US Model 1903 ( Remington made ) - Page 1

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - US Model 1903 ( Remington made )

Posted: 5/12/2020 3:26:53 PM EDT

Hey guys. Looking for opinions from collectors. I have a Remington made '03. Was told it was a vet bring back. No paperwork to back that up.
Looks to be all original. Barrel date is 5-42. Serial # is 311xxxx. Puts it at June '42.
The barrel is nasty. Dark and frosty.
I'm sure there is some rust pitting.
My question is, do I leave it as a collectable ? Or have it re-barreled ?
I've had military rifles for a long time. Rule of thumb has always been, don't mess with it.

I'm really thinking about selling it. Don't shoot rifles much any more.

What sez the hive ? Thx

Posted: 5/12/2020 3:57:16 PM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:
Hey guys. Looking for opinions from collectors. I have a Remington made '03. Was told it was a vet bring back. No paperwork to back that up.
Looks to be all original. Barrel date is 5-42. Serial # is 311xxxx. Puts it at June '42.
The barrel is nasty. Dark and frosty.
I'm sure there is some rust pitting.
My question is, do I leave it as a collectable ? Or have it re-barreled ?
I've had military rifles for a long time. Rule of thumb has always been, don't mess with it.

I'm really thinking about selling it. Don't shoot rifles much any more.

What sez the hive ? Thx

View Quote

Make it a shooter!

Posted: 5/12/2020 5:03:44 PM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
Hey guys. Looking for opinions from collectors. I have a Remington made '03. Was told it was a vet bring back. No paperwork to back that up.
Looks to be all original. Barrel date is 5-42. Serial # is 311xxxx. Puts it at June '42.
The barrel is nasty. Dark and frosty.
I'm sure there is some rust pitting.
My question is, do I leave it as a collectable ? Or have it re-barreled ?
I've had military rifles for a long time. Rule of thumb has always been, don't mess with it.

I'm really thinking about selling it. Don't shoot rifles much any more.

What sez the hive ? Thx

View Quote

If you are going to sell it, leave it alone.

If you are going to keep it, re-barrel it.

Posted: 5/12/2020 7:00:26 PM EDT

[#3]

If all original and in decent condition, it is worth more with a frosty pitted original barrel than a replacement barrel.

For a shooter, clean the bore real good and see how it shoots. Probably would surprise you.

Posted: 5/12/2020 7:31:23 PM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Originally Posted By pepe-lepew:
If all original and in decent condition, it is worth more with a frosty pitted original barrel than a replacement barrel.

For a shooter, clean the bore real good and see how it shoots. Probably would surprise you.

View Quote

This, I've had some nasty barrels improve remarkably with use. That kind of condition is what I like to buy as I want an affordable shootable piece of history, I don't need it to be competition worthy.

Posted: 5/12/2020 7:54:03 PM EDT

[#5]

I agree with above. Clean it then put some rounds through it and see what it does.

Posted: 5/12/2020 8:08:30 PM EDT

[#6]

Seems like leave it be is the majority opinion.
The metal finish is very good. The stock has "character", which is what I love about old rifles.
A mid year 1942 '03 was probably in the pacific. I'm sure it's a "been there, done that" rifle.
I have a 1942 dated bayonet and scabbard for it too.

Any suggestions other than Hoppe's # 9 for cleaning ?

Thx for the feedback.

Posted: 5/13/2020 2:01:56 AM EDT

[#7]

JB bore paste will pull a lot of carbon out. For copper, I let Hoppes sit in there at least 15-30 minutes between a couple patches. It is time consuming but you will see a lot of blue coming out.

Posted: 5/13/2020 11:11:30 AM EDT

[#8]

I once bought a Savage No 4 that had a bore that looked like a sewer pipe. I got it cheap because of that.

I figured I had nothing to lose, so I used Iosso bore paste on a stainless steel brush.

After the first couple of times through the barrel, what I thought was huge pits were nothing more than years of accumulated crud. The bore actually looked great.

And, even if the barrel is pitted, it can still be a great shooter. Clean it up and give it a try.

Posted: 5/13/2020 3:20:17 PM EDT

[#9]

Are you sure "vet bring-back" doesn't mean "sold out of the VFW"? This happened to a lot of rifles out of ignorance and poor record keeping. The bores were usually sewer pipes from shooting blanks with no cleaning afterwards.

I'll echo the advice to clean it and see what it looks like. If it's still a sewer pipe, shoot it. If it doesn't shoot well, rebarrel it.

Got some pics?

Posted: 5/14/2020 11:29:44 PM EDT

[#10]

I've cleaned many a "bad" barrel to find under layers of nasty, a pristine bore.

Go get a rubber tapered plug from Ace Hardware. Jam it tight into the chamber. Fill the bore with Kroil or PB Blaster to the muzzle. Stand it in the corner for 24 to 48 hours.

Tip the barrel down to drain, knock the plug out and start cleaning. Alternate patch and brush with Hoppies Nitro or Bench Rest. I prefer Bench Rest. Wrapping a patch around brush works pretty good too.

When you stop getting dirty patches, run a wet patch with Benchrest down the tube and walk away for a few hours. Repeat until it's no longer pulling blue. Overnight is fine with Benchrest. Other copper solvents not so much.

9 out of 10 barrels will be clean by now. If not, repeat whole process.
I've never had a usable barrel NOT get clean doing this.

Posted: 5/14/2020 11:57:02 PM EDT

[#11]

My favorite cleaner for such conditions is sweets 7.62. Really gets the copper fouling out real well. And also agree, often rifles with apparently ugly bores will clean up and shoot much better than expected

Posted: 5/15/2020 1:02:44 AM EDT

[#12]

Quote History

Originally Posted By captain127:
My favorite cleaner for such conditions is sweets 7.62. Really gets the copper fouling out real well. And also agree, often rifles with apparently ugly bores will clean up and shoot much better than expected

View Quote

Sweets is good but will etch metal if left in too long too. I found this out the hard way.

