03/A4 springfiled barrel on a 03/A1 rifle, will it fit?

[Andrew Mason]

I have a friend who is wanting to re barrel his 03/A1 springfiled.
he tells me there are many pre-profiled barrels out there, but they
are marked as 03/A4,

I know there are some differences between these rifles,
but is the profile of the barrel one of them?

thank you
Andrew mason

[Frank46]

If they are marked as 03A4 then they should be the barrels installed on the sniper rifle as was used during WWII. Seems a lot of shooters have gone the A4 route. I have an A4 sniper bolt I installed on my 1903A3 sporter.Opened up the sweep of the bolt handle slightly to clear a scope. Just found out not too long ago that origional A4 bolts can fetch up to $300. I bought this bolt over 20 years ago out of a box of old parts. Also in the box was a cherry model of 1917 30-06 bolt as well Think I paid $50 for the both of them. Frank

[elk hunter]

I've never seen a Springfield barrel marked with anything but the manufacturer, date and ordinance bomb. The receivers of the early 03-A4's, the first 20,000 or so, were marked 03-A3, but the markings are rolled to the right side so they are visible with the scope base on the receiver. Only the last 10,000 or so are marked 03-A4. The barrels were not selected or marked in any special way that I'm aware of.

If it's an original barrel made under contract for the Springfield, it will fit.

[Andrew Mason]

okay, sounds good.

I will let my friend know.

[Dutchman]

They aren't exactly interchangeable. The 1903 barrel has a spine cut in the barrel to index the rear sight base. The 03A3/A4 does not have a rear sight mounted on the barrel so they don't have that spline.

And 03A3/A4 barrels are left with heavy machining marks as they were basically expedient manufactured during WW2. The 1903 Springfield barrel is smoothly machined with no remaining turning marks.

Dutch

[Andrew Mason]

is the spine something that a gunsmith will be able to cut out of the steel in the barrel?