Day after our Camp Smith matches my right shoulder would generally be sporting the beginnings of bluish-purple blotches. My late wife would razz me about that, and I can still hear her giggling "y'all have fun yesterday?" (Virginia farm girls seem to have a warped sense of humor).
Decided to do a a little more detailed cleaning of my '03 today. I started out with the Magazine. Pulling the Floor Plate proved to be more difficult than was detailed in the Army publication I downloaded said it would be. Not that it is Rocket Science or anything like that. But Cosmaline (sp)becomes rock hard after several decades it seems. I had to resort to using WD 40 to soften what turned out to be a lot of this stuff. After letting the WD 40 soak on it for an hour I was finally able to get the Floor Plate Latch to move. Then more WD 40 to soften the Black stuff sealing the Floor Plate to the Magazine Well. Finally got the Floor Plate, Spring and Follower out of the Well. I used half a can of WD 40 to completely soak the floorplate, spring and followerlet it soak and soften more black stuff on those. soaked a rag in WD and used it to clean out the Mag Well, Floor Plate Latch. then wiped everything dry, and finished the Mag Well off with a couple CLP Wipes. Returned to the Floor Plate Spring and Follower group. Disassembled them and gave each piece the same treatment except added a couple drops of Rem Oil to the ends of the spring then wiped the whole Assembly down with a CLP Wipe, replace it into the Mag Well, cleaned the Chamber really good. Ran a full Clip of Dummy Rounds through the gun. Then went to Midway and order the '03 Armorers book. I am going to have to do a Whole Gun breakdown to make sure everything is clean and shiny. Total time on just the Mag Well Cleaning was over 2 hours.
With that dried cosmoline you've found so far, you might think about stripping down the bolt. too. Once you get the bolt disassembly figured out, give the interior of the bolt body a good cleaning, and clean the cosmoline off of the striker and the main spring. Makes the bolt function a whole lot better.
The Bolt is one of the parts that my uncle cleaned well when he got the rifles, but I am still going to do a complete tear down of the gun after I receive the Disassembly and Assembly guide from Midway just to make sure everything I can get to is going to be cleaned and oiled properly. I also need to pick up some proper tools. Pin Punches and the like. I already have all the cleaning tools and solvents I will be needing for quite a while.
Yikes! That sounds like a lot of work! I have an old 1903 that is in bad need of some TLC. I've been thinking about just taking it to a professional and after reading about the work you did I am more inclined to think that way lol!
If I were to get to the point that I felt I could not handle a task on one of my guns (pistol or Rifle) I would seek the help of a licensed gunsmith. If this were a collectors quality museum type piece I would take it to a gunsmith for everything. But this is a shooter, and if I am gonna shoot something I am going to do my best to learn everything I can about the care of the gun.
After spending a couple hours looking in tool stores, hardware stores, and even a couple gun stores looking for a tool the would fit the Stock Screw Nuts on my '03, I headed home and made the right tool out of a 1/4" Straight Slot Screw Driver bit.
You would think this wouldn't be such a problem, but when trying to take the stock off, you have to use the correct tools. Dremel Tool with a small grinding wheel 5 minutes later test fit the tool is a success.
Are there any other special tools that will be hard to find? I hope not.
That is pricey for an '03, but those Remington '03s are really, really nice. But - seeing as to how they are not making any more original 03s, maybe the price isn't that bad after all. Just think about all of those rifles "sporterized" in garages back in the 60s.
Wow, that was fast, I wonder how many were bought by Gun Shop owners looking to turn them into a profit. The few '03's I have seen around here were selling for between $900 and $1100 and were not in very good condition. And hey were all '03s not '03A3s. So far I have only seen 4 of them in Gun Shops in the past month, though one of the shops had and M1 in very nice condition for $3500 and it sold very quickly.
My Uncle Sporterized his "03A3 in the 60's. He told me that he made a BIG Mistake by doing so, and he only shot 5 rounds through it After shortening the Barrel and putting a stock on it that has a butt that is both too thin and too narrow, it is a shoulder basher even with a butt pad on it. He gave it to one of his son's about 6 months ago, same story 5 rounds, will never fire it again. As it stands right now the Scope on it is worth more than the rifle to them.
Those 03A3 stocks are not all that expensive (at least compared to the standard 03 stocks). Stocks for the 03s are CRAZY expensive on Eb**, but the 03A3s are way less than half as much (and more common). SAARCO used to sell what they called "Springfield Parts Kits", and they also had 03A3 stocks (some of the kits even included stocks).
If you do look on Eb**, make sure you know what stock is what - most of the folks there do not know the difference. I often see what they sell as "1903 Springfield Stock" are often really 03A3s (a quick way to tell the difference is the 03A3 has no finger grooves on the fore end but do have an inlet for the hand guard ring).
The stock on my '03 is the original stock, it does not have the Finger Grooves. I never saw the original stock on my uncles '03A3 so I can't make a comment on it.
I don't know if this was brought up earlier or not, but yours may be correct for your rifle, even with out the finger groove stock as found on the early 1903 Springfields and Rock Islands. Most all of the early rifles were arsenal refinished and re-issued for service in WW2. I read years ago that even most of those rifles with good stocks were re-stocked, with the idea that the 25 year old wood was better replaced with fresh stocks for combat service.
That is a rifle that I've always wanted.Even as a kid,hunting with my "garage sporterized" Spanish Mauser,I knew that the crown jewel was a 1903 springfield. Back then most of the men wanted "sporterized" '03's.
Through research here and another site the stock is original to my rifle. Though the bolt and the butt plate may not be. I know the follower is not as it is stamped with a W meaning it was originally in a M1917. I am still trying to nail down the Lower Band, seems some of the 1942 made rifles had a Milled Lower Band and some had a Stamped Lower Band.
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