Posted: 5/15/2020 1:46:55 AM EDT

[#13]

I sold an M1917 a few years back due to the barrel. I cleaned the barrel and saw it had the nasty blank fire barrel cancer. It would group around 12" at 100 yards with any and all ammo. While my 03A3 was consistently shot 3" at 100 yards. As the rifle was all matching, I got rid of it. If it were a post war arsenal rebud, then I would have rebarreled it. I'll continue to look for one with a nice bore for my collection in the future that will hold respectable accuracy.

Posted: 5/15/2020 7:14:51 AM EDT

[#14]

I bought the rifle a few years ago, from a shop I've dealt with for years. That's where the vet bring back story cam from.
Unknown to me, it had a broken firing pin. I've heard for years, that guns had to be rendered "inactive", when brought on ship bringing troops back to the states.
Urban legend or fact, IDK.

On a side note. If it actually was a VFW rifle, with a broken firing pin, I wouldn't fire anything. Blanks or otherwise.

I bought a new firing pin, took it to the range for a function test.
I was able to hit the target @ 50 yds. However, there were way too many fliers.

Fast forward.
The barrel has decent visible rifling. It just doesn't come clean. I also see frosting, and possibly pitting.

I'd hate to have to rebuild an original piece of history. But if need be, so be it.

I will take all yours advise. Hopefully it will clean up.

Thanks so much......

Posted: 5/15/2020 7:19:04 AM EDT

[#15]

Can you still see rifling? If you can chances are it's fine just clean it.

If you cant, clean it first then see if you see rifling...

If it has rifling visable its probably still a shooter unless the muzzle is wire out. Clean it, shoot it, and get back with us. It's a military gun it's not gonna be bright and shiney.

Posted: 5/15/2020 8:31:59 AM EDT

[#16]

Quote History

Originally Posted By jnk556:
Can you still see rifling? If you can chances are it's fine just clean it.

If you cant, clean it first then see if you see rifling...

If it has rifling visable its probably still a shooter unless the muzzle is wire out. Clean it, shoot it, and get back with us. It's a military gun it's not gonna be bright and shiney.

View Quote

I can see the rifling. I am going to try a few of the things suggested here.
I've had military rifles for many years. None of my military rifles have shiny barrels, except for my Arisaka.
They all shoot very well, except for the '03.
I had am M1 Garand some time ago, with a wiped out barrel. I could still hit dinner plate targets @ 100yds with it.
I will update the hive with results. May take a while. It's difficult to get to the outdoor range.
Thx again.....

Posted: 5/15/2020 10:32:27 AM EDT

[#17]

I have a Remington made 1903 A1 (Modified) in my collection. Serial # 30941XX, produced just prior to yours, April/May, 1942. Sometime before I acquired it, it had been re-barreled with High Standard 4 groove barrel dated 12 - 44 and had been re-stocked with a pistol grip A1 stock. It isn't an arsenal rebuild because there no stamps in stock indicating such and I don't think it's a DCM rifle. Probably a home gunsmithing re-stock job with a stock purchased off of SARCO or Gunparts Corp. With standard GI 150 gr M2 Lake City ball ammo, at a 100 yards, off of a rest, I can keep all 5 shots in a 3" - 3.5" group, using the open sights.

Clean your barrel as best you can and run a couple boxes of milspec ball ammo through it and see where it hits. It may need nothing other than a good cleaning.
Gary

Posted: 6/4/2020 10:07:33 PM EDT

[#18]

Aren’t all 1903’s vet bring backs?

Posted: 6/4/2020 10:28:29 PM EDT

[#19]

Quote History

Quoted:
Aren’t all 1903’s vet bring backs?

View Quote

No. Many of them were rifles that were shipped to other countries as military aid after WW2, and then were later shipped back to the US military by these other countries.

The large batch of 1903s and 1903A3s returned from Greece, that were released to the CMP for sale in the mid-2000s, is the most recent example.

Posted: 6/5/2020 12:49:11 AM EDT

[#20]

Quote History

Quoted:

No. Many of them were rifles that were shipped to other countries as military aid after WW2, and then were later shipped back to the US military by these other countries.

The large batch of 1903s and 1903A3s returned from Greece, that were released to the CMP for sale in the mid-2000s, is the most recent example.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Aren't all 1903's vet bring backs?

No. Many of them were rifles that were shipped to other countries as military aid after WW2, and then were later shipped back to the US military by these other countries.

The large batch of 1903s and 1903A3s returned from Greece, that were released to the CMP for sale in the mid-2000s, is the most recent example.

In the 50's and 60s, every Army-Navy store, and some department stores, had a seemingly bottomless barrel of them to choose from. DCM had a couple lotteries/sales, one in the 50s (I think) and one in the early 90s before the CMP switchover. Prior to WW1, NRA Life members could buy a special NRA edition rifle. During the 20s and 30s, rifles could be ordered direct from Springfield Armory through the DCM.

Posted: 6/7/2020 7:13:14 AM EDT

[#21]

Hey guys. I solved the problem, well, kinda.
I sold it. I really didn't want to re barrel an original rifle. That would have led to a new stock. At that point it would be no different than any other '03.
Like stated earlier, the outdoor range here is a pain in the ass to shoot at. Therefore I don't shoot rifles much any more.
Thanks for all the input.

I do have the bayonet from it for sale. It's an M1905, they refer to it as an M1942. 1942 dated with scabbard. It's listed in the C&R and WW2 collectable section of the EE.
Shoot me an offer. Would like it gone.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - US Model 1903 ( Remington made )

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