CMP order for Remington 03A3 going in mail Wednesday

[Dutch4122]

I'll finally be sending in my order for a CMP Remington 03A3 tomorrow after waiting a year til the funds are available. SWMBO;) gave her "permission" yesterday after we picked up her new minivan. I figured it was a good time to stop being secretive about it; she gets a new vehicle, and I mention some "old used surplus rifle" I've been wanting to lay my hands on.

Anyway, I was just curious if anybody has received one of these rifles from the CMP recently; and if so what the general condition of the rifle was. I know that ordering through CMP can be a bit of a crap shoot. But, over the last year I've seen mostly favorable comments made about the condition of rifles received by members of the various forums I visit. Biggest gripe noted seems to be a few have received rifles with stocks that have a few dings or mis-matched wood. I can live with that (Boyd's has new walnut pistol grip stocks available) as I would be most concerned about condition of the action and bore. This rifle will never be forced to swallow another FLGC round while in my hands.

Anybody care to comment?

[Maineboy]

I took delivery of an 03A3 Remington in November and an 03 Springfield in March. Both have very nice but mismatched metal and the wood, while sound, is dinged and dented a bit. I'm happy enough with mine that I'm not looking to replace anything except the handguard on the 03A3, which is cracked the length of it. A few of the guys in our club who have also purchased them recently are pretty happy. They are fine shooting rifles! I have over 2000 rounds through my A3 so far and only 50 rounds through the 03. All cast boolits of course!

[Dutch4122]

Maineboy-

Glad to hear the response to these rifles is still quite positive. One thing I forgot to ask when I started this thread is for suggestions as to which molds to buy/try. So far I've been considering the Lyman 311299, 311291 or maybe the LBT 308-180-SPT. Any suggestions?

[onceabull]

Dutch4xxx: lyman 311284 has worked well in the Issue Springfields for me,(and some Acq"s) Enjoy... Onceabull

[Maineboy]

You can't go wrong with the 311291. That boolit works well in any 30 caliber rifle I own. I've tried 11 different boolits and all of them have given acceptable performance. With this rifle, I define acceptable as 10 rounds in 3" or less at 100 yards, most of the time. Most of my loads are in the 1400-1600 fps range using 15-17 grains of 2400 powder. 2 boolits have been really accurate, the Lyman 311644, and the 311375, which is no longer made. My 03A3 has a .308 bore. I've tried sizing .309 and .311; the larger boolits do better.

[Bob S]

Here is a databook page from my first outing with a Remington (Greek return) that I got from the DCM 4 years ago when they first released them. I have it set up as a cast shooter, with the shorter 03 front sight blade. I had to take quite a bit of white at 200 yards with it down in the stops.:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/BobS1/Springfield%2003s/Practice41148404_6_05.jpg

I also had to drift the rear sight to the left after this. Bore/groove dimensions on this 11/43 2-groove barrel are .3011/.3093.

This may be the one I take to the C&R Rifle Match at the Maryland Gun Club later this month.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

P.S. The pic came out a little fuzzy and smaller than I expected. If you can't read the load data, it is 311291, 176.5 grains; (WW + one strip of lino), sized .310, Ideal gas checks, Lyman Delux NRA formula lube, 15.0 grains 2400, no wad or filler; EW 43 cases, Fed 210 primers. These were loaded for another rifle, and had almost .080" jump into the throat of this rifle. The next batch for this rifle will be 16 grains 2400, sized .311, and seated to kiss the land. That should improve things.