Accurizing the M1903 - The How To:

[cyclopsshooter]

Hopefully an expert here can provide the How To

I recently acquired a 1919 Rock Island with a 1944 Springfield barrel. The rifle has not been altered aside from three holes drilled and tapped atop the receiver. Mounted to the rifle is a Redfield base with a Leupold 1.5x5 I just benched it at 100 yards with the following three rounds:

M2 Ball (made 1965) 4" group
Rem Corelokt 180gr hair under 3"
Fed Blue Box 180gr SP 2 1/2" group

Not spectacular... (I was kinda hoping this could replace my 700 BDL for Elk.. don't make fun )

The crown and bore look good. There is some very light pitting in the barrel grooves but the lands are sharp and shiny.

I noticed that the forward "block?" behind the front sight that retains the fore-wood is slightly loose.

Should the wood be bedded?

What are some easy starter things to help in the accuracy of the M1903?

Thanks much!

 

[Float Pilot]

I wanted to keep my best 1903A3 Smith Corona un-altered in case I needed to sell it one day. But I also wanted to use it in our local NRA military Bolt Action matches....

So some things I tried......

1. Try shimming the barrel... You can use a piece of a busienss card.. out near the end of the barrel channel.

2. After finding out where mine wanted to be shimmed, I made some metal shims from a cut up cat-food can.

3. My stock was loose around the action and it had lots of room for glass bedding,,,, But I did not want to permanently alter the stock..... So I made little semi loose balls ( a lot of them) of aluminium foil and tightened the action over the top of them. tghey crsuh to the shape of the action.

For a 1903 , try using a 1903A3 magaizne follower, yes the stamped crappy looking one,,, For some reason they feed better.

Try more types of ammo. I hand-load so I managed to get mine down to a reasonable size group.

A 1.5 inch group is about as good as you will probaby get with a war-time barrel...

THIS PHOTO SHOWS BEFORE AND AFTER WITH A PAPER CARD SHIM UNDER THE BARREL NEAR THE FAR FOREND......

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Try shimming the barrel... You can use a piece of a busienss card.. out near the end of the barrel channel.

Between the barrel and the wood? (there is an 8th of an inch gap between the top of barrel and the inside of the front block if I pinch the barrel to the wood)

For a 1903 , try using a 1903A3 magaizne follower, yes the stamped crappy looking one,,, For some reason they feed better.

Yup, it was having issues.. and the magazine had a hard time holding in a single round, kept popping out.

Try more types of ammo. I hand-load so I managed to get mine down to a reasonable size group.

Federal Premium with Barns and Nosler is next.

A 1.5 inch group is about as good as you will probaby get with a war-time barrel...

And that's the group I need to justify selling the 700BDL

 

[Pete D.]

1903

Just curious. Does the barrel have two or four groove rifling? Dated 1944, it should be a two groove barrel.
There is a continuing (for decades) discussion about accuracy of two groove barrels vs four groove barrels. There are plenty of folk who have 2G barrels that say that the rifle shoots as well as the 4G barrels an then there is the other group who disagree. Google will give you lots to read if interested.
My own Springfield is a stock 1903 and accurate with my hand loads. Many years ago, I shot my first one inch 100 yard group with that gun and the little aperture on the ladder sight.
So....my advice is to try more types of ammo. Do you reload? My early shooting and that good group were done with ammo put together with a Lee Loader.
Cheap and effective.
Pete

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Don't reload yet, will soon..I have a press but need dies, supplies, and practice. The barrel is a 4 groove.

 

[desidog]

Have you tried slugging the barrel? I have had two 1903a3's, all things being similar except the diameter on one is .307 and the other .310, needless to say, the same ammo would perform very differently between the two. The .310" is very accurate with cast soft lead .311's with gas checks.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

The very first thing I look at on surplus rifles when regarding a perceived accuracy shortfall is the muzzle interior condition. Addressing it with a recessed or step crown may surprise you before getting into a bunch of tail chasing elsewhere on the rifle.

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Ok- The rifle has been bedded with the aluminum balls and a shim between the barrel and the foretip of the stock. I re-torqued the base to 30"lbs and the rings to 15. I have Wipe-out in the bore so tomorrow we will see how she groups with Federal Premium

 

[RickMD]

There is some very light pitting in the barrel grooves but the lands are sharp and shiny.

In all probability that's what is causing it to be a 3 MOA rifle. Bedding a slightly pitted barrel isn't going to change that

 

[cyclopsshooter]

we shall see, my m44 barrel looked like a lost cause but after repeated shootings and several cleanings with wipe-out, the bore looks pretty darn good.. Im hoping this second dousing of wipeout will do some good- find out in the morning.

I feel fairly confident of scoring a 2" group. I reaally hope... Being right handed and blind in my right eye this rifle is a special right handed bolt I can shoot right handed... -just how the stock and scope line up- it just needs to shoot..

 

[Canuck-IL]

Good tips here ...

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=75849

/Bryan

 

[Slamfire]

I have bedded a number of Springfields, adjusted the triggers, installed a few barrels.

The bedding is the first thing to go, the rear tang compresses the wood and that bows the receiver.

