903A3, and 1917.