Good smith to rebarrel a 1903 modified?

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

I've got a Remington 1903 modifed. When I purchased the gun, the previous owner had begun the rebarreling process by having a machiinist "square" the receiver off as you would do a Mauser 98. But he hadn't managed to locate a barrel before he decided to sell the rifle. I bought the rifle and was able to pick up a two groove 1903A3 barrel I felt would do well this this receiver, assuming I could find a gunsmith that could turn the barrel down and mount the 1903 sight on the 1903A3 barrel.

I hired an older gentleman who was once an Armorer to rebarrel it for me. He did a good job, I think, of turning the barrel down to fit the rear sight. Unfortunately, when he installed the barrel, he had to take a bit off the barrel facing to compensate for the receiver having been squared off to get the barrel to turn in enough. He did a pretty good job, but didn't get the barrel turned in quite enough, with the result the front sight is cocked slightly to the right as viewed from the shooter's position behind the rifle. I didn't check it at the time and he's since passed away, so I can't take it back to him for correction.

I need a gunsmith capable of removing the rear sight without destroying it and capable of doing good lathe work to cut a few thousandths more (just a smidge) off the rear barrel facing so it will turn to a point the front sight is alighed with the receiver. Once that's done, he'd need to be able to press the rear sight sleeve back on.

I'd really like to get this rifle on the range. if possible. It's close enough right now that the extractor claw engages the slot in the barrel correctly, but you can see it's off a bit and were the shoulder tweaked a bit more and the rear sight reinstalled, the rifle could be correctedand be ready to shoot.

Does anyone know of someone capable of handling the task as described?

Thank you for the help,

Dave

[StarMetal]

Dave,

There's an old gunsmith trick for the situation you have. This is depending that the front sight isn't that far off from turning up dead true. When you screw a barrel into a receiver the threads mesh and even thought they are supposely to mesh perfect they don't. So when turning in they sort of swage the imperfection out some. So, by turning the barrel back out, then back in, you will find that it will turn in just a tad further. You can see what I'm getting at. You maybe do this once and the front sight lines up, or you may have to do it two or three times. In other words you don't have to necessarily have the shoulder machined down some. Worse scenario would be the gunsmith takes off too much and the front sight turns past straight up.

Hope this helps some.

Joe

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Joe,

I know what you're talking about, but unfortunately, to turn the barrel in any more, the rear sight sleeve needs to be pressed off. I don't have the tools any more to do this nor do I have a barrel vice and wrench any more. So I definately need a gunsmith that has the tools.

Unfortunatley, I sold off what tools I had when I made the decision to return to college, where I'm at now. I'm wondering if I made the right decision about the tools or not. I still have some gunsmithing tools, but not nearly what I used to have when I smithed part time.

Dave