Re-Blue and re-stock a Springfield '03?

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LoneGoose

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A very close friend has an old '03 barreled action that he wants cleaned up and polished, and re-blued. And he wants a stock put on it. I'm in Middle Tennessee (northwest of Nashville) and don't know any really good gunsmiths.

This gun has a good bore and action, but a lot of rust on the barrel. Can anyone give me a lead on a gunsmith in my area?THR rocks.
 
If the barrel is in cut, that is original. Then have it parkerized, then get a new stock from CMP and the odd metal pieces from ebay.

You will turn a $300 gun into a $800-$1000 collector.
 
Describe a "lot of rust" on the barrel. If it's deeply pitted it may not go so well... If it's in areas that would be covered by CMP/Military wood and fittings (?), yes get it parkerized. You can contact someone like Shuff's for a quote. http://shuffsparkerizing.com/services/ They may want to see pictures too ...

If it's in exposed areas and will be ugly with just a chemical treatment, maybe a better course of action is to get it media blasted, fill all the low spots with JB Weld, sand flush and KG GunKote in their Parkerized finish color. KG is pretty durable and JB Weld will withstand the heat of baking the finish, and all normal gun chemicals, so it should hold up real well.

The other issue is have the sights been messed with? Has the receiver been machined or milled away anywhere?

A picture of the receiver would help with advice ...
 
Short answer: IF you want someone that is competent in TN, try Dean's Gun Restorations in Caryville, TN. https://www.dgrguns.com/ He is one of the few that has direct links on the CMP website for installing barrels to old U.S. milsurps. It will cost as time is money. I believe that he can restock the rifle for you as well but you would need to call him to find out. He would also probably steer you onto someone else competent if he no longer hot blues guns.

Long answer:
The major thing to ask your friend is whether he wants a shooter or a restoration. A restoration requires doing a bit of research to figure out when the rifle was originally issued and what parts were used. This often takes time. Some of my restorations have taken several years to find the right parts in good condition for a decent price. Thus, putting a stamped part on a firearm that originally had milled fittings is inappropriate and hot bluing a parkerized rifle will reduce the value even if you spend the money to polish out the etching from the parkerizing. Others simply go for the typical "mutt" arsenal look where the U.S. military cared about function and did not particularly care whether the fittings matched, whether some parts were parkerized or not, etc. These types of restorations are often worth less the sum of the parts because they don't look pretty. Doing non-milspec things like tapping the receiver for a scope or putting commercial front sights will really hurt the restored value as well because you have neither a sporter nor a restored rifle.

From the pictures, I can't tell if you have an 03a3 WWII vintage receiver (it will have a peep sight over the receiver bridge at the rear) or and it appears that you have a 1903 barrel where the sight base is long gone but I could be wrong. The easy tell is that WWII era 1903's and 03a3's were marked Remington or Smith and Corona on the receiver. Older ones are springfield or rock island marked.
You have a milled trigger guard which was original 03 type but can be found on all makes as they are slightly more accurate allegedly than the stamped ones.

I have restored both an 03 and an 03a3 and it costs about what the rifles currently sell for with myself doing most of the work. After restoration, figure on a restoration of about $700-800 for a 03a3 Remington if done right (slight price premium for Smith Coronas due to scarcity but parts cost more or if you have the holy grail an A4 receiver (lettering is upside down for sniper use) and a bit more for the 03 $900-1000 (leaving aside things like built during WWI, national match, rock island arsenal, hoffer thompson conversions, Mark I receivers, and the like. The 03 restorations will bring less if they are low numbered receivers--see the CMP about the low numbered receiver issue (too long to go into here). Sporters, even quite nice ones are all over the place from $400 on up.

