APOD Firearms

Remington M1903 SN 3053661 questions

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  • RichnSteph

    New Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 22, 2017
    11
    11
    Adkins Texas
    New member here, found this place while looking for help with a Remington 1903. I've wanted a WWII 30.06 for a while now and found one a few months back. I bought it for $30. I didn't do my research and after I got it home found that I'd bought a mix-matched mess. The stock is a sporter-ish wreck with no markings on it. The barrel has no markings on it at all. The bolt has the R on it, as does the trigger guard but other than that it's a mystery. I'm hauling it to the range tomorrow to dial it in as I want something I can hunt with and the Redfield rear peep is a nice sight. i have no idea how to adjust the Redfield. I have no idea if it'll be worth my time and money to track down a correct barrel and stock for it of if I should just shoot this one this season and start looking for an authentic Remington 1903.

    Any advice would be great.
    IMG_20170921_171500088.jpg
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    IMG_20170921_171613863.jpg

    RichnSteph
    Guns International
     

    Charley

    Active Member
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Aug 7, 2008
    743
    76
    San Antonio
    Awful lot of 1903s and 1903A3s got cut back in the 50's and 60's when they were considered cheap surplus rifles. Looks like your stock is/was military, but was "reconfigured". They do make decent sporters, but kind of dated now compared to current technology in sporting rifles. I've got an 03A3 that was decently sportered, but the original owner ENGRAVED his Social Security number on the receiver ring!
     

    Moonpie

    Omnipotent Potentate for hire.
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    21   0   0
    Oct 4, 2013
    23,997
    96
    Gunz are icky.
    What you have is a Bubba'ed Remington 1903.
    Not a 1903A3.
    Remington produced a 1903 just before WW2.
    After the war started, Remington began production of the A3. Production ended a couple of years later when M1 Garand and .30 Carbine production caught up.
    What Charlie is saying s true.
    During the 50's and early 60's these 1903's and A3's could he had cheap.
    I'm talking less than $20 cheap.
    Bubba's everywhere had orgies chopping them down which makes orignal unbubba'ed guns rare today.
    FWIW you will spend as much or more restoring yours than if you just bought an original military. They can still he found for around $7-800.
    An original stock alone will be north of $200. A barrel about the same. Finding the small bits is an adventure all by itself.
    It can be done but prepare thyself.
    What is nice about the Remington 1903 is you can run hotter reloads thru it without worry. The WW1 era and earlier recievers were not heat treated properly and must be run with lighter loads. Your rifle can be run with full power ammo. FWIW, I would find a nice sporter stock and go that way with you rifle.
    The Redfield peep is a great sight. It is adjustable by using a screwdriver to move the up/down/left/right slide, moving the sight in the direction you want the impact point to go.
    If you want the bullet impact point to go down, move the sight down. Etc.
    There are different sized apertures for it too.
     

    RichnSteph

    New Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 22, 2017
    11
    11
    Adkins Texas
    Thank you for the replies and "how to" on the Redfield. I need to amend/edit my first post as there is a missing 0 on what I paid for it. I paid $300 not $30, fat fingers and all that. Ok so I'll take it out shoot it and am happy that I can run regular rounds through it. I'll order some of the Greek 150g ball 30.06 this next week to have on hand for it. Since it's value as an original 1903 is down the drain with the drilling and tapping done to mount that rear sight I'll find a nice modern sporter stock for it and hunt with it this year. If I feel the need to shoot any farther than 200yds or so I'll get a gun smith to drill the front of the receiver for a set of scope mounts.

    Thank you again!
    RichnSteph
     

    HKSig

    Let's Go Brandon!
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    May 15, 2013
    1,017
    96
    Spring
    $30 is a great price, $300 isn't bad. :usflag:

    You can probably sell it for what you paid if you were so inclined.