At some point you are going to hit the barrel limit, and that is going to be between 2 MOA and 4 MOA depending on barrel quality. These were after all, service rifle barrels.

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Well, we might not find out today.. 15mph wind with gusts between 20-30 mph

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Latest Results

Old Scores

M2 Ball (made 1965) 4" group
Rem Corelokt 180gr hair under 3"
Fed Blue Box 180gr SP 2 1/2" group

After bedding and re installing scope and mounts.

M2 Ball (made 1965) 2 1/4"
Rem Corelokt 180gr hair under (Not Shot)
Fed Blue Box 180gr SP 3" group

The Winners- Federal Premium Nosler Rounds

180gr Accubond 2"
165gr Partition 1 3/4" (for the first 4 shots) the 5th was a flier out to 3"

We were quickly running out of daylight by the time I got to the Noslers and by the time I got to the 165s I could not see the target spots through my 5 power Leupold. The 165s were shot right after the 180s so the barrel was heating up... and I was rushing in the end... I really think that last flyer was me not taking my time. I'll take it out again at the next opportunity and run the Noslers again.

 

[Pete D.]

Loads

The most accurate .30-06 load out of any of my rifles ( I have four, two are 1903s) is a Remington 165 PSP pushed by 54 grains of AA or IMR 4350. Either CCI or Win primers. That load gives me consistently good groups in the one to one and a half inch area from any of those guns.
AA 3100 has worked well as has IMR 4831.
Pete

 

[Steve in PA]

Never shot any factory ammo out of my 1903A3, but this is my pet hunting handload for my rifle. A 150gr Hornady SP over 47.0gr of IMR-4895. This is a 5-shot group fired at 100 yards from a rest.

 

[Float Pilot]

You know, since it has been drilled and tapped. the collector value flew right out the window with the metal shavings.

Since the sandwich wrapping bedding seems to have worked some, you culd go nuts and truely glass bed the action.

As mentioned already, a new crown often does wonders as well.

 

[cyclopsshooter]

The crown on the 44 barrel is perfect. sharp with no burrs seen under a 10x

As far as the collector value goes... In 20 years these three holes may be less of a big deal.. Finding a relatively original 1903 might be like trying to find a decent Springfield Trapdoor today.

Oh! and I checked out the follower, it has rounded edges..

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Tonight

Lastnight:

165gr Partition 1 3/4" (for the first 4 shots) the 5th was a flier out to 3"

Tonight the 165s shot a solid 1 1/4" group- with 4 shots... one of the five took it out to 2" -

I'm fairly certain after firing another 20 at shrubs on a hillside at 100 to 175 yards (shot quite well off hand) that the trigger needs some work and might play a roll with these occasional fliers.

From my reading, 1903s and 1917s are supposed to have a type of two stage trigger. My Winchester 1917 has a proper trigger with the smooth take-up, stop, clean break.. The 1903 feels like it hits the stop half way through the take-up with the last half of take-up creeping after the stop until the sear randomly breaks...

Any thoughts on triggers?

@FloatPilot, Is it possible to need to do a re-crown on a "seemingly" good crown?

 

[Float Pilot]

Only if the curve is not concentric. But it does not sound like it needs it.. The shim and gum wrapper bedding made some quite a bit of difference, so shim pressure changes might let you tune the group once you find a load it likes.
I have seen a type of washer with a little spike on it that the armories used to change how tight the action was when the screws were tightened.

I wonder what is up with your trigger? A close up photo might help.

Also you need to take your time and let the rifle cool longer between shots.

STEVE IN PA....:::
Is that a flat base of boat -tail 150 grain in your hand-load. ?????

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Well, I'm looking into a Timney trigger but it says some stock inletting may need to be done... I don't particulary care to make any permanent modifications to the stock, so...

Also toying with the idea of throwing a new Redfield 3-9x40...

And now to hijack my own thread Id like to ask a question about the M1917. I have a pretty nice Eddystone that I don't really know whether to keep or sell. It is pretty complete, I haven't found any non-Eddystone parts on it. (Aside from the Winchester stock it came with, which I quickly installed on my complete Winchester that had a partially sanded Eddystone stock..) But the Eddystone has a couple of problems, one the stock is sanded leaving only two cartouche marks.. and the original 1918 barrel has a pretty bad bore. Id kinda like to keep it as a shooter but it won't really fit the bill in its present condition.

Would I hurt the rifles history/collectibility by loosing the original but bad barrel for a new one? Are barrels even available? How bout a smith to install?

Any thoughts are welcome

 

[Pete D.]

Trigger

Any thoughts on triggers

Have you had the trigger out? They are relatively simple affairs and not difficult to work on. It could be that it just needs a cleaning and polishing. As long as you do not remove any metal or round off sharp edges, you should have no problems.
I would do that before buying a Timney.
Pete
PS - have you had the bolt apart to clean it?

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Can you reccomend a good web article or thread on the ins and outs of a 1903 trigger?

The barrel is cleaning up nicely, repeated shootings and cleaning in between with wipe out showing some real shine in the grooves. Milling marks in the grooves are visible and uniform. Lands are perfectly sharp and smooth. Wish my Mosin M44 cleaned up this good...