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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

1903a3 Project


bja105

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I bought this 1903A3 on gunbroker. It has a fajen stock, and an unknown safety.

The stock seas to be a low grade, lots of filling is needed. I'm not too fond of the shape either.

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The stock shape prevents use of the magazine cutoff.

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The barrel outside is bad, even for a wartime product. I don't have a good pic of it, but anyone who was a michinist prior to the war would have been embarassed. Of course, the important part, the bore, is very good.

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My goal is to remove the barrel and smooth it out, without reducing it too much. I plan to reuse the stock, so I don't want a big gap around the barrel. I will reshape the stock somewhat, and refinish it. I already removed the wood that prevents using the magazine cutoff. The tip is plastic. If I get ambitious, I might replace it with ebony. I want to use a side swing safety. I bought milled 1903 bottom metal, which I will slightly recontour ans add a push button release. There are some tool marks on the receiver to remove.

 

I might build a parkerizing tank and park it, but if the metal work comes out nice, I may send it for hot bluing.

 

 

I'll post progress pics soon.

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The 03's are my favorite action to play with, especially the DHT models. The 03A3 was designed to be produced quicker and cheaper than the 03. One of Remington's modifications was to omit the removal of tool marks prior to park. Your barrel looks pretty normal from what I could see of it. They take a lot of work to polish up.

 

I have a Remington 03 set aside for sporterizing. Actually it will be a Lazurus project like yours. It had been previoulsly sporterized and now I have to breath new life into it. It is more or less the transition between the Springfield Armory 03's and the Remington 03A3's. It is nickle steel, but finished much nicer than the 03A3's were.

 

Nirvna pretty much is a DHT Springfield in 257AI. LL

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