Re: 1903a3 recovery & 1903 as well.

28
Great work.
My Dad enlisted in the Army in 1940 before the draft. He was issued a 1903 Springfield rifle. There was no boot camp you were assigned to an active unit as a private and trained there. One day during inspection the Corporal checked his rifle and declared it as defective. He ordered my dad to take it back to supply and draw another rifle. Well my dad a lowly buck private went back to Supply with the rifle. The Supply Master Sargent ask what dad needed, dad told him what the Corporal said. The Master Sargent looked at the Rifle checked it out and handed back to my dad. He then told my dad that rifle was a star gauge 1903 Springfield. It was the first rifle made on a new set of tools and has the tightest tolerances. They are normally fired in National Competition and after so many rounds are then sent to be used by the troops as a new rifle replaces it. He went on to say the Corporal would come and want that rifle as his weapon. The he said," Go tell that corporal that rifle is yours and if he has a problem to come see me." Dad went and reported back to the Corporal and nothing more was said. Dad grew up hunting and when he shot for qualification he shot expert with that rifle.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: 1903a3 recovery & 1903 as well.

32
I removed the welded that was applied to deactivate the rifle. Then I added new metal where I ground out the weld material. Now I've got to file down the new metal to the original shape. The red stuff is just some heavy duty vinyl tape I use to keep me from gouging the receiver with my hand files.

The welds are nickle which won't blue, parkerize, or take most any other finish & id like to reblue this one. So I had to remove the nickle & replace it with a ferrous metal.
Screw communism

Re: 1903a3 recovery & 1903 as well.

34
When I was a kid I had the good sense to keep my mouth shut & listen when the old timers would share what they know. Later on I developed a love of learning, to this day I snacth up every old gunsmith book I can. Once I hit & could start buying my own guns. That when I discovered that gunsmiths are damn expensive. So I started to fiddle with them myself, cause I was broke. Didn't want to get dead doing it, so I read more, listened more & picked up bits here & there. Helps that I've always been good with metal & usually fairly patient with it.
Screw communism

Re: 1903a3 recovery & 1903 as well.

40
The weld on the front of the front ring, if done with a lot of time and heat, may draw the heat treat on the front ring. I used to have a M1 Garand drill receiver, which had been recovered, had been weld repaired and reparkerized. The reparkerizing told the story: the color of the parkerizing was very different for all of the front ring was very different, indicating the microstructure was different. Watch your headspace, and if it starts to grow, hang it up.

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