Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Best way to "accurize" a Springfield 1903

Grandpa gave me his old 1903 a couple of years ago and I've been trying (off and on) to reduce the size of my groups. The first trip to the range revealed mostly flyers and no discernible pattern. I took the rifle completely apart, cleaned it and remounted the scope. I also noticed a slight warp in the stock and removed the pressure on the barrel with some sandpaper. Things were slightly better the second time around. I've experimented with different ammunition, but still have paper plate sized "groups" at 100 yards.

The rifle has sentimental meaning and I'd like to make a shooter out of it. I know it's killed a lot of Missouri whitetails, and I'd like to shoot an elk or mule deer with it. Any ideas on how to make it a 150-200 yard Western hunting rifle? Should I consider glass bedding? Re-crown the barrel? I'm wondering how high to set my expectations.

I'd look at the crown first, then bedding. How does the rifling look? Have you tried different weights and styles of bullets?

Recrowning is the easiest first step, and may make a huge difference.

Dennis

Slug the bore. It might be a touch larger than .308", and that'll make a world of difference.

I don't know that I could tell good rifling from bad, but the bore looks clean. Grandpa is 90 now, so it's been quite a few years since his last hunt with it and my first.

Even after he quit hunting, he'd buy a box of Core-Lokts every year and write the date on the box. If I go back through the old boxes, I can tell the years that he hunted--one (maybe two) rounds are gone from those years. Can't believe it's had many bullets run down the barrel. My guess is he'd take it out of the gun cabinet, kill his deer for the year, hit it with WD-40 and put it up for the season. Can't remember too many years as a kid that he didn't come back with one.

Anyone have a gunsmith in Denver they'd recommend for the crown work?

I have tried different bullets. No clear winner at this point.

Seriously, clean the dogschit out of it first. Then, slug the bore (3/8" egg sinker, wooden dowels about 12" long, several of them, and drive the sinker down the bore, mike the size when it comes out). Then, clean it again.

If you get it CLEAN, the bore slugs to .308"-ish, and it still won't shoot in the 2" to 4" range, then have the crown redone. Eliminate the easy variables first, though (bore size and crud).

Is the scope a known quality? I.e., it could be that the scope has gone bad. That, or the rings/mounts. Check those first, and try another scope, before you do any rework.

If none of those work, then look to working over the crown.

...I think the gang is on to something with the re-crown suggestion. If Grandpa cleaned the rifle from the muzzle it could have damaged the crown which could have a radically negative effect on accuracy. In general the 03 tends to be an accurate gun so it is well worth the minimal cost to re-crown on the chance that big gains would show up. Honing in on that extra tight group, invest in a blitz spring for the firing pin which will speed up a very lazy lock time in the 03..

If he was cleaning from the muzzle end it might need more help than a re-crowning. The rod tends to wear a significant length of the rifling itself out at the end of the barrel. Another souce of rifling wear out toward the muzzle was the use of pull-through cleaning thongs by GI's and Marines in the field. The rubbing of the string being pulled through, if not pulled dead straight, could have a bad effect if done enough.

A simple, but by no means definitive, test is to drop a cartridge nose first into the muzzle. If it goes in up to, or real close to, the mouth of the case the bore is worn and may need to be shortened to restore accuracy. At that point find a 'smith with a bore gauge to make an accurate determination. Another way is to slug the bore (as described above) from the breech end and if the slug all of a sudden becomes real easy to push as it gets close to the muzzle you may have a worn out bore. This is all conjecture- your problem most likely will be cured by following the above advise. Let us know how you make out!

One thing that you have to remember is that the rifle had a lot of rounds with corrosive primers shot through it.

If you are shooting paper plate size groups, then the scope is perhaps the worst that I have heard of, or the barrel needs replacing.

There is noting wrong with replacing a barrel on a family keep sake to improve it and pass it along to other family memembers years from now. If the barrel is shot out and left the way it's current condition, then guns like that usually end up in a corner in a closet turing to pure rust...then no one will have it.

Grand Pa would probably be tickled to death to know that you had put a better barrel on "his" rifle.

There is no real way to diagnose a rifle on the internet..Take your gun to a good gunsmith and have him look it over..Your into it zero dollars so you can spend a bit to have it fixed right..glass bedding usually helps, crown if it needs it but only a gunsmith or knowledgable person can tell you that. It should shoot much better than that unless shooter error is involved.

Other than what has been mentioned on this thread, there are so many things that can effect its accuracy that its just impossible to answer your question without a hands on with the rifle itself.

Thanks for all the tips guys. I did insert a cartridge, bullet first, into the muzzle and there's a good 1/8" between the case and the muzzle.

Other than that I've gone through two rounds of cleaning this weekend using Wipe-Out. Still lots of copper on the patches. I'll let it sit overnight for round three. I have an extra scope I can mount on it and then back to the range.

I don't know a good gunsmith in the Denver area. Anyone?

There's a guy goes by Chuck In Denver that does gunsmithing work, mostly on old '03s and GI stuff like that. He worked over a GI M1 Carbine for me and did a great job. Very good guy to work with, and fast turn around time. Believe it or not!

He hangs out on the Jouster.com 1903 board. You can contact him there pretty easy, I'm sure.

Good luck!
Clyde

PS There is probably more '03 experience on that board in shooting, collecting, and working them over than any other place I know of.

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