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03A3 barrel question

2K views 16 replies 5 participants last post by  Master Chief Squid 
#1 ·
A July 1943 03A3 was given to me because bullets heavier than 150 tumbled badly. Accuracy also terrible. Rifle looks great and unaltered but twist is actually 14 to 15 inch. I know this is not supposed to be so I rechecked twist several times with tight patch on rod and same result. 15 inch twist. Shoots old 135 gr Sierra SSP bullets great. Just can't find any reference to this rifle with this two groove twist. What do I have other than a freak?
 
#4 ·
Welcome to the forum, MC!
 
#5 ·
Welcome aboard, that barrel should be twisted to a 1:10 twist, kind of strange to see one twisted at 15.

I make rifle barrels on a Pratt and Whitney styled sine bar machine, so I can hazard a guess as to why it's twisted too slow, somebody at the factory set the sine bar incorrectly, either to the wrong twist or it wasn't tightened down properly after it was set for 1:10 letting it shift itself to a slower twist rate at some point during the production run and somebody else in quality control either missed it or passed it along anyway.

Sounds like you've gotten the accuracy problem taken care of by going to a lighter (and shorter) bullet that works with it's twist rate.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the response. I also had a vague memory of a conversation with an armor I worked with at the U.S Naval academy. He related that during one of our early treaties, expanding bullets were outlawed for combat because of the horrible wounds caused when the hit was less than lethal. The solution was to make the new ball ammo tumble to create an equally devastating wound channel. At the time, in my youth and inexperience, I didn't consider how this was accomplished. It now makes sense that that a few slow twist barrels would eliminate the need for different ammo. The enemy would be less likely to figure this out by simply inspecting the projectile. They would actually have to capture the weapon. Don't know if this is actually the case but the armored story does make sense.
 
#7 ·
I suppose that does sound plausible but accuracy was a bit more important than tumbling bullets, a clean hit that didn't kill removed 3 players from the game, the wounded soldier and two grunts carrying him out of harms way, a clean kill only removed one dead guy.

I suppose we will never know the real why behind your mystery barrel and if it's the way it is by accident or by intent, but it's fun speculating on it ;)
 
#11 ·
MasterChief, I've had a lot of 03 Springfields, and have only heard of those 2 groove barrels on some production 1903A3 rifles. Accuracy was supposedly on par with the standard 4 groove barrels. I can't imagine the Government wanting to purchase a rifle that would not handle standard M2 (150 grain FMJ) ammo. A tumbling bullet would not accurately strike a target at distance.

If your rifle is not accurate with standard ammunition, I'm pretty sure something else is going on. Not seeing the rifle, my guess would be very heavy copper jacket fouling in the grooves. I bought a 98K German 98 Mauser that had extreme copper jacket fouling, and I worked it over with Sweet's Copper Solvent. Took about 200 patches and several brass bristle bore brushes, along with some JB Bore Paste, but it all came out and there was no pitting. Shoots great now.

Just a thought. The rifle being original, you'd not likely want to have it rebarreled, but that is a possibility. There are original surplus 03A3 barrels available still.
 
#13 ·
The deference to female shooters is definitely a "Today's Action Army/Navy/Marine" thing. Back when your rifle was made the Armed Forces didn't jerk around with that kind of silliness. They were much too busy doing their jobs. If we had the idiots running the show back then that we have today - we'd all be speaking Japanese or German.

That JB Bore paste is great, but it can polish up copper plate in a barrel very shiny. I'd still try Sweet's and see if your patches come out green. That will happen as a chemical reaction between the copper and the solvent.

Gotta ask you as a Navy person: What do you think about the recruitment ads that the Navy has run for a couple of years now "America's Navy"? I'd have asked my brother (Navy vet with many Nam tours on the Fletcher Class Tin Can McKean DD-784) but he passed a few years back before they started those ads. To my Army way of thinking "America's Navy" detracts from the United States Navy. Just curious. Same thing with "Marines" vs. United States Marine Corps. Also goes with "An Army Of One". Bull cookies - the Army is made up of people trained and working as a Unit. It makes me cringe to hear these terms.
 
#14 ·
Agree that it should always be "United States Navy". The "America's" include south, central and Canada. I still suspect that our commander in chief has ordered this to downplay the uniqueness of the Great United States and to pollute the mindset of our new young service members into accepting an unholy allegiance to a NATS type command. Slick way to undermine the loyalty of our troops to our own nation. If this is inappropriate topic for forum I apologize in advance to the forum members but share a deep concern for these issues with my fellow veterans.
 
#15 ·
Thanks for clearing that up, Master Chief. Getting sort of worried that maybe the U.S. Navy had switched over to Mexico or Central America. Don't worry about being 'inappropriate' for the Forum - I've dropped in here for a number of years and have not gotten the boot yet. I'm just surprised to learn that there are guys even older than me who are still on the green side of the grass. Nobody I know of has ever gotten the boot here for speaking his/her mind so long as they're not disrespectful of others. I think maybe you are old enough that Momma and/or Pop taught you how to behave in public, so I doubt if you have anything to apologize for.
 
#16 ·
Thanks Jim. It is hard to stay civil when I see what is happening to the country I love and risked my life for. So much I have yet to learn about my constitution and to belive our president became so astute while admittedly being stoned for much of his time in college. Funny how things work out.
 
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