Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Price check on aisle 1903 (1933, new condition) please.

I put this up in classifieds, as well, but thought with all of the Military history buffs and veterans here, I might find a new home for this rifle here more readily or at least get a better idea as to real world value.

I was offered in trade a very interesting firearm today. Manufacture date on the barrel is 1933, serial number 3,000,000+ a little, Springfield 1903 with lots of cosmolene still on and in it. No indications that it has ever been issued or fired. Now, it could be a really good arsenal re finish, but it is a completely original, unmodified and clean as a whistle rifle. In asddition, all the serial numbers match and no signs of wear to the finish anywhere including the bolt face.

Before I pull the trigger on this deal, about what are these all original 03'S WORTH these days? (assuming this rifle is what it seems to be.)

Does anyone here in particular want one of these? I do not, my end game is cash. It is being offered me as a straight trade for my in the original box with all papers 2 inch Nickel finish Combat Masterpiece in nearly new condition.

I can get and send detailed pictures if someone here is interested in owning it. I likely wont do the trade unless I am pretty sure I am going to come out OK and have a buyer for the 03 ready on standby. I know the market on nice S&W revolvers sorta OK, I know less than zero about a rifle of this type and its marketability, quick sale value etc.

THANKS for the help!

Hello Safariman.

I heard the 1903's were horribly tempered and would blow apart in a minute. You better send it to me so I can dispose of it for you.



Otherwise I have seen them from $350 the CMP price to $900 the first asking price. The second price is somewhere around $600. Good luck.

kwg

and so it starts:
if you don't know anything about them, how do you know it is all original?
Oh, by the way, they only have one serial number.

"In asddition, all the serial numbers match and no signs of wear to the finish anywhere including the bolt face."

I would be getting it from the same person/estate manager with whom I have dealt before on several very nice and often rare pre 64 Model 70's. I am parroting him on some of this, but he has never sold or traded to me anything but a first rate, fine firearm. His father knew the guns he was getting, and only kept the best. Several of these extra nice model 70's including like new specimens in 257 Roberts and 7x57 have gone to quite happy members here.

I did not know that they were only marked in one place for a serial number. Thanks for that tidbit of info. That is, to a degree, what I am looking and hoping for with this thread. As to the wear factor, that is easy enough to see and judge. No cartridge head ring or bluing loss on the bolt face, no rub marks on the Parkerization, even the finish on the bolt is still 100% with no signs that it has been worked back and forth except by an inspector or proud owner on rare occasions.

If someone here really wants one of these, always had it on thier to get list for example and I can help them in that, great. If not, no loss for anyone as I still have my nearly new Combat Masterpiece Nickel 2 inch revolver with box and papers etc. that I am sure I can sell, and maybe easier than the 1903. Just checking for interest and gathering info and opinions.

Mark - I'm interested.
PM pictures, and asking price.

If you think the rifle is a really nice one, then you should post your questions and a lot of good pictures at:

http://www.jouster.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?9-M1903-1903A3-A4-Springfield

There are several knowledgeable collectors and a couple of true experts there who will evaluate each and every piece of that rifle for you if you post enough good pictures.

Even a virtually unfired '03 may still have been re-arsenaled and thus the value can cover a tremendous range.

I was offered in trade a very interesting firearm today. Manufacture date on the barrel is 1933, serial number 3,000,000+ a little, Springfield 1903 with lots of cosmolene still on and in it.

per brophy's book on the springfield 1903 rifle, page 426, the last reciever was made in 1939 and it was no. 1,532,878. Although another, 1,547,987 does exist, but nowhere near the mentioned 3 000 000 number.

Hummmm......interesting. Existing in a location I was in Sunday late afternoon?

Something doesn't add up.

There weren't any 1903s being manufactured in 1933. Production ceased in about 1919.

In 1941, Remington fired up the old Rock Island Armory machinery and began making 1903s again, starting with SN 3,000,000 and began almost immediately replacing some of the milled parts with stamped parts because the RIA machinery was very worn and to speed up the production processes.

I would suspect that the best thing to do with this rifle is to have it examined - IN PERSON - by an expert on 1903s and go from there. There are way too many variables, too many inconsistencies, and too many oddities to do the "internet drive-by" and then put it up for sale.

Odd....

Extremely. Even more so when there is already an ad in the Classifieds offering to sell this very same "mystery" rifle with no pics and no ownership as of yet by the erstwhile seller.

Yep,,, smells fishy.

From the OP,,,,,,

" Does anyone here in particular want one of these? I do not, my end game is cash. It is being offered me as a straight trade for my in the original box with all papers 2 inch Nickel finish Combat Masterpiece in nearly new condition. "

If the "end game is cash" why not simply sell the handgun instead of turning the transaction into some kind of convoluted freak show? Unless of course,,, there's something you're not telling us.

Leaving aside all the other issues with this rifle and "deal", do you have an FFL and a business license? If not, you probably need one.

You continually seek out firearms for purchase and/or trade that you can then resell for a profit.

You depend upon the income from those activities at least to some degree (admissions of your wife's clothing, vehicular repairs, etc.).

You put time and effort into these activities with the expectation of a profit.

You change your methods and modes of operation (in person sales at gun shows, sales on internet forums) in order to maximize profit.

You have the knowledge and seek out others with knowledge to advise you on how to conduct these activities successfully (i.e., for a profit - this thread among others).

You have indicated time and again that you have made a profit from such activities, and that in some years there has been an overall net profit from your buying/selling/trading of firearms.

You certainly expect to make a profit from these activities in the future.

Your history here alone indicates that you've conducted these practices for at least three of the last five years.

I AM NOT GIVING YOU LEGAL ADVICE.

That said, if you're not clearly over the line from the "hobby exclusion" into the running of a business under IRS guidelines, then you are quite likely dangerously close.

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Business-or-Hobby%3F-Answer-Has-Implications-for-Deductions

Considering that the activities involve the interstate purchase and sale of firearms (internet counts as interstate even if all the sales are within your state of residence), and that falls under ATF FFL guidelines, you're playing with fire to an even greater degree. Compound that with your status as a Social Security recipient and therefore perhaps income limited for benefits, and it gets worse.

Again, this is not legal advice. However, if I were you, I'd be seeking out legal counsel and laying out everything as plain and as frank (with no embellishment or fudging) as possible. I'd also suspend ever purchase, sale, or trade of any firearms until I had FIRM legal guidance on these activities. I can guarantee you that personally I would rather be getting answers from an attorney on these matters now than giving answers to the IRS, ATF, and/or Social Security later.

One last point: if your wife is a beneficiary of the income (and she clearly is), and she either knows (by attending gun shows, etc.) or should have known (by living with you and by being on this forum), then she is on the hook, too. That means even if your kidneys play out and you die, the IRS, ATF, and Social Security could potentially look at her as part of the business activities and therefore have her be subject to any types of penalties that you might have been subject for or to.

Just food for thought.

Anyone ask what the terms of sale are?

I think it is a $600 rifle that went through an arsenal rebuild. Not that that is a bad thing, it's authentic and a part of the arm's history. Sounds like a nice rifle, much nicer than one that someone tried to reassemble with so-called "correct" parts.

One thing's for sure, you'll know what it is when you get it. Oh, and all sales final! Bohica muddahfuggah!

Miltech Arms has been referbing 03's and all kinds of other old military rifles for several years. However I don't know how they mark them. I could be one of them.

Thank you, this was the kind of real world help I was hoping for here. Much appreciated.