What is the date and manufacturer on the muzzle end of the barrel?
Here's the website with that info: http://m1903.com/03rcvrfail/
Read some on that website and got out my Canfield's "US Infantry Weapons of WWII" and looked up the collector info on my earlier '03 (serial number 1,057,0XX), and learned that it is NOT an A1, as I had thought. It is an '03 Mark I built near the end of WWI with what appears to be the original barrel (marked "S-A" over "9-18"). [According to Canfield, A1s were not even made until around 1930.] My rifle was re-built for WWII at Rock Island Arsenal, where the finish was changed to the grey-green parkerizing of WWII, and the A1-style full-pistol grip stock was installed (and had the RIA cartouche stamped on the left side, which is how I identified the re-build armory). I then got out my Smith & Smith's Small Arms of the World and looked up the '03, and found a photo of the '03A1. Their receivers ARE marked "A1" on original A1s, and the text says that the A1 stocks had finger grooves, which I've also read in many other places. (My rifle does not have finger grooves.) Interestingly, though, the photo of an A1 in Smith and Smith's clearly shows the A1 full-pistol-grip stock with NO finger grooves. Funny... As with most military weapons and their fittings/accoutrement, I guess it's not a hard-and-fast rule, is it?
Anyway, I've always loved '03s, and it seems I'm getting that bug re-biting me with developing these cast boolit loads!