Whitworth with 1903 action?

[Fredericianer]

Hi guys,
I've got a .30-06 sporting rifle which appears to have been built on a 1903 Springfield action. The barrel is marked Whitworth Rifle Company, Manchester England, and the only other markings I can see are the proof marks.

Has anyone seen one of these before? Or know anything about them, like when they were made etc.?

Cheers
Jeff

 

[blackwell bikes]

Company A lot like parker hale they built pretty cheap sporters for the masses. They are all most always well done and 1903 (a3 ?) is very good action.

 

[Slamfire]

I recall seeing one of those in the 80's. I think these were built in the late 70's.

 

[dirtyjim]

its a hybrid 1903/ mauser action & they are cast. the bolt is a 1903 design with a headless cockingpiece, they use a oddball bolt release and most of them have mauser bottom metal. the front ring is a mauser 98 design and if i remember correctly they have lr mauser barrel threads.
they few of them i've ran across were all good shooters.

 

[Fredericianer]

Are you sure? A friend of mine told me that it's a 1942 Remington built M1903 action.

I'll just post a photo or two so you can see what it looks like.







Click on the thumbnails for full size images.

 

[dirtyjim]

you have one of the very early rifles that is built on a 1903 receiver.
99% of them have the later cast hybrid receiver. the later rifles were built as a way to get rid of a lot of spare mauser and springfield parts.

the top of the receiver was surface ground to remove the original military markings.
are there any markings on the underside of the receiver? its going to be difficult to identify the make of the receiver.

are the military markings still present on the end of the barrel or under the front sight

 

[Fredericianer]

I haven't taken it out of the wood yet so I don't know if there are any markings on the underside of the receiver, but it's still got the original serial number which is how my buddy figured out it was Remington production from August or September 1942.

The barrel looks to be 100% civilian, as there are no military markings to be seen on it anywhere.

 

[Maverick223]

I didn't even realize that they made an '03, what I can say is I absolutely love my Whitworth Express rifle, it fits me perfectly.

 

[Fredericianer]

I'm quite pleased with mine too! I'm looking to put a scope on it soon and seeing how it shoots.

I was thinking about getting a set of S&K's Insta Mounts (since the rifle is built on a 1903 action). Is this likely to be a good solution?

 

[Maverick223]

Is this likely to be a good solution?

Can't say, mine is a commercial Mauser so I used standard mounts (receiver came drilled and tapped), but I have heard good things about the S&K mounts.

 

[Fredericianer]

I've just been searching for information on the proof marks and have discovered that my rifle was proofed (proven?) at Birmingham in 1975.

Mine is drilled and tapped already, but I'm having trouble locating a one piece base that fits the holes so I thought that perhaps a 'no gunsmith' mount like the Insta Mount would be the way forward.

 

[Maverick223]

Considering that it is D&T'd you may want to take it to local gun shop and try a few commercial Mauser and Winchester M-70 type mounts, they would be the obvious choice for a 1903 pattern rifle, because it is based upon the Mauser design (as was the ever-popular M-70). I wouldn't worry about 1-pc. mounts, the 2-pc. design is nearly as strong and generally proves to be more than accurate enough (unless used on a long range target rifle, where they show some merit). Additionally 2-pc. mounts are lighter and IMO look better as well. Additionally, the 2-pc. mounts would almost certainly be much more stable and secure than the S&K mount.

 

[Fredericianer]

Good suggestion, I'll take a drive up to my local gunshop this week.

 

[Maverick223]

Good luck and be sure to let us know if you find something that works as I am certain that there are some other folks with the same problem.

 

[dirtyjim]

i think redfield still makes the one piece mounts for the 03, and occasionally the older two piece mounts still come up. weaver two piece bases are good to.

the s&k mount is good but its pricey, i bought a bunch of them a while back from a old gunshop that was closing down. the older ones had a different front band clamp that was easy to strip out but i hear the newer ones are a slightly different design that works better.

 

[Fredericianer]

I bought a Redfield one piece base, but it looks like I'm going to have to modify it slightly to make it fit. The screwholes are fine, but where the rear of the base is bevelled underneath to fit the action bridge it isn't machined far enough forward to fit! It needs about 1/16" more to be removed.