My 1903 Springfield

[Morrow_96]

Hello everyone, what do you think of my rifle?

the cartouche appears to say “1906” below some kind of signature. Barrel is 8-16

[Morrow_96]

More pics of the rifle

[Morrow_96]

More pictures of the rifle

[jak]

Nice looking rifle. I cannot make out the scripted cartouche to identify the inspector. John Beard or Rick the Librarian on the CMP forum should be able to tell you about the stamp. Do you plan to shoot the rifle ? Aside from being a low number receiver and having a straight bolt, the stock appears to have a crack beginning behind the receiver tang. A chip of wood is already missing. It would be a shame to ruin that stock.

[Morrow_96]

Nice looking rifle. I cannot make out the scripted cartouche to identify the inspector. John Beard or Rick the Librarian on the CMP forum should be able to tell you about the stamp. Do you plan to shoot the rifle ? Aside from being a low number receiver and having a straight bolt, the stock appears to have a crack beginning behind the receiver tang. A chip of wood is already missing. It would be a shame to ruin that stock.

Their is a crack, but what chip of wood missing are you referring to?

[RCS]

Nice early Springfield 1903, your stock is Rock Island and received the stock bolt in 1908 or later. The barrel was replaced later too. Your hand guard also was upgraded with the groove on top. I would think your rifle was rebuilt during or just before WW1


I would guess your rifle left the service around the end of WW1 because if inspected during the early pre WW2 period or during WW2 it would have some type of inspection stamp and would have received the "Hatcher hole" on the left side of the receiver. I have seen the crack behind the receiver tang as these stocks had a very close fit.

Your Rock Island cartouched stock is not common to find but so is a Springfield stock from the same period, best not to change anything

[RCS]

Here are some photos from my early 1903, this was not a conversion from the 30-03 but manufactured as a 30-06 rifle. Barrel is dated SA 2-07 and has the open bottom rear sight base which was replaced in just a few short years, the stock was also inletted for the open bottom rear sight base and a later 1903 will not fit. Your rifle had the same type of stock and I would guess your original barrel was dated between late 1906 to late 1907. The early stock is without any stock bolts too.

[jak]

Their is a crack, but what chip of wood missing are you referring to?

The small chip of wood missing behind the tang at the beginning of the crack. You are lucky the chip is so small at this point.
Some stocks have a large chuck of wood missing.

[AJ Brink]

Interesting 03, I see your Hatcher Hole, Low Serial Rifle? My Sporter has that pressure relief hole, I assume to slow you to fire more powerful 30/06 rounds. I still fire 150gr M2 in my Sporter. My farthist shot deer hunting has been 100 yards, that’s an estimate, hardly no drop. My Military 03 was bought in Hawaii in 1970. The stock was termites so I removed it, burned it, I know not a good Idea, but it was not safe to shoot in that condition, in 1970 termites were really bad in hawaii, I greased and stored the 03 until I found a suitable stock. Would you believe that took years, what I found was used out of a second hand shop In Oklahoma, the wife sold clothing and her husband sold any thing he could get his hands on. Any way my stored 03 got to visit the range, turned out to be a great shooter.

[RCS]

AJ, that is not the "Hatcher hole" as it was drilled on the left side of the receiver starting in 1935

[AJ Brink]

Hi RCS: if it’s not a Hatcher hole what is it? On My Sporter I will have to look, Pashal did the conversion, I knew an old Marine passed away years ago, his 1903 was issued to him in 39,low serial number can’t recall which side the pressure relief hole was on, but he always claimed the Marine powers to be ignored the warning, I think the guy that invented that pressure relief hole was a Marine, am I wrong about that? Great reading keep posting guys Merry Christmas. AJ
Okay RCS are you talking about the hole on top between the rear sight bridge? I didn’t mean that, got my wondering going on now, maybe it’s a hole for a different sight arrangement? Hey Look I am old that hole I was talking about was on your 1903, thought I was losing it for a while, okay I am !

[RCS]

Hatcher hole in 1903 rebuilt by USMC barrel is dated 9-41 and manufactured by Sedgley. Also new replacement B2 bolt

[MRusan]

You might be able to get a better read on the stampings if you take a really bright LED flashlight and hold the beam at an angle to each stamping. Try different angles until you can make out what it is. This works on very thin roll stamps too. That double hit one behind the trigger guard will be a bit of a challenge though. When I first looked at it, I almost thought it was a P with a circle, but it's more fancy than that.

I have an old Huqvarna with a recontoured and slightly shortened barrel on it that was originally sold as a JC Higgins rifle. I believe the barrels were made by H&R or Hi Standard (I forget which offhand, but lean towards H&R) and is considered a bit of a sleeper of a rifle. I used this method to make out most of the VERY thin (almost invisible) original lettering to determine the original model number and JC Higgins badging. Totally floored me when I tried it on a lark and it actually worked.
It was reworked by a guy I knew who worked at the various manufacturers in the New Haven area and has a hand checkered stock he made that is pretty sweet. Must have been really rusted up for him to need to shave off a little bit and reblue it, but the bore is perfect and so is the receiver. But I digress.