Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles 03-A3 to fire or not?

Does one fire what appears to be an unrebuilt / unissued / unfired 1943 Remington 03-A3?

Seems to be the correct mix of blued and parkerized with no excess inspector marks. Blued bands, parkerized receiver, blued bolt and magazine cutoff. Mirror, shiny 10/1943 barrel. One circle P proof mark in the stock. All the blue remaining on the bolt face with no indication of wear and no casehead impression in the blue of the boltface.

I have a bad habit of shooting older, unfired guns.

Appears ? Buy the gun, not the story. Shoot it.

I would.

Sounds like good advice. The gun, particularly the correct parts and completely unmarred boltface, tell the story. I guess I could buy it and add to that story!

You want to buy an investment and and shoot it, it might as well not be a gun.

I'd shoot

I sincerely doubt it was never fired. Depending on the stock markings it may have just been a limited use bootcamp trainer. Possibly an arsenal rework but usually the stocks were stamped with su h markings. The 1903A3 was a late war rifle made with peep sights. Unfired rifles are rare.
Check with the guys on the CMP forums.

I was reading some military rifle forums and apparently unissued originals are still out there, which surprises me. By all indications, this is one of them. There is zero blue wear or other evidence of it having been fired on the bolt face. I will load a few rounds up and change that within the first 10 rounds.

This one lacks stamps from having an arsenal rebuild and still has the correct parts blued and the correct parts parkerized and the correct color for the parkerized Remington receiver, which according to some on the collector forums is an indication of an original, non-rebuilt rifle.

Make it a sporter in 264 WinMag. 👍🏻

They made a gazillion of them. Unless you are looking to make some money or have a preservationist streak, shoot it if you want to.

As Troy would say:

"Choot it"!

My 1943 Remington 1903A3, formally a 2-groove 30-06 barrel, is now a 3-groove 35 Whelen courtesy of JES reboring. He did a fantastic job, and it shoots great. It came to me as an almost wreck of a sporterized job. This past winter it went through my wood shed for a stock reshaping event. Installed a new recoil pad and grip cap, plus bedded the action. Final product weighs 7lbs 14oz all sighted in ready to hunt Iowa whitetails. Looking forward to the woods later this fall.

Better yet l. I think I’ll leave it full military bit rebarrel to 6.5 Creedmoor.

Open the bolt face, tweak the rails, add a 6.8 western barrel and then put a M70 swing safety and drop it in a fiberglass stock, there u have it the rest of the story LOL

I have one that looks like it saw very little service, maybe nothing more than guard duty. I† has handling marks as well. Barrel is a four groove one and is stamped 43 right under the flaming ball arsenal stamp near the muzzle. I doubt it was shot much and other than a test fire by me it has sat in the safe ever since right next to the 1955 stamped H&R M-1 Garand that appears to have only been test fired. I haven't shot that one yet.
PJ

Why buy it, if you aren't going to shoot it???

I'm old enough to remember a time when a question like this would've been met with either a look of disbelief or roll on the floor laughing. 03A3's were for doing one of three things: shoot the living hell out of it as-is, give it a half-assed "sporterization" and hunt the hell out of it, or tear it apart for the action to build a seriously nice hunting or target rifle (but then only rarely because a pre-war '03 is and always was a much better candidate for that - the 03A3 required way too much filing/polishing/stoning to achieve smooth elegance). 1950's-1970s rifle loonies looked upon 03A3's as the red-headed stepchild of U.S. milsurps, and then something magical happened and they gained some cult status.

My advice: shoot it. There's enough of them being lavishly preserved in collections and museums for posterity that shooting this one won't matter.

The aperture rear sight on a M1903A3 is often touted as being way easier to shoot with than the sight on a M1903. To an extent that's true, but only due to its longer sight radius. The sight itself is pretty crude, lacking fine adjustment.

If it's yours already, put it in GB for an unfired price with an honest description. If it sells, great. If not, commence to shootin'.