    If the barrel isn't marked, it was probably replaced, or possibly shortened.
     

    dduck

    New Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Oct 27, 2009
    4
    1
    friendswood
    New member here, found this place while looking for help with a Remington 1903. I've wanted a WWII 30.06 for a while now and found one a few months back. I bought it for $30. I didn't do my research and after I got it home found that I'd bought a mix-matched mess. The stock is a sporter-ish wreck with no markings on it. The barrel has no markings on it at all. The bolt has the R on it, as does the trigger guard but other than that it's a mystery. I'm hauling it to the range tomorrow to dial it in as I want something I can hunt with and the Redfield rear peep is a nice sight. i have no idea how to adjust the Redfield. I have no idea if it'll be worth my time and money to track down a correct barrel and stock for it of if I should just shoot this one this season and start looking for an authentic Remington 1903.

    Any advice would be great. View attachment 44039 View attachment 44040 View attachment 44041
    RichnSteph
    I believe that's the original barrel on your rifle - still has the original front sight. All of mine have a date (mm/yy) and two initials (mfr) just behind the front sight. Pretty sure that's a sporter stock - I could tell with a picture of the buttplate.

    Really not that much of a Mixmaster. You're missing the original stock & rear sight.

    Sent from my Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70F using Tapatalk
     

    RichnSteph

    New Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 22, 2017
    11
    11
    Adkins Texas
    I believe that's the original barrel on your rifle - still has the original front sight. All of mine have a date (mm/yy) and two initials (mfr) just behind the front sight. Pretty sure that's a sporter stock - I could tell with a picture of the buttplate.

    Really not that much of a Mixmaster. You're missing the original stock & rear sight.

    Sent from my Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70F using Tapatalk

    I've looked right behind the sight several times with light and even my glasses on and can't see any date marks or that little flaming grenade that's on some of them. I looked at the butt stock and it says FAJEN on it. I'll start researching who that manufacturer is and will upload a picture.



    Richard.
     

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    Moonpie

    Omnipotent Potentate for hire.
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    21   0   0
    Oct 4, 2013
    23,997
    96
    Gunz are icky.
    Fajen was an aftermarket gunstock company back in the 1950's up until the 1980's. They're out of business now.
     

    Berthier

    New Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Nov 28, 2016
    23
    11
    What is nice about the Remington 1903 is you can run hotter reloads thru it without worry. The WW1 era and earlier recievers were not heat treated properly and must be run with lighter loads. Your rifle can be run with full power ammo. FWIW, I would find a nice sporter stock and go that way with you rifle.
    The Redfield peep is a great sight. It is adjustable by using a screwdriver to move the up/down/left/right slide, moving the sight in the direction you want the impact point to go.
    If you want the bullet impact point to go down, move the sight down. Etc.
    There are different sized apertures for it too.

    While the problem of the early M1903s is often blamed on the heat treatment, it was actually a multitude of small problems that when together could cause a major problem, but none of the problems was actually from the heat treating. Heat treating could have been redone if they truly wanted to.

    The first little problem was that the bullet jacket material. It would leave bits of jacket at the muzzle end of the bore that couldn't be scrubbed out. Soldiers would dip the bullets in grease in an attempt to alleviate that mess. This of course increased chamber pressures. This has since been corrected by putting a small amount of tin in the bullet jacket material. The French had encountered the same problem in their artillery pieces which they corrected with tin foil in the powder. For whatever reason, tin prevents jacket fouling.

    The second little problem was the cases. During WWI a lot of new ammunition plants started propping up and not all of them knew exactly what they were doing. Some of the worse ones tended to have cause the cases to split and fail.

    The third little problem is that the M1903 has a coned breech design. The coned breech makes it easier to load cartridges, but it also leaves the very end of the case unsupported.

    The fourth problem was the forge shop workers and Springfield and Rock Island were just "eye balling" the correct temperature of the metal before putting the receiver/bolts into the die and dropping the hammer. It had nothing to do with heat treating, but everything to do with forging. Sometimes the metal blanks were heated far too much and when forged the metal was left too hard and brittle.

    FWIW, I think most, if not all of the early receivers and bolts that were so bad have already failed. Either from the first proofing, or from being dropped by a soldier in the field. Even if one is shot now, the quality of the ammunition of today is so much higher than it was a 100 years ago. Case head failures were common back then, today it's practically unheard of.
     
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