Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Springfield 1903

Does anyone have any idea why one would cut off the rear end of the bolt? Rifle has a star marked barrel and dates to 1925. Standard sights. Thanks, Tom.

You mean the grasping knob? Some think it unsightly, they know nothing.

Is the safety reversed? Flip it to the right to fire instead of to the left? Is the bolt body in the white instead of blued or parkerized? Bolt numbered to the receiver? In '24 National Match '03s started being made without the grasping knob... I believe that went until '29. The 1925 star gauged barrel may be original to the receiver... another National Match part.
You may have a very desirable rifle. I hope that it hasn't been Bubba'd.

Thank you for the info

Yep. The headless cocking piece was meant to speed up lock time. The knob that's usually there serves two purposes: to re-cock the rifle in the event of a misfire (I never used it as such, over the course of untold thousands of shots through '03's), but more importantly to divert escaping gasses from the shooter's eye in the event of a pierced primer (never had that happen either, knock on wood).

If you wish to convey the serial number to me privately, I can look it up to see if it scores a hit in the Springfield Research Service records.

How about a photo? Like to see it.

Might be an aftermarket speed lock kit added to shorten lock time. Dayton-Traister still makes one. There were others but the names escape me right now.


Okie John

Nation Match 1903A1 had a striker head with no grasping knob as:

1. they would never need a restrike.
2. improved lock time.

Picture here: https://www.americanrifleman.org/ar...atch-rifle-a-peerless-precision-shooter/

M1903 Style T target rifle, which models were also routinely furnished with headless cocking pieces.

M1903 NRA Sporters on the other hand routinely came with cocking knobs, although you could order them without, of which I've observed a couple.

Thanks for all the info. Serial number is 1267324. Stock marked DAL. What were the NB National Match rifles? Also bolt is numbered to the gun.
Further research shows its not a NB model.

NB Match rifles were mechanically identical to "regular" NM rifles, the difference is only in the stock. NB rifles were fitted with the Style B stock which had a long shallow pistol grip, very low comb, and a lot of drop at the heel. Shooters at the time didn't like them because of the atrocious stock design. According to Brophy, the Armory only built about 250 of them 1925-1928, and were intended only for civilian sales through the DCM. Initial price was $45, dropped to $40.50 in 1931. The stocks were never listed separately in the DCM catalog, only came on complete rifles, again per Brophy.

I looked up your number in the SRS lists, and got a hit. It is listed without the NM nomenclature attached to the entries immediately preceding and following it. Interestingly it is shown as having been a civilian sale on 1/29/35. It probably languished in Armory storage all those years because nobody wanted them, or, I suppose it could've been a specially constructed rifle that was ordered by a shooter who for some unknown reason liked the B style stock. (The serial number only tells us when the receiver was made, not necessarily when the gun was built. It too could've languished in storage until such time as it was finally used for a build.)

That lack of NM designation leads me to think it may well have been a NB rifle. If so it would be very rare.

Any chance of a pic of this gun?

I am sending pictures but having a bit of an upload issue. Hopefully these post.

The rifle seems to have all the features of the NM.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Could this rifle be a custom order from the DCM?
2. Would the rifle be valued the same as a NM?

No way to know for sure. The SRS records aren't complete enough. My guess is that the action was sold to an NRA member through the DCM in January, 1935, and the new owner kitted it out to suit himself. Whether it went out with a barrel and stock attached is a further guess. If the bolt is numbered to the receiver with electro pencil, and the ways are polished inside the receiver to make the bolt work "slicker" then at least it's a fair assumption that it at least left the Armory as a complete NM-style action. Had the Armory built it as a complete NM rifle I doubt they would've fitted a Type-S stock on it in 1935, but it could've been built with that stock in 1925 as the 03A1 stock hadn't been adopted yet and then the rifle languished in storage until a civilian came along ten years later and bought it. Who knows? All those bits and pieces were available for sale to civilians and could easily have been purchased piecemeal by a guy who wanted a good rifle.

Bottom line: all that really matters is "how does it shoot"?

Many thanks again for sharing your insight. Yes the bolt is numbered to the gun as you say. The action seems "tight and right". Trigger pull at 3.5 lbs. The gun has been in storage for many years but hope to get it to the range soon.
How many yards out would be good for testing?
Is there any way to ID the D.A.L. mark on the stock?

here you are:

http://m1903.com/isstamps.htm

Distance? How well can you see the sights?

Per Brophy, DAL was an inspector at Springfield 1917-1918. Lends credence to my suspicion that your stock wasn't installed at the Armory, for whatever reason. That doesn't necessarily detract from the gun as 80-90% of the '03's out there are mixmasters, whether done by civilians after the fact, or by gov't operators during rebuilds. Even if all the components of a Springfield are "correct" per type and serial number year, there's no way to guarantee 100% authenticity unless it was acquired from an honest Joe who bought it new through the NRA/DCM and then stuck it in a closet for 90 years. Educated guesses can be made that may very well (probably) be accurate, but that's as far as it goes.

O Caveat Emptor when it comes to buying these things. One small example: I have a beautiful 1930-vintage 1903A1 with a minty barrel with a 1929 date. Perfectly plausible that the Armory assembled the rifle with a barrel from the year before, warehousing anomalies being the explanation. But, I know it's "incorrect" because I put the barrel on it.

tag, for my being new to the 1903 fine points

Careful, Jeff. Springfields can be as addictive as Savage 1899/99's!!