My 1903A3 project

[perimedik]

Remington 1903A3 1943 manufacture accordning to serial number and barrel stamp)
I have had this for a while. It was given to my by my Uncle who bought it dirt cheap when he got back from Korea. He pulled the stock and put a sport stock on in to hunt deer. He chucked the original.

Anyway It is in excellent shape and my goal is not to sell it, I just want to bring it back and shoot it more as the original.
8/43 barrel and based on the serial number the it is matching dates.




anyway I wanted to bring it back to it's original state (looking to start competing in the CMP matches at some point)
My wife ordered the CMP replacement stock Friday and it showed up Tuesday

beautiful walnut stock, clean lines, new manufacture with CMP cartouche


I started the coats of boiled linseed oil (6 coats already) rubbed in with cheese cloth.


I/She also ordered the full metal parts replacement kit from Sarco which got here Wednesday

I still need to put 142,000 coats of boiled linseed (I did 6 already)






I also need to correct the bayo lug (I put it on backwards)

[725]

Beautiful. Well done

[burr7870]

These are great shooting guns. Nothing like resoring one back to original configuration. Yours should make a good match gun. I started shooting these matches last year a my local club, had a ball. I have a bad habit of trying to restore all of these I can get my hands on. I bought a drill rifle about a year ago that had original stock & all parts on it because price was right. Last weekend at a gunshow ran into a guy selling a pristine barreled receiver (muzzle wear of 0.5 headspaces great) in a plastic drill rifle stock. I now have another great 03A3 to enjoy. You can still find deals if you look.

[Ben]

That looks GREAT ! ! Now enjoy it and run some cast bullets down the bore.

Ben

[Hardcast416taylor]

An old time gumsmith/stock maker once told me about a boiled linseed oil finish.

Apply a coat of it a day for a week. Then apply a coat a week for a month. Then apply a coat a month for a year. Then apply a coat a year for the rest of your life!

I`m still not sure after all these years that he wasn`t right!

That is indeed a fine job you`ve done.Robert

[tadeus]

Beautiful Rifle!!!!!!! Congratulations

[perimedik]

Hardcast... I heard the EXACT same thing. I did some cast loads for it. Have'nt shot them though yet... Shot some through the old configuration.

[Char-Gar]

Great rifle and things are looking good. If the barrel is in good shape, I can promise you it will be a great cast bullet rifle and will give you great enjoyment over the course of your life.

You can hurry a BLO finish up by doing an "oil scrub" for the first couple of times. Take some 000 steel wool and dip in in the BLO. Now scrub the wood with that BLO soaked steel wool. Let it set for 20 minutes and then wipe if with a paper shop towel. Let is dry for a couple of days and repeat. When the second scrub in dry, you will have all of the pores filled and a butter soft feel to the wood.

You can then apply hand rubbed coats of BLO about once a week for the rest of your life or quit when you think the finish suits you. About 5 or 6 hand rubbed coats will most likely please you.

To do a hand rubbed coat, dip you finger tip into the BLO and rub it in with the palm of your hand as far as it can be spread, and then repeat until the entire stock is done.

When the finish suits you apply a coat of Gunny Paste or Johnson's Paste Wax and buff. BLO itself is a very poor protector against moisture, but the wax will do a good job. Repeat the BLO and wax as often as you think it is needed. Gunny Paste is a mixture of 1/3 BLO, 1/3 beeswax and 1/3 turpentine. Mineral Spirits can be used in place of the turpentine if you don't like the smell of turpentine. You can make it, or buy it. I keep JPW around the shop so that is what I use on a military oil finish stock. It will add a little luster, but not much and will do a decent job of protecting the wood.

During WWII wood rifle stocks were dipped in a vat of Tung oil and that was that. It was up to the troops to continue and take care of the stocks.

Oil will oxidize over time (years) and the finish will take on that reddish brown look we see on vintage military rifles. There is a stain that can be applied to new wood to give it that color, but the oil would have to be stripped first.

If you have not already done so, seal the inside of the stock against moisture. The end grain and under the butt plate is where the moisture will start to enter the wood first. The old timers used shellac but there are many products out there than can do the job. BLO won't do the job. When the stock takes on moisture, it will start to shoot erratic and the point of impact will move around.

[bwgdog]

Please make sure you have at LEAST 3/16 clearance at the rear tang-by rear trigger guard screw hole-or you will crack/chip stock. Common problem with the Springfield- Barry

[leadman]

bwgdog is correct on the clearance at the rear of the tang.
I have a couple of these and used a satin varathane finish, while not correct I was glad when I shot a match in a heavy rain. Some of the other guys stocks were turning white before the match was over.

These guns really are great with cast and much more fun than ball ammo.

You did a great job on that rifle.

[perimedik]

Please make sure you have at LEAST 3/16 clearance at the rear tang-by rear trigger guard screw hole-or you will crack/chip stock. Common problem with the Springfield- Barry

I get the idea... I pic would help.
Thanks

[perimedik]

[Char-Gar]

The clearance at the tang is important IF the metal can move rearward as the wood compresses from recoil.