Restorations are getting more and more difficult to find parts and the parts are becoming increasingly expensive. I did it because I learn something about each weapon and I like to shoot mine. IF you are doing to make a rifle more collectible to bring a higher price, you probably would do better buying the collectible in the first place with authentication. A restoration will always be worth significantly less on the market and you will often be upside down for a while with the restoration costing more than the rifle is worth. A pristine unfired 03 is a safe queen for good reason as every year fewer exist and scarcity drives the price up. Restorations will go up in value gradually but not as much nor as fast as you are not quite a collectible such as a worn untouched firearm but not a sporter either (tapped with a good hunting stock etc. ). Don't do a restoration to make money in most cases, do it because you love the history of these grand old firearms and want it preserved for future generations.
 
Yeah, but ... This fellow and his neighbor want to do a blues steel finish. No sights present, so not a candidate for a restoration. Looks like the barrel and action were already blued once and allowed to get rusty again?

Can not see how deep the rusty patches go, but it does not look too bad. You'll give up some metal to get everything down to base of the rust and then polish. but I'm just guessing here from internet photo, but I'm thinking they can get it down with about 0.004" inch removed.

Is there an obvious thin spot about mid-way up the barrel, where it looks to have been turned down? Or is it all pretty much the same contour tapering to the muzzle?

If the step is still there, it may be close to original contour? If the step is gone, it has already been belted down to the cut OD and the barrel is no longer original so restoration is off the table even more ...

Just some more info and we're on our way :)
 
BrocLuna,
You have a better eye than me on the pictures. I don't see a notch in the barrel where the rear 1903 sight base was pinned but Springfields barrels were so common for so long, a lot of weird stuff has been done with them simply because they were cheap. Chile even took WWII era 03 springfield barrels and reprofiled them on a lathe/shortened the chambers/removed the cone for a .308 conversion for their large ring Mauser. Have one on a mutt 98 Mauser and the bore is a pristine two groove barrel.

I can't see a dovetail on the receiver for the 03a3 sights in the pictures but I have seen 03a3 receivers profiled to 03 std. to place with a 1903 barrel and I do not know whether the receiver has been tapped. All of these things make restoration much more difficult (i.e. costly).

On hot blued finishes, a lot depends on how good the guy is on polishing, how much pitting exists, and it may make sense to send it out of state for an ultra high gloss finish. A high polish may also obliterate or seriously smear any of the markings depending on the skill of the polisher. Rust bluing is an alternative but usually costly to have done because of the time involved and doesn't really do that high gloss finish that a lot of people like. Parkerizing is the easiest but not what you would want on a showpiece--that is probably what I would do for a restoration with some rust and pitting damage as it hides many faults. This is especially true if you then paint over it with one of the various GunKote, Duracoat, etc. that match the parkerizing. I have a 1917 Enfield where the receiver was refinished that way and it matches perfectly with the parkerized WWII vintage High Standard barrel for it. I restored that one to resemble a rifle called up for WWII service.

The last is something that I am going to try on something soon when it warms up. I have Duracoat's new epoxy paint Durablue that is supposed to resemble hot bluing. I plan to try it on an old well seasoned Chilean 95 Mauser barrelled receiver that I am waiting to get back from the gunsmith. If it looks ugly, I can always remove it.
 
Sporterized barrel? I'd reblue it.

If not, then it appears it needs a lot of parts to restore it.
 
"...an old '03..." It an '03 or an '03A3? Only matters if it's a low S/N '03. The '03A3 have the rear sight on the receiver. The holes will be there.
Looks like an aftermarket commercial barrel put on a milsurp parkerized receiver. You can Parkerize over bluing but you can't blue over Parkerizing.
Anyway, the rust can be removed without bothering the existing finish with 0000 steel wool and some light oil. Gets done faster using a light touch with a fine brass wire wheel in a bench grinder. Eye protection and having a bench grinder is mandatory.
$129.00 will buy a Boyd's laminate or walnut sporter stock. They're doing some very pretty stuff for reasonable money.
http://www.boydsgunstocks.com/
"...turn a $300 gun into a $800-$1000 collector..." No you won't, but its value will be high. Except that's not an original barrel anyway.
 
OK, any refinishing is going to have to be preceded by polishing or bead blasting. No way around that. The former is more labor intensive and the latter is quick and dirty (and preferable for parkerizing). Case closed.
 
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