Hello all,

I purchased this mixmaster 1903 Springfield a short while ago.



Here's the rifle, serial No. 1514xxx. The barrel is marked "SA 10 42" and has a pristine bore.



Looks fine, right? Wrong. I disassembled the 03 to scrub off the Cosmoline in the chamber and bolt before reassembling it. I probably messed up here, because for some reason, the bolt protrudes about 1 cm farther than it should. No matter how I shake, twist, or turn it, it simply refuses to sit behind the notch.



I discovered this problem when I attempted to chamber some dummy rounds. With the magazine cutoff in the "Off" position, the rounds won't clear...



...but for some reason, when I engage the "On" switch, the stripper clips clear. But the fun doesn't stop there. The 03 chambers and "fires" the fluted rounds (headstamped FA 1 18, FA 37, and FA 18), but not even a hard whack and profanity will close the bolt on the two smooth rounds (both headstamped FA 4). To make matters worse, the magazine follower automatically ejects the last round even before I can chamber it.

So what's screwing up my rifle? Please help me fix this problem!

Thanks,
Celduin

Suggestions:

1.  Check the dummy rounds with a cartridge gage (like the Hornady one).  The smooth rounds might be too long for the rifle.  Depending on when it was re-barreled (and the date on the barrel is no guarantee of that), the armorer may have cut the chamber to the absolute minimum to get a tight match chamber.  Great for accuracy, not so great for chambering rounds that are on the long side.  My CMP competition M1903 has a 1942 SA barrel.  It was re-barreled by a military armorer (either US or Greek).  It just passes the SAAMI "go" gage.  It will chamber about 60% of the HXP (Greek) ammo.  It will chamber almost all of the LC I have fed it.  If I were to shoot HXP in a match, I would have to test chamber each round to make sure it fit before the match.  I generally shoot my own hand loads, so its not an issue. You may also have a rile with a tight chamber.  The headspace spec for the Springfield was tighter (shorter?) than the spec for the Garand.

2.  Your cutoff appears to be working correctly.  With it in the "off" position, you should not be able to load it with a stripper clip, nor should any rounds in the magazine feed.  That is "single feed" mode.  

3.  The rifle ejecting the last round might be an issue with the follower.  The old milled followers (while correct for this rifle) were problematic.  The Remington stamped followers actually work much better.  I replaced the milled follower in my competition M1903 with a stamped follower for just that reason.

HTH

Matt

This.  Nothing wrong at all.

A few made it out into the market with rebarrels that weren't cut to final dimension.  The stock replacement barrels are short chambered and need a final reaming.  When the greek returns came back through CMP a few guys got just such an animal; new barrel on rifle but still short chambered/not cut to headspace spec.

Make sure you don't have the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Thanks for the helpful replies, guys. I learned quite a bit about my 03!

I took a chamber brush and did the chamber before following that up with a brass barrel brush and some patches. Four out of the five dummies pictured now cycle and "fire" just fine. However, the smooth-sided FA 4 round on the bottom of the clip still won't go into the chamber, even though its identical twin does.

The 03 still likes to throw out the last round. I popped open the floorplate to examine the spring. It's NOS rather than worn and still has a lot of springiness. I hope that some range time will make it behave.

SteelonSteel: I'll take it to a gunsmith to (hopefully) prevent that occurrence.

But if the chamber needs to be reamed, about how much should I expect to pay?

I don't know your skill level, so how about taking it to a good trusted gun smith. Ask him to check it the headspace to at least eliminate that as a problem.

I'll look for a good full disassembly vid and post it for you.

Here you go. Let us know if that helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVpS1FxiUTk

Askari: Thanks for the video. As a matter of fact, I used that very same one to disassemble my 03. Granted, my mechanical skills are fairly poor, but I guess a refresher never hurts.

Since I'm busy this week, it might be a few days until I can get a gunsmith to check the headspace. Once that is accomplished, I'll return with an update.

Is the magazine spring in upside down?

