Remington 1903 (Springfield)

[au_prospector]

Hello,

Will you guys do me a favor and post pictures of what a rifle bore and interior barrel should look like for a 1903 Springfield?

Mine is a 1942 bbl Remington version of this gun. The bbl has 4 rifle grooves.
The exterior of my rifle is in very good to excellent shape. I havent a clue of its history, but if it saw field action then the soldier who carried it treated it like a baby.

The reason I ask is when you look at mine, the bbl appears to be unfinished (not smooth) with the rifling pretty shiny. I cannot decide if that is just how it was made, or if my barrel is pitted. Would this be an artifact of quick wartime production, where there was not time to polish the barrel, just machine the rifling? My modern rifles and pistols have slick shiny barrels, the 1903 doesnt really. Cant decide if it is supposed to look like that or if the barrel was neglected in some way and it pitted. The rifling part looks pretty good though, its the troughs of the rifling that is rough.

 

[Slamfire]

I was about to ask if you have ever tried to take a bore picture, but since you are not posting one, I guess not. Takes about fifty tries before I get anything in focus.

WWII tubes show a lot of tooling marks. I believe these barrels were broach cut and they show a lot of cutter marks compared with modern match barrels.

Remington was trying to make a profit and a lot of rifles. The Ordnance needed rifles now, anything that would shoot was better than a broom stick.

If the bore is shiny, that is pretty good.

I bought an unfired Lee Enfield Mk IV made by Savage. The barrel is gray. That was good enough for a shooting war.

 

[au_prospector]

Here are some pics. Not an easy task.

The exterior finish on the metal surfaces is a light green/kind of gray. I have seen it referred to as 'parkerrized green' in some gunbroker.com listings.
The bore is almost the same finish as the exterior of the barrel, kind of a gray best described as a light teflon color. The bolt has a black finish on it and the end where the firing pin comes out is the only 'shiny' part of the whole lot.

I get pretty good groups at 50 yards considering my eyesight isnt the best. At 100 yards, something happened? didnt hit the target, must try that again:banghead: Might be I havent figured out the sights, its a flip up rail with dovetail. Its 4 sights in one. Different story.

 

[au_prospector]

Here are some of the business end. Pics are not that good, but maybe you can see.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Best bet, I would think, would be to find a gunsmith with a bore scope (any gunsmith should have one) and take a look up close.

However, if it shoots OK, maybe not. Some of those old bores look pretty horrible from up close, and still shoot pretty well!

 

[Ohio Gun Guy]

Its hard to tell from pictures, and yes getting a picture of the bore is near impossible. It looks clean, and I wouldnt do anything to it. My guess is it is not the guns fault for not hitting the target. Try a barrel gauge or setting a bullet in the muzzle and see how far it goes in....It should NOT go to the shoulder...

Try different ammo, and make sure the sights are not mis-aligned. That appears to be a nice 1903A3 and has some value (Assuming you dont know, sorry if you do.) so be cautious to not do anything that cant be undone.

 

[Jim Watson]

Uh, it isn't a 1903A3, Ohio.
It is a Remington made 1903, I think a 1903 Modified with no flutes in the rear sight base. They built them a while on the old Rock Island machinery before cutting corners and designing a reciever sight to turn it into a 1903A3.

Bore doesn't look bad in fuzzy pictures.
You have to know how to use the ladder sight.
If you are aiming with the open sight visible with the ladder turned down, that is the Battle Sight and it is regulated for a lot longer range than you might think. It is set so that if you hold center of mass on a standing man, you will hit him somewhere clear out to 500 metres. Assuming a perfect hold and perfect ammo, etc.

Turn the ladder up and align the peep aperture with the yardage mark you will be shooting at. It may not go lower than 200 but that is sure better than 500.

 

[BrocLuno]

Frosted grooves? Not terribly uncommon - unfortunately Like they said, how far does a bullet go into the muzzle without pressure? Hows the crown right at the bore? Looks like maybe a pit or two??

 

[Baba Louie]

That appears to be a nice 1903A3...

Well, 03A3s had the rear peep/aperature sight. The rifle pictured is an M1903 Modified, built between Jan 42 to March 43 more or less. The cost cutting (aka Value Engineering) started during this time and evolved into the A3.

Nice rifle.

ETA Jim types faster than I