Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing 19903 barrels

In my " good junk" stash, I have a couple of barrels that appear to be for a 1903 Springfield. They are new, still in the cosmoline and cardboard tubing. The writing is gone, but I dug deep enough to see the forged front sight holder and a four groove barrel.

I am not trying to get rich, but what are these worth? Thanks, jack

$200-250. Restorers look for these. What are the dates?

Dusty, I just looked at the packing again. They are wrapped in wax papers not a tube as I originally said. The only writing that I can read is " barrel assembly". The cosmoline blots out the stamping. Should I clean a spot and check, or just leave it alone. IIRC, the date stamp is near the front sight??? Jack

The date stamp would determine a fair amount of its value. A pre-war dated barrel still in cosmoline would be worth a fair bit more than a wartime barrel. Finish, inside and out, and manufacturing tolerances were more closely held on pre-war barrels. How much more valuable is pretty subjective though.

Pre-war '03 barrels harken back to the days when the Springfield ruled the roost. Wartime barrels harken back to the days when quantity beat quality. Making a product that could obliterate the 10-ring wasn't as important as a product that could put a lot of lead in the general direction of a bunch of SS Grenadiers.

Again, I am not conversant with 1903 collecting and such, but were not the four grove bbls pre- war? Or must I clean to look ( and where-I do not want to clean the whole barrel.) These came from an old family friend from San Antonio, who was a rifle looney, and I suspect they are the good stuff. Jack

Start about 1/4 " back from the front sight boss, on TOP of the barrel, and clean a small spot, working your way back towards the breech end. You should not need to cclean a patch much bigger than a nickle to find the Mfg and Dates .

Luck

GTC

Remington (RA) made four groove barrels during the early part of WWII, as did Springfield Armory (SA).

Not looking to buy anything of this nature at the moment, but I am curious as to what you found.

Been out for a while. Both are definately four groove. one has an ordinance mark (ball with a wing or flame) and dated 2-43. The other is dated 2-44. I did not notice the ordinance mark on this one-not to say it is not there. They are wrapped alike. the cosmoline is still soft. The machining on the '43 appears to be finer. jack

There should be two letters stamped above the ordnance bomb. Given the dates on the barrels, I'd imagine the letters will be "RA" for Remington Arms.

Both barrels are Remington and apparently intended for 1093-A3. The '43 shows rather nice machining. The '44 shows more machine marks. Jack