How sure are you that both FA 4 dummies are 30-06 and not 30-03?

The short chambering problems were with the HS replacements. Before you let anyone near that bbl with a reamer, get a competent person to headspace it.

Dracster: According to Wikipedia, the FA 4 headstamp indicates production in 1944. So I don't think that we have to worry about the dummies being .30-03. You can see the page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_headstamps#US_Arsenals.



The magazine spring in my 03 is like this one.

You have a case gauge that says the dummy is in spec?

If the spring isn't in backwards then you need a new spring.

I didn't mean to sound like you didn't know what you were doing as far as taking it apart and getting it back together. I meant checking the headspace with a gauge. If you are close I could help you out with that.

it depends if he has a pull through reamer or not.  A normal chambering job done with the barrel off the receiver in a lathe.  A pull through reamer is done without machinery.  A rod is inserted down the barrel and the pull through type reamer is threaded on.  A wrench is used to turn the barrel rod driving the cutter.  The military did rifles like this.  I suppose it's a slightly less precise way to chamber but for service rifles it is very adequate.  

A pull through reamer job should be 0.5 to 1 hour of his labor charges I would guess.  It doesn't take all that long. I've done an M14 that way.  It's pretty easy.

A reamer and rod only costs about $150 bucks.

Just for him to check the headspace shouldn't cost that much.  I would hope.  If a guy charges a half hour labor for 5 minutes of his time he must be rather hungry.   For firearms that require the bolt to be dismantled then it would be fair to be charged time needed.  Stripping the bolt down is generally preferred anyhow for most guns so as to not have the extractor or ejector interfere with the measurement.  For M1903 I don't think I'd bother to strip the bolt.  I would slip it under the extractor by hand and make sure the extractor doesn't hold the gage off the bolt face.  

Oh and when using gages, use no force.  Just a light touch on the bolt.   You can damage gages by forcing them.

A go gage should cost you less than $30 from midway or Brownells.

If you buy your own gages I suggest Clymer over other brands but I have liked PTG products too.  My pull through 7.62 NATO reamer is a PTG.  They make good stuff.  You would need a GO gage to show you the minimum depth you should have.   A NO GO should not be able to chamber, if it does you went to far.  These are the 2 gages used by gunsmiths and armorers when chambering new barrels.  The Field gage is the one used by military armorers at the unit level to check guns for when they need to be withdrawn and rebuilt.  It is the maximum headspace allowed before the gun is considered unserviceable.

here's a gage guide at cmp

http://thecmp.org/training-tech/armorers-corner/headspace/

Just got back with some good news.

After finding that there were evidently no capable gunsmiths within a 30-minute radius, I took the long drive to Smith Enterprise, Inc. in Tempe, AZ. I cannot recommend them highly enough. The man in the shop did a headspace check and confirmed my suspicions -- that the chamber was too tight. He then reamed the chamber for me. Now the bolt opening (which used to require substantial effort) is much smoother.

Evidently, the dummy rounds were part of the problem. He claimed that the FA 4 rounds (the slate-gray ones) aren't real USGI dummies, but rather somebody's demilled rounds. He then took measurements and showed how my dummies showed a wide variance in dimensions. One of them was the one giving me chambering problems before today. I then took the 03 home and cycled the dummies. Now the problem round finally chambers, but with more effort than the rest. I'll probably make it into a keychain ornament.

I'll come back with a range report as soon as I can.

Good to see it worked out for you. I'm interested to hear how it shoots.

Good deal,  glad you got her up and running.

Thanks for the follow up report.

One more thing...

My 03 has a problem. Immediately before I chamber the final round, it likes to eject the unfired 5th round right when the fired 4th round pops out of the chamber. It pisses me off to no end when I have to fish for that one remaining bullet somewhere on the floor.



Here's the follower, floorplate, and spring.



And here's the follower assembly as it would look inside the 03. Is there anything wrong with the spring that's causing the rifle to prematurely eject?