When my grandfather died a few years ago, my dad gave me his Springfield 1903 that had been sporterized to be a hunting rifle...the bolt handle had been bent down, the safety had been swapped out with a low scope safety, and the receiver had been drilled and tapped for a scope mount...The finish on the rifle however was beat to hell, and needed to be refinished and the wood stock had a big crack in it from not being fitted right and shot over and over again. I cut the barrel to 21" and had it re-crowned...I found a scope mount on ebay and bought a Bell and Carlson stock for it, but had to file down the area where the bolt handle fits into, which left the stock kind of ugly..so then I sprayed the stock with pickup truck bedliner, which gave it a cool texture but ugly color....So, now it has been Duracoated by Guncoat NW...The colors are Woodland Tan, Woodland Brown, Woodland Green, and Matte Black...It is now my hunting rifle and will endure the crappy weather here in the NW (RAIN RAIN RAIN!!!)..Just couldn't get rid of Grandpas old rifle, so I made it my own. Photos by Guncoat NW.

Let me know what you think!!! P.S. I know..how could I do this to a 1903, but you should have seen it before. Didn't have a whole lot of value except sentimental, and now I have a great .30-06 hunting rig

BEFORE


AFTER BEDLINER


FINISHED PRODUCT

looks nice, but i would have made 1903a4 clone instead of chopping the original barrel.

I think it looks great. I hope you enjoy your Grandpa's rifle.

Bob

I can't say I hate the way it looks, but at the same time I'm some what disappointed to see a nice rifle go that way. Then agian it was already gone by the time you got it, so it's not like you did anything bad. All I can say is poor rifle; no mater how good it looks now, part of me like to imagine it misses the days of its youth.

Looks great!  How does it shoot?  

Looks great! I agree with NeoWeird. It was already permanently altered by the time you got it so you might as well have done something with it. And this looks good. I love the Springfield action. It's got to be the prettiest one around.

I've got an old 03a3 built on a Santa Fe receiver. These are cast receivers that were used to build up parts kit rifles in the sixties. I've thought about redoing it just enough to make a 03A4 clone out of it, as was suggested by advntrjnky. It's just the cost of them darned walnut C-stocks that is mostly holding me back.

Bumblebee_Bob  dupage trading co. has pretty good prices on repro C-stocks.  both the original slim "C" and the fatter WWII a4 "C" stock.  when i come across a sporterized 1903/1903a3 at a gunshow at a fair price i plan on building an a4 clone.  

i hope i didn't come across badly.  i do like the rifle! and am a firm believer in do what you want with it, it is yours.  i was just trying to point ou tthat it looked like an original barrel and already drilled/tapped for Redfield bases.  it would have been a prime candidate for an easy a4 clone.

Thanks for the link advntrjnky. I think?! Now I've got another project to work on.

no prob!  i plan on getting one of their slim pre-WWII C-stocks to make a clone of the Marines 1903 when i finally get my paperwork into the CMP.  then of course when i find the sporterized 1903a3 then i need to buy the fat C-stock to build my a4 clone.  projects-projects-projects.... too many projects.

I wasn't offended at all...My father gave this to me because he collects rifles from the Spanish-American war, Revolutionary war, Civil War, and World War I and II that are in original condition and worth $$$$$$$$....he knows quite a bit about war relic guns and trust me, he would have kept this for himself if it had any value...to be honest...I didn't think about cloning the rifle because I wanted to make it my general purpose hunting gun...I just put the finish on it to make it a little more resistant to NW weather...My dad is the old war gun buff...I'm more of a tactical gun buff....Just thought some of you would enjoy seeing something a little different done with a sporterized rifle

Wow, looks great!! Enjoy it.