Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Springfield 1903 sporter.

Recently acquired a Springfield 1903 with a (factory ?) sporter stock.

Very rough cosmetically, and has a buggered up rear sight. Not drilled and tapped, and I believe rebarreled at some point.

Am I going to wreck some future collectibility of this rifle if I refinish it?

I don't think it's worth too much, but I think I'd like to fix the sights and make the rifle a bit nicer looking.

It's a Rock Island Arsenal made in 1918, before the improvement in heat treatment, if that makes any difference.

Thanks guys and gals.

If its been rebarreled, then collectability is out the window...but if the stuck rear sight is in place, it may be the original barrel. I know you're going to get all the warnings about "brittle receivers", but I have two of the early rifles and have no hesitation in shooting either (one is a unmolested /original rifle, the other was rebarreled and fitted into a synthetic stock).

Any pics?

I think it was a military armorer rebarrel? I believe there's some sort of marking in it.

I'm not overly worried about brittle receivers. It lasted over a century and probably many thousand rounds so far...doubt it's going to let go now.

I'll try to get a few pictures up.

Better get an opinion from Gnoahhh he has allready forgot more about Springfields and low numbers than most will ever know. I don't buy low number 03's for a reason and personally know a guy who ignored the warnings and had a Sedgely sporter come a part on him shooting it. Total loss but he only paid in a few stiches and bandaides. Cheap enough i guess. Mb

Barrel markings will tell us a lot.

Jeez, we need detailed pics.

First off, Rock Island went straight from single heat treat steel to nickel steel at around serial number 286,000 in May 1917. (Incidentally there are very very few, if any, RI low number single heat treat guns included in the melange of Low Number M1903's that failed.) If the number is over 286,000 you're definitely good to go safety-wise. In 1921 after Rock Island shut down M1903 rifle production for good the machine tools went into storage (and 20 years later resurrected by Remington) and leftover parts and receivers were sent to Springfield where they were assimilated into Springfield's rifle production. Said receivers are all in the upper 300,000-400,000 serial number range. Late M1903's from Springfield will be found with RI receivers - it doesn't mean the gun was assembled at RI, it was just the gov't being frugal.

Secondly, if it was a true M1903 NRA Sporter built at Springfield for sale to NRA members it would have a Springfield receiver. I've never seen one built around a RI receiver, but as most things in this world never say never.

Barrel markings? If it's a real NRA Sporter it'll have the heavy profile Sporter weight barrel, not the slimmer Service rifle barrel. It'll also have a star gauge stamp on the crown and the star gauge record number stamped on the bottom side of the barrel under the wood, and possibly the blueprint number as well.

Bolt will be polished bright, with rifle serial number electropenciled on it. Front(leading) edge of the receiver ring will have a slight radius, and the bolt raceway will be polished for slickness. Trigger adjusted to a light crisp letoff. Lyman 48 receiver sights fitted as standard, some few d/t'ed for Winchester A5/Lyman 5A scope use (two holes on top of receiver ring only, the other two holes drilled out on the barrel). M1922 steel buttplate, and special barrel band indigenous only to NRA Sporters and M1922/M1/M2 .22's.

Sounds like it's a regular old sporter built by whomever, but without holding the gun in hand or at least detailed pics final judgement is impossible.

A genuine real-for-real NRA Sporter as it came from the Armory between 1924 and 1934 (only years made, 4000 units total) looks like this:

Gary said everything. Only thing that he said that gave me pause was using Government and frugal in the same sentence.

If that's the rifle in question then it was most definitely an aftermarket sporterization, and a dodgy one at that. If it's a high number receiver, has good headspace, and a good bore its value lies chiefly in re-sporter-ing it. If those conditions are met it's a fine candidate for that.

It's become fashionable to restore bodgered-up sporters to military originality, but that's tedious and expensive unless one happens to have all the parts necessary on hand. Buying that stuff now has gotten expensive unlike when I was young it was omnipresent and literally cheaper than dirt. Just as cost effective now to rebuild as a dandy hunting rifle as it is to return it to original.

This rifle has a straight bolt handle. High number (and nickel steel) Springfield bolt handles are gently swept back. On the other hand Rock Island never made that style swept back bolt handle but they did make nickel steel bolts (see above), and if it's one of those it'll say "NS" on the bottom of the safety lug.

I have always went with advice from here, high numbers are good to go, 300 win mag, 6.8 western, 308 and 358 norma mag all have been successful for me in high serial numbers doners and see no issues after normal shooting. I have never owned one that cousin bubba hadn't already started on lol but that's why the price was right for donors. Good luck with the gun.

Yep, that's it. It's not a high number; it's a bit lower than the 280 XXX numbers.

The bore looks good. Decent trigger. Just rough looking and the sights (especially the rear) aren't great. Might get it tapped and put on a scope.

I’ve got a nice walnut Monte Carlo stock from Gunbroker I finished with hand-rubbed oil and then didn’t use I’d sell you if you’re interested.

I ended up going with a period correct gaudy curly maple Weatherby-style high gloss stock. It’s a 6.5-06:





I’ve got another in 6mm-250 I bought here that is a serious shooter.

That's a pretty piece of wood! I'd love a maple stock on something. Every now and then I run across a model 70 with one, but they sure want enough for them! Decent wood on them I guess, but I think they should have a bit more figure for the price.

I'm intrigued by your offer... what's it look like?