I have a few bone-stock 03A3's, a few that have easily-reversible "tweaks", and a few from my younger days of building "poor man's match rifles" that are drilled and tapped with Lyman 48's on the back. These days, I wouldn't think of drilling an unmolested 03A3, but in the 60's when they were $30 and a Lyman 48 was $17,50, brand new ....
I really enjoy shooting the "as-issued" and "nearly as-issued" ones , but it can be really infuriating to shoot a little knot of a group that is centered low in the ten ring ... meaning one "X", a few tens and a few nines ... moving the sight one "notch" up, and getting a repeat performance, only on the high side. If I could only CENTER the group on the X-ring!!!
Well, here's one "solution":
The mounting plate is (you probably guessed) a stripped "stock" 03A3 rear sight base (available from Numerich for a few dollars), turned backwards, flattened, squared up, and pushed back on the dovetail with the receiver sight scewed to the plate instead of the receiver itself. Put the original sight in a safe place, and it can be restored in a few minutes.
Well, heck, it keeps me off the streets!
Long-time readers may recell that the Williams Fool-Proof is not my favorite sight, after wearing out two: one on a Ruger 77 XC rifle, one on a my first K31. This one came from Numerich for $12.00 (with the target knobs) ... Numerich had several different models for that price, and I picked up a few for projects like this. This rifle will be primarily for cast bullet matches at 100 and 200 yards, so the elevation will not get over-worked like on the XC rifles. BTW, this one is the model for the '98 Mauser. The one designed for the 03A3 will not work as well for this type of mounting.
According to my figuring, the minimum elevation with this set-up is equivalent to about 450-500 yards on the "issue" rear sight: that means for service ammunition, you will need a front sight that is higher than the highest issue sight ("A"), so you can either make an "A-PLus" sight blade from .050" stock; Or, you could try to find a Lyman or Redfield globe target sight that was made for 03 and 03A3 until about 1965 or so. These are higher than the issue sight. Or, you could mill or file a standard 3/8" dovetail in a spare 03A3 front sight base, and install a still-in-production Lyman 17A, or the new Lyman 93 globe sight. Higher sight probably not necessary for use with most cast loads.
~~ No Collectable Firearms were harmed in the making of this post ~~
Resp'y,
Bob S.
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