So when building a custom on a military reciever isnt it standard practice to replace many of the parts you are mentioning as faults anyways?
I mean isnt that the point of making a custom rifle?I am not speaking of a sporter...
what i am talking about is custom. replacing the parts which wouldnt suit a fine rifle.
The trigger is military so out with that and in with a timney trigger and timney safety.
The angled rear receiver screw i dont think is something you can change. but have to work around, yes.
but didnt Brownell design the Ruger action and stock with an angled front reciever screw? isnt that in fact doing as much to hinder even contact with the recoil lug?
So i guess what i would like to know is what parts of a springfield 1903, say a remington built A3, would you replace that you normally wouldnt replace if using a mauser or another action as a build?
To go down the line.
The angled front screw on the Ruger points backwards from the receiver down, so tightening it pulls the recoil lug FORWARD and tighter against the stock. The angled rear screw on the Springfield points forwards from the receiver down, so tightening it pulls the recoil lug BACKWARDS and AWAY from the stock.
You are correct that there are some parts that can be upgraded on the Springfield, like the two piece firing pin and the trigger mechanism.
I don't know if anyone makes a replacement bolt shroud for the '03, whereas there are several replacement bolt shrouds for the Mauser '98, including ones that have an M70 type safety. That substitution is frequently done on custom Mausers nowadays. I prefer a bolt shroud safety because it blocks the cocking piece, compared to replacement triggers with built in safeties that block the sear, but to each his own.
Incidentally, a lot of people think that Mauser designed a 3 position safety so that, in the middle position, you could safely unload the rifle by cycling the bolt back and forth with the safety on, but in fact you can do this with the safety in the fire position because the controlled feed design allows you to cycle the bolt back and forth without ever lowering the bolt handle. The real benefit of the middle safety position is it allows easy disassembly and reassembly of the bolt because you can unscrew the bolt shroud and remove the firing pin for cleaning without needing any tools.
For the A3 with the stamped trigger guard, obviously that would be replaced with custom metal as well.
However there is no replacement for the clunky safety lug and no part that will improve the comparatively poor gas handling compared to the Mauser design. Those are engineering design choices that are inferior to the Mauser design IMHO, and are not fixable by replacing/upgrading parts.
This is not to say that the Springfield doesn't make a fine, reliable, handsome custom rifle - as I said, Griffin and Howe made some of the best, and best looking custom rifles ever built on Springfield actions. I just happen to believe that the Mauser 98 is a better engineered design. And I'm not alone in this, for example Jack O'Connor and Jack Lott, among others, both stated as much in print. And that was the original question, whether the Springfield is as good a basis for a custom sporter as, say, a Mauser 98.