IArifle that is very tightly bedded with glass or has the recoil lug bearing firmly on a steel recoil shield won't comeback in wood. That is the principal reason I will glass bed the front and rear of bolt action rifles. Accuracy may or may not be helped, but the wood and metal will be much more friendly one to another.

I will carefully undercut the area of the stock where the rear action tang bears. I then glass the rear tang and this undercut area. From the top it looks like the metal is a very tight fit to the wood, but a little ways down, the metal is bearing on glass and not wood.

I also glass the bearing surfaces of the trigger guard so it won't move either.

A rifle so bedded will require a little "encouragement" for the metal to separate from the wood. I have turned a brass punch about 4 inches long that will fit into the guard screw holes when the screw are removed. I take turns taping the bottom of the action with this punch until things separate. I alternate so the metal won't rock back and forth against the bedding.

I have ground a screwdriver bit to fit the action screws. This is a bit that fits and old fashion hand brace. The screws can be removed and replaced quickly without messing up the slots. The brace will also torque down the screw nicely without undue work. I saw some old film of a British armorer assembling Lee Enfields during WWII with these tools. They really work!

I used these methods on the last 03A3 I worked on. I very carefully bedded the metal to the wood and then shot it for accuracy and I was getting regular 1.5 MOA ten shot Iron/peep sight groups with decent ammo. I then relieved enough wood to glass the front receiver ring, recoil lug recess and rear tang and glassed those areas. I retested and the accuracy increased to 1.25 MOA. That really isn't much, but the metal won't move around in the wood and won't split the stock over time.

A well fitted steel rear action screw bushing will also do the job. But the bushing needs to be glassed to the wood so it can't set back either.

IMHO opinion leaving a sightly gap behind the rear action tang is just an excuse for not bedding the rifle right in the first place. I do realize that government armories did a loosey goosey drop in fit and that often resulted in split stock tangs. But we are not government workers cranking these things out and can take the time to do it right.

[frkelly74]

Nice looking job there. I got the chip that others were talking about on my rifle and then bedded the action in epoxy. I am having the urge now to sand off my poly finish and do the BLO treatment.

[Char-Gar]

Don't sand that old finish off, use a stripper Formby makes two, one for oil finishes and one for poly. They can be bought at Home Depot. Follow the instruction on the can.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Thats a nice rifle, I wouldn't have restored it myself, as I feel the sporterised rifles are a significant part of our hunting history and that was a nice one. I would now be on the lookout for a beater to put into that nice sporter stock into. I have a very original Remington 1903, made in 1942 from memory. I always wanted a 03A3, but my 03 is the only one I have every seen in Australia with a good barrel. The local gunsmith has an 03A3, but wants serious dollars for it.

[Char-Gar]

Four Fingers.... Unconverted and in good condition 03A3s are starting to go for serious money here as well. Back about 1960, the US governments released thousands of 03A3s for sale to civilians. I bought one for about $16.00 plus shipping. They sold on the market for $35.00 to $40.00 for many years after than.

Then one day, when I was asleep the price rose to $400.00, then $600.00 and are still going up and up. I don't know where the top is now. So when a guy can get sporterized 03A3 that has not had the metal jacked with for a good price, then it is worth his time and money to take it back to full military dress.

My Remington 03A3 came to me unfired from it's rebuild at Ogden Arsenal just prior to the end of WWII. A lady brought it by my office one day in 1984 as a gift to me. She had rescued it from her husbands hands and he was going out the back door to throw it in the dumpster! The dumpster for Pete's sake!!!!

After WWII, this country was flooded with military rifles, Mausers, Enfields, Japs and the like. There was a cottage industry in sporterizing them as they were dirt cheap and could be the working man's hunting rifle. Today original rifles from that period are highly collectible and some of us look back and wonder how stupid we were to butcher those historical rifles. Therefore anytime one can be brought back from the dead I feel a little less guilty.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Springfields here have always been worth $600 and until I found mine, I had never seen one with a good barrel. I got mine complete with bayonet along with an Arisaka 38 complete with chrysanthemum and quillion bayonet for $1100. Both rifles are in excellent condition with great bores. I was lucky that day.

A friend and his son shoot 03s and theirs are excellent. Other than that, the only other one I have seen with a good bore is the 03A3 that the gunsmith has. Every other one has had a tired Bbl.

[Char-Gar]

New in grease 03A3 barrels sold around here for $30.00 until a few years ago, when they started to dry us and went to well over $100.00. Ten years ago, they were common and cheap, but no longer.

[leadman]

I was reading and old American Rifleman magazine from the early fifties the other day. Two groove Springfield barrels were $1.95 to about $6, four groove about twice as much.
Martinis were $20.00. Perfect condition Enfield #5 was $30, #3&#4s were $20.
1903s were $40
Swedish 33/50, 38, and a M96 were $75, for all three!
7mm Rolling Blocks were $8.28, 43 cal RB were $5.58.

I could go on, but I have to go work on my time machine!!!