Four WWI 1903's

[Fred]

I saw that the lighting was just right today as it was cloudy outside. So I took some photo's of my four WWI 1903's to see how the pictures would turn out. I like this lighting outside and think that cloudy days are perfect for photo's. No shadows or anything. Anyway, here are the results.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/spring14_zpse1a2726a.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/spring14_zpse1a2726a.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/spring13_zps30a08574.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/spring13_zps30a08574.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/spring12_zpsc68a748d.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/spring12_zpsc68a748d.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/spring7_zps1eddfa49.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/spring7_zps1eddfa49.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/spring8_zpsf876fac8.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/spring8_zpsf876fac8.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/spring9_zps153518ea.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/spring9_zps153518ea.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/spring11_zpsa0b84bd0.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/spring11_zpsa0b84bd0.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/spring10_zps9f659e2f.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/spring10_zps9f659e2f.jpg.html)

[the_1st_sgt]

Beautiful rifles. I see the Mk 1 any RI's in the bunch

[CptEnglehorn]

beautiful set.

[Rick the Librarian]

Nice set and good pictures, too. I quite agree that a "high cloudy" day is best for pictures. However, I usually find that taking "full on" pictures of more than two rifles is extremely difficult.

[mannparks]

Good photos , nice Springfield's

[Fred]

Thanks guys. I like the lighting, but I just don't get the focus from my iPhone camera that I want. I'm going to have to invest in a real camera for any close up photo's. It works really good for outdoor shots showing a distant subject though.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/yos19.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/yos19.jpg.html)

There were at least a couple of hikers who were at the base of this mountain when the rock face gave way. They no doubt had time to look up when the noise alerted them. They might've even had time to turn around to run, but they never made it. They're buried underneath the gazillion tons of granite that you see. It happened a few years before I took this photo at Yosemite.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/yos5.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/yos5.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/yos12.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/yos12.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/yos18.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/yos18.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/yos16.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/yos16.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/yos17.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/yos17.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/yos1.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/yos1.jpg.html)

[Fred]

Beautiful rifles. I see the Mk 1 any RI's in the bunch

Yes, there is. It's the rifle at the opposite end of the group from the rifle with the blonde stock. The bottom rifle in most of the photo's. It's Rock Island Arsenal 268563 with a RIA barrel date of 7-18. That rifle, although below the number of the official receiver for the start of double heat treating at Rock Island, is actually one of about 5,000 Rock Island rifles whose low number receivers were double heat treated. Its receiver along with the others hadn't been heat treated yet and so the decision was made to give them the new double heat treatment. So, this rifle is certainly safe to fire.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/ss22_zps6214f80d.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/ss22_zps6214f80d.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/ss23_zpsb44c6033.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/ss23_zpsb44c6033.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/ss24_zps598c95d1.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/ss24_zps598c95d1.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/ss26_zps34407b76.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/ss26_zps34407b76.jpg.html)

[cplnorton]

Really nice rifles Fred! And the landscapes are nice too. Someday I would love to build a cabin in the middle of nowhere and then turn the technology off and go back to living like it was the 1800's. I think that would be a peaceful way to live out the rest of my life. :)

[Fred]

Thanks clplnorton. It would seem that living off of the grid would be peaceful wouldn't it? I've lived and worked within a Central American jungle for several months at a time over the years doing Archaeological work down there and it really sucked having no plumbing. Depending on where exactly I happened to be at any one time, the springs or creeks or rivers provided me water. Sometimes I had to get it from a tire rut and strain it through an article of clothing...like a pair of underwear before boiling it. The dirt floor hut I slept in if in the Indian village was infested with giant spiders and scorpions. The chickens that I allowed inside would eat them during the day, and the rats would eat them at night. Of course I had to contend with the rats and the chickens. When staying deep in the mountain jungle, I got my water from a river that tasted like fish and earthworms after the rains. I mixed it with Tang to over ride the taste, but that just put one more flavor into the mix. Every indian up river was probably pissing into it. I'm sure that since the river came out of Guatemala, it probably had a few dead bodies floating around in it up stream. I couldn't boil it fast enough to replace what I sweated out during the day, so I just drank it from the rivers and cave springs. That tasted like bat crap, which it was full of. I would loose a lot of weight and one season I lost over 50 pounds. What with the Indians, ethnic Africans and some white folks stealing food from me, I couldn't get enough to eat to keep any weight on. A fire was all that I had for light during the nights. You don't dare go out too far from the light at night to relieve yourself without a weapon because of the occasional Jaguar (the Quichi Mayan Indians called them Tigers) that would be watching and waiting for anyone to do just that. No radio. No TV. No stove. No toilet. No air conditioning. No heater (the nights can get cold). No refrigerator. No ice for a drink. No doctor, No news from the outside world. No bed (just a hammock) and sometimes no body to talk to for days at a time if you were alone out at a site 30 miles away in the mountains or jungle guarding the equipment from thieves and the tombs from looters. Of course there were the tombs to explore by yourself. The dead are peaceful and uncomplaining. I did miss conversation though. You just can't talk about much with an Indian that only speaks Mayan and broken English. They all speak differently too. Quiche, Mopan, Lacandon, Yucatec, Huastec, Ch'olan, Q'anjobalan, Mamean. None of the ones around me spoke any Spanish, not that I did. They were good listeners though! I don't want to be off of the Grid anymore. I like it on the grid. LOL

[1563621]

Sounds like loads of fun! Nice 03s.