I'd be counted as one of the shoot the hell out of it club. I'd find some gi ball and shoot some groups just to see what was achievable with it. Not important to some but allways been important to me. I'd not sporterize it at all just use as is. You see Springfields hold a value to me more than just a gun, they are part of who we were our fathers and grandfathers used them to make sure we are all still free. They are in a unique club. The trapdoors, Sharps, krags, 03's, m1917, the garands, m14, and the AR 15 variant of the m16. Old yup but still as good as it gets .Mom, apple pie, girl next door and American military firearms identifies you as solid American it's not something to be ashamed of that's a demotard. Proudly own an bear your heritage. Mb

There's more to the story. Though, it's cleaner than I would usually buy for a shooter.

I won't buy GI ball, but have some Starline brass, 4064 and 155 Sierras that will get used in this and a Garand I came into that was accurrized by a well-known builder.

I had a similar condition Smith Corona as a teenager. I cleaned the cosmoline out of it and proceeded to shoot small groups and deer hunt with the full military gun. About the time I had the SC, my dad had as clean of a 1903 as I've ever seen. Side-by-side, the 1903 is a nicer gun. As a practical sort, I liked (and still like) the sights and various upgrades of the 03-A3 over the 1903. 03s are beautiful rifles, though. My friend has a for-real Vietnam era M16, which I have shot. Those are out of my price range for this hobby. Never owned a Sharps, Krag or Trapdoor. Though, the right Krag might get my attention.

A nice original 1917 with a good bore would get my attention as would a clean Israeli Mauser.

I look shooting them--not collecting.

A for-real Vietnam era M-16? Do tell...

He's got the M16, a BAR, M2 Carbine, Thompson and few others. I always thought I wanted a Thompson. After shooting his, I changed my mind. The BAR, on the other hand, is controllable and quite entertaining.

In 1969 at the Jewel Box gun store/pawn shop there were 55 gallon drums of new in cosmoline 03a3s for 49.95. I was making $1.60 an hour as a bagger at Fry's and was saving my money for a car and reloading gear for a 270.

What's wrong with gi ball? Not advocating use of older corrosive primed stuff at all. A hell of a lot of gi ball rounds go thru garands and 03's every year. Mb

My Dad's pet load for his sporterized 03-A3 is 45 grains of IMR 4895 and a 165 grain Nosler Partition for North East deer/black bear. With this load it would put 5 shots into a 3/4" group at 100 yds.

By the way, it was a 2 groove barrel...

I have brass, 155 Sierras and 4064 and Varget so no GI ammo needed.

I have a Remington in identical condition I bought in May. 4-43 barrel date and 8-43 receiver 3,93xxxx serial.

Virtually no wear on the cocking piece, sear face and top, trigger top both stages, the under part of the receiver that the trigger contacts and no finish wear on the sear pin. Bolt face and inner extractor surfaces show no use. The bore still has ridges on the 4 groove rifiling just above the throat. Parked barrel and receiver everything else is blued.

Based on all the research I've done none of these trigger group parts are refinished during a refurb at any facility. During a full rebuild when parts are refinished it's done right over the wear that's always on these parts. None of that is visible on my rifle. It's obviously a virtually unused 03-A3. Should I save and preserve this rare find... hell no. I've already had it at the range with my handload M2 ball Garand rounds which the barrel and sights are tuned for. First group 5 shots touching sub MOA and slightly to the right. A couple of clicks and I was shooting sub MOA 10 X's all day long. I can only imagine how good it's going to shoot once the barrel is broken in.

That a great shooter!

Firearms Collecting - is a mental disorder.

Acquire firearms, and shoot them.

Simple.




GR

An "unfired" gun has for sure been fired.

They don't get out of the factory without being fired.

So, light use won't hurt a collector, IMO. Cleaned up, who's gonna know.

Just IMO.

DF