Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles I think I broke my 1903 A3

I shot my 1903 A3 today.

I had a “ sticky “ extraction. The primer looks to have blown out.

Now I can’t remove the bolt, or work the action?

Am I done? Or should I haul it to a gunsmith?

Thanks

Not sure I follow you John. Were you able to open the bolt and eject the cartridge case? If so and now you can't remove the bolt, might it be because you don't have the cutoff switch in the middle position? Can't close the bolt because it's now hitting the back of the magazine follower?

What ammo? Factory, handload, or military?

A pic could help.

The bolt was sticky but it did eject.

It was a reload, a warm one. 52 varget in a 180 Barnes XLC fed 210.

I can’t get it to function, I will take it to a gunsmith.

Yeah that's a darned hot load for the old girl.

Ooops

Should we start blowing taps for the old soldier ??

kwg

Hodgdon's on-line data lists 47.0 grains of Varget as maximum with ANY 180-grain bullet....

Your gunsmith will not be able to unscrew the barrel is you can't open the bolt.
The 1903 has a coned breach and is cut out for the extractor, so that extractor will bind it in place.

Can you life the bolt handle at all?

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Re-read. He got the cartridge to eject, ergo he got the bolt open.

So what condition is the bolt?
Closed and unable to open or open and unable to close

Well, 52 grains of Varget is pretty much max with a 150.

How did you arrive at that load for a 180?

The Barnes reloading manual #3.

The bolt moves, it cocks. It’s tight feels bound.

If when the primer was blown loose you didn't recover it with the anvil still in it, I'd suspect the anvil of the primer is jammed into the abutments somewhere. If you recovered no parts of that primer it may be both the cup and/or the anvil causing the problem.

Take a coat hanger and bend a hook to it's end about 5/8" long. Remove the bolt and "fish around" with that hook into the front of the receiver the abutments and see if you can dislodge any pieces of the primer. Also, disassemble the bolt and see if there are any small pieces blown into it's "guts".

If neither of those tricks work you probably are going to have to get the barrel pulled out so you can see into the front of the action.

I can’t remove the bolt.

I am going to let a gunsmith look at it if he’s open today.

Thanks
John

There's no darned need to pull the barrel. Fish around inside the locking lug recesses for any flotsam and jetsam (being an equestrian doc I bet you have picks and probes to do that very thing) then disassemble the bolt and swab out the insides, and take a peek under the extractor. While you have it apart disassemble the bolt head and clean and oil it. Internet tutorials abound for all those procedures. If the bolt still feels bound up then take the gun to a pro.

52 grains Varget is a nasty overload but probably not such to bend anything in the action - 03A3's are mighty strong with a healthy safety margin engineered in. Worst case scenario is you may have set the bolt lugs back a RCH but if that happened then if anything the bolt would feel looser when you close it. Probably not a bad idea to check its headspace now too. If you want, PM me and I'll loan you my headspace gauges.

Now for a dumb question: Are you sure it's an 03A3? For some reason folks in general have started describing all 03's as 03A3's, it's a nomenclature that has permeated in the "not really familiar with Springfields crowd". If perchance it is actually a pre-WWI low number '03 then all bets are off in my long distance analyzation of your situation.

Put the magazine cutoff switch (LH side, rear of the receiver) in the middle position (sticking straight out) and yank the bolt straight out the back of the receiver. If the bolt moves back and forth in the receiver then that's the only thing standing in its way of removal.

Switch in the "down" position - stops the bolt short of going back far enough to pick up cartridges out of the magazine.

Middle position - as stated above.

Switch in the "up" position - bolt travels back far enough to feed cartridges out of the magazine. It's a holdover from the olden days when full magazines were held in reserve for when rapid fire became necessary.

Thinking some more: I guess there's a chance the overload/blown primer could've tweaked the extractor a bit, causing it to bind things up. If so, they're cheap and readily available and are easily replaced.

I suspect it’s the extractor that is tweaked.

I once told my brother that I was thinking about buying a bow that a pickup could drive over.

My brother replied.

“ That doesn’t tell me anything. Now if you owned it more than 15 minutes and it still ain’t broke…….
Now that tells me something.”

I been emptying the safe and shooting a lot, waiting for my foot to heal. So far

I stripped a set screw on a lightfoot mount, broke a Lyman peep, broke a Burris, broke a floor plate on a model 70 and jammed a 1903 A3.

My in-laws call me “ Danger Mouse”

That manual is pretty well known to have "issues".

It's really bad that something like that is out there to trip up less experienced people.