[1563621]

Really nice rifles Fred! And the landscapes are nice too. Someday I would love to build a cabin in the middle of nowhere and then turn the technology off and go back to living like it was the 1800's. I think that would be a peaceful way to live out the rest of my life. :)

I have been drooling over that shotgun. the stevens.

[madsenshooter]

The blonde stock sorta looks like what Krag fanciers have come to call Italian walnut, European walnut imported and used in place of American walnut during a shortage from 1900-1903 or so.

[Fred]

Maybe. I've owned another such blonde stock 03 before. It was an early one with a solid hand guard and no stock bolts. Interestingly, the inside of my rock island stock is very light in color too. It doesn't have the stain inside of it that was applied to the outside. Both stock and hand guard are very light in color on the inside.

[Fred]

Sounds like loads of fun! Nice 03s.

Thanks! Glad you like them! Yea, it was loads of fun when I was younger, but the last time I went down there in 2009, I wasn't having any fun, even though I took my wife with me. I had to get my water from a lagoon full of some species of gator. They went away as soon as the water hole dried up though. They had good sense. LOL Naw, I like it fine here in Nebraska!

[pelago]

don't you wish they could talk, and the stories that they might tell

[Doug Douglass]

My absolute favorate firearm subject......the very accurate Model 1903 rifle. Nice photos. One of these days I am going to get my wife to post photos of some of mine. I type, I am computer stupid.

[Fred]

I'd like to see any photos of any of your rifles that you'd care to post Doug! Put them up here!
That goes for the rest of you guys. Please, if you have a rifle or rifles that you'd like to show photo's of, Please Please Please put them up here for us all to see and enjoy! Show us some good photography!

[rayg]

Jeeze Fred, nice rifles. The last time you took a group family photo like this it was of your beautiful Long Lee Enfield's. Then you got bored with them because you couldn't up grade them and went and sold them all and started to buy 03's. You buy the best, What rifles are going to collect next? Ray

[DWL in TN]

Fred, not to be nit-picking, but did you ever consider "aging" those two new slings to match the vintage looks of your original rifles? Maybe just me, but a "new" sling on an old rifle kinda sticks out like a sore thumb!:eek: With all our experienced collectors on here maybe someone could tell us the best way to age a sling to match the rifle, or we could just keep an eye out for original ones you could get.

What? no bayonets??

[rayg]

He could take the slings down to the Central American jungle for several months, that would age them quickly. But he doesn't want to go back there again so he can apply Pecard's or similar leather dressing and a hair dryer to heat the leather so the dressing soaks in the leather. That should darken the leather. If not apply brown shoe polish over that. Ray

[Fred]

Those slings are pretty green aren't they? Pecard's is what I need to put on them all right. But First I'd like to use a little dye or stain on them. Brown if I can find it. I still have enough Pecard's to treat them afterwards. Heck, I hurt every time I see what original 1907 slings are going for in fine shape. $150.00 and up! I remember when in the mid eighties, A guy came walking into a gun show in Kansas City with a paper grocery bag full of them. I counted about 65 or 70. He told me he'd take $1.00 each for them. I paid the man and left to another table to tell a buddy of mine what I just got. I should've taken the slings with me. We got back to my table and my (former) best friend who was sitting at the table with me proudly told me that he'd made me a profit on the whole mess of them to some guy that'd come by at $1.50 each. I never told him that I wanted to sell them, but he was sure I'd approve of his move :eek: :eusa_wall:
Ray, I'm just going to keep getting the occasional 1903 and eventually another Krag to keep this time. Also a Garand. After that, mayabe a 97 Winchester riot gun for home defense and that's it. I sold all of my Enfields and equipt. along with all of my cases of military .303 to fund my 03 purchases.

[rayg]

Try the Pecard's first. Put it on heavy then use a hair dryer to heat and soak it in. Usually that will darken it and make it look aged. If not, then use the dye, Ray

[Fred]

Hey, thanks Ray!

[BryanJ]

Hey, thanks Ray!

After purchasing my first M1903 recently, I've been reading this forum and I'm back to 2013, when I ran across this particular thread. Some threads are so good, they should be recycled every so often so that new members (like me) can get a chance to read them. Those are some beautiful 1903's in this thread and some pretty good stories to go along with the rifles. Enjoy!

[Fred]

I'm glad that you like the rifles Bryan! The only one of those that I still have is the 2nd rifle from the bottom, Next to the Rock Island 03. Its a minty, unworn and unaltered Springfield Armory 1903. I've kept that one as well as one more. A Rod Bayonet 1903.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/IMG_0194_zpsgecklcpt.jpg
(http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/IMG_0194_zpsgecklcpt.jpg.html)
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/IMG_0199_zpsccwxp0nf.jpg
(http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/IMG_0199_zpsccwxp0nf.jpg.html)
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/IMG_0192_zps7hq5xfdo.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/Whitedog333/media/IMG_0192_zps7hq5xfdo.jpg.html)

[BEAR]

Amazing fence post

[BryanJ]

That is one amazing rifle and your photography is pretty amazing as well! I enjoyed your story about roughing it in the jungle.

[Fred]

Yea, that was 28 years ago Bryan. I wouldn't be enjoying it so much as an adventure today. LOL. Except for digging in the tombs. That was interesting of course.