1903 barrel is under timed

[qprhooligan]

How hard is it to correct an under timed barrel on an 03 Springfield? Any idea what it would cost to have done?

Thanks.

[PeteDavis]

You either have to lathe a fraction from the sight base area to complete the turn, or add a shim to pull it back. Not hard if you can get the barrel off and get it to a qualified machinist. Try Chuck here. Show us a picture of your witness marks. These things if unaligned indicate home rebarreling, not an armorers job. M1903's if off enough will have out-of-plumb sights and sometimes the extractor cut will refuse the bolt. So there may be other problems depending on what the smith did and the components he used. I have seen rear sight bases glued on with epoxy and no pin.

[qprhooligan]

You either have to lathe a fraction from the sight base area to complete the turn, or add a shim to pull it back. Not hard if you can get the barrel off and get it to a qualified machinist. Try Chuck here. Show us a picture of your witness marks. These things if unaligned indicate home rebarreling, not an armorers job. M1903's if off enough will have out-of-plumb sights and sometimes the extractor cut will refuse the bolt. So there may be other problems depending on what the smith did and the components he used. I have seen rear sight bases glued on with epoxy and no pin.

The barrel is just how I got it from the CMP so I doubt there was any home rebarreling done. I don't have access to a lathe so I guess I will have to send it out to be fixed. There isn't any problem getting a bolt to close. The front and rear sights both seem to be off a few degrees so I guess the barrel just needs to be turned a little more.

Thanks.

[PeteDavis]

What is the barrel maker/date and receiver serial range? The Greeks did a lot of patchy things with those rifles that went far beyond finishes. You may need simply to tighten with a barrel wrench and then check your headspace. A lot of the Greek '03's with HS barrels were never finish reamed.

[qprhooligan]

It has a HS barrel dated 10-44. The barrel has some moderate wear so I assume it had to have been finish reamed. Maybe I can just have a smith torque it down to get it to top dead center.

[chuckindenver]

barrel will have to be removed and re indexed, common issue...easy fix

[oldtirediron]

A few years ago I saw a very high numbered receiver/ barrel/ bolt assembly on a website-- I bought it very cheaply and looked it over very well- Allegedly the set up was used for ammo testing at Fort Dix; the guy I bought it from was very close to that location!! Anyway the barrel was semi completed it had the machining for an 1903 rear sight base, the barrel was excellent inside and the front sight area was not completed-- The index marks were off for whatever reason- They ground the top of the extractor so the bolt would close-- IF anyone is interested in seeing this mix master PM me and I will send them to your e-mail directly as I don't want to use up bandwidth on this website !! The bolt is a very late R4 marked one with the serial number of the receiver engraved on top- the serial number range is 151XXXX Let me know if you want to see pctures as i still have all of the parts but I am going to build a late rifle out of these parts!

[Punch the Clown]

How hard is it to correct an under timed barrel on an 03 Springfield? Any idea what it would cost to have done?

Thanks.

Hooligan, where does it hit with the front sight and rear sight set for zero windage? On a Garand drifting the front sight .008 is equal to 1 moa. If the barrel is undertimed you should be hitting left with the sights set at zero.

***** I thought you said 03A3-My bad! Disregard.

[chuckindenver]

fix it right, or not at all...