i believe the front of reciever rear leaf sight was for a 1903.
the 1903A1 had a rear mounted peep sight.
they were making a few 1903 at the advent of WWII, but switched to the 1903A1 rather quickly
cheaper and easier to make.
You're talking about the 1903A3. The only difference between the 1903 and the 03A1 was the C-stock (full pistol grip).
Bob
Correct. From the late 20's-early 30's on, the "official" rifle was the M1903A1 after they adopted the pistol grip stock to replace the straight grip stock. (Length of pull was increased a bit also.) Even though the 1903A1 was official it didn't replace the M1903 all at once as there was a Depression going on and to save money it was ordained that old supplies of straight grip stocks be used up first- and that took a while. As rifles came in from the field needing stocks replaced they eventually were fitted with the new PG stocks, and new production got them too (but '03 production was starting to wind down at the Armory so in fact not a helluva lot of purpose-built 03A1's were made).
The 1903A1 Sniper was exclusively a USMC innovation. Being accuracy loonies, the USMC selected late-issue 03A1's and installed 8x Unertl target scopes on them, and they worked a treat. It would seem the Army didn't have much use for the Unertl scope system (more's the pity- it's not as fragile as it looks)- Saving Private Ryan notwithstanding. The Army adopted the M1903A4 sniper rifle later on instead (basically a 1903A3 with a Redfield scope mount, altered bolt handle, and a rather pitiful couple models of el-cheapo 2.5x scopes). The M1C and M1D Sniper models replaced them all eventually, but there are photographs of Marine snipers in Korea armed with 03A1 sniper rifles and I don't doubt that a couple barked in Vietnam too.
There was a M1903A2 but it was just a barreled action adapted to use in 37mm and 57mm anti-tank guns as sub-caliber training devices.
Before we entered the war, Remington was assigned the old mothballed machine tools from when Rock Island Arsenal was still making the M1903 (up until the end of WWI). Remington used the stuff as best they could (many of the rifles went to England via Lend-Lease), but the machines/fixtures/tooling were in rough shape and production went in fits and starts. Springfield Armory was of no help because they had their own cross to bear with getting M1 Garand production going. After Dec.,1941, we too became pretty desperate for rifles and Remington was granted permission to cut corners on the '03- lots of sheet metal parts, roughly machined surfaces, and a cheaper rear sight- and the M1903A3 was born, and were designated Substitute Standard for U.S. Army use. (The Marines stuck with the original '03 and '03A1 as much as they could until the M1's started filtering down to them later in 1942. Not many 03A3's made it into the Corps.)
There was also an oddity of a stock that grew out of wartime necessity- what's called the M1903 Scant Grip Stock. Someone discovered that in fact the gov't possessed a sh*tload of walnut stock blanks for making the old original straight grip stock. Trouble was those blanks weren't shaped big enough to turn a full pistol grip stock out of them. The powers that be said "we ain't throwing them away- use them anyway". The result is the funky halfassed looking stock that's neither straight gripped nor pistol gripped. They were used a lot on 03A3's, and found their way onto a lot of M1903 rifles that were headed overseas as Lend-Lease to various Allied countries like France and Greece, many of which made their way back here as milsurps in the 70's-90's.
God, I love Springfields! (Started at an early age when I found out my one Uncle carried a M1903 straight through from 1940 until he caught his third and final wound in early 1945 and was sent home. He trained with the '03 before the war and being an Infantry Scout was allowed to carry what he pleased. Big Red One, North Africa to Germany every step of the way with a Springfield in his hands.)
