Picked up a Remington 1903 today

[69daytona]

A good friend is helping his friend sell off his collection of over 400 rifles and pistols, I picked up a nice inland m1 carbine and a Remington 1903, barrel is marked USMC
12-43 with an circle with S inside, has the ladder type rear site serial # 3209xxx
has serial# electro pencil engraved on the bolt, looks like original military leather sling.
only stamping I can find on stock is FFF with 30 under those letters, looks like the way our rifles were marked in boot camp. Haven't taken it apart yet but most of the outside little parts have an R stamped on them.
barrel is a 2 groove still has good rifling and nice and bright. Also came with a 1942 stamped bayonet with scabbard.
guy must have over 200 Granada,1903s, carbines, plus a couple racks of 1911s and 1911a1s, all are in great shape, he is 95 and has been collecting guns since the 30s.
most allis collector grade military guns no arsenal rebuilds, some of the pistols and revolvers are extremely rare, like the serial#1 Mark Krause built 45acp Luger. I got to hold this gem, zig zag revolvers, some pistols I have never seen even in blue book of gun values.
i will be buying a few more for my collection.

[10-x]

Wow, good find! Check the muzzle crown for a small punch mark. Sling should be a 1907, does it have brass or steel adjustment hooks? Some are marked and dated and many are not. Brass ,usually WWI, all WWII after 42 were steel.

[tigweldit]

Wow! Might be time to take out that second mortgage and invest in precious metals.

[Follow Me]

Greetings
Congrats on being in the Right Place at the Right Time with the resources to make this once in a lifetime deal. But I'm sad that you lost a good close friend. And such a perceptive, long sighted friend he must have been to have amassed such a vast collection. Do all you can to preserve his legacy.
Again, congratulations. I'm sure we would all enjoy some pictures if possible.
Regards,
Follow Me
"
"I am The Infantry, Queen of Battle, Follow Me

[69daytona]

Leather sling has brass hooks but leather broke first time I made a loop sling, found out rifle was made in 1941 and was a USMC rifle, was rebarreled by USMC with a sedgley USMC 12-43 contract barrel but was not head spaced properly, must explain why the barrel looks brand new inside and out. Taking it to my gunsmith to have him fix the head spacing then it's off to the range for military silhouette matches.

[gnoahhh]

Those late war Sedgley contract barrels rarely made their way onto USMC rifles. By that time the Corps had transitioned to Garands in the main. The likelihood that your rifle was a USMC gun based on the barrel it's wearing is very slim.

Too much headspace or too tight headspace? If too much HS, the barrel will have to be set back a thread and re-chambered which in turn throws off the geometry of the stock fit to the tapered barrel. Before I did that I would mix and match different bolts into the gun to see if I could find a tighter combination.

It's a common problem with '03's what with the millions of wartime surplus barrels that flooded the market back in the day and fell into the hands of Bubba the so-called Gunsmith. Since the bolt is serialed to the gun I strongly suspect that it was Bubba who simply screwed a new barrel on and called it a day. Did they pin the rear sight base properly? Do the witness marks on the receiver and the barrel line up?

I never heard of a Sedgley two groove '03 barrel. That trick was pulled mainly by Remington and Smith-Corona on 1903A3's. The Marines didn't like the idea of two groovers and spec'ed four groove barrels when the contract was let to Sedgley for barrels for their '03's. By the time the barrels started coming through the pipeline, like I said, the Marines weren't using many '03's anymore and the bulk of the barrels went into storage and then sold as surplus for a buck or two after the war.

Is this an '03 or an 03A3? USMC didn't have much to do with 03A3's either in any event.