Sporterized 03 Springfield with an unusual barrel.

[Kurt]

I found this on one of the auction sites and kept going back to it. For some oddball reason it appealed in a way I wasn’t even sure why. There was something solid looking about it I guess. I was looking for another sporterized 03 anyway and ended up getting it.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2923_zps804f9363.jpg

I was in Vegas at the time and had it shipped there as I wasn’t going to be back in Alaska for a couple weeks and I could save a lot on the shipping, just bring it back on the plane.
The first thing I noticed when I picked it up was it had some heft to it, close to 9+#’s and that’s in a sporter stock, odd. Like most, it had been blued and there wasn’t a date or make stamped on the muzzle, not unusual, often polished off. The front sight sleeve was double pinned, another oddity to add to the bucket. One other thing that stands out is the area where a rear sight sleeve would mount. It’s missing the slot/s and is almost 2” long before tapering. My list is getting longer.:icon_scratch: Although the barrel has military written all over it, it’s not quite adding up. I pulled the action out of the stock and found a group of stampings on the barrel as shown in the pictures. At this point, with more questions than answers I turned to Rick L. who in turn consulted with John Beard who came up with this;

“The barrel is one of several batches of experimental in-the-white barrels manufactured at Springfield Armory during WWII for unknown purposes. The barrels were eventually released, some in 1967 when Springfield Armory was closed and the barrels were hauled off during cleanup by workers.
The drawing C64160 would identify what experimental purpose the barrel was originally made for. But I have no idea where that drawing would be located. The illegible marking is "D35498", which I believe is the basic barrel drawing number. The "M" is a marking to indicate that the barrel passed magnaflux testing (to detect cracks) and the "35" is the barrel steel lot code.
I neglected to mention that the barrels were manufactured without front and rear sight bases.”

You two never fail to amaze me!!!!!

I did error in my description when said I thought the barrel had been cut down to 23 ¼”, I had forgotten to take into consideration the threads length. It is a 24” barrel.
I did check the head space and it passed with flying colors. The muzzle measured at less than 1 as does the throat and the bore is one of the nicest I’ve ever seen, 4 groove.
Once I got back home, I couldn’t help but staring at the barrel and wondering why the gun weighed so much. Finally it hit me, the barrel simply looked thicker than a stock barrel and it all made some sense as to the solid look of the gun! I got out a calipers and checked it against an RA-42 03 spare barrel I have and these are some rough measurements;

At the receiver: stock barrel, 1.14 this barrel, 1.18
At 3 3/4 “: stock barrel, .9575, this barrel 1.01
At 8”: stock barrel .80, this barrel .91
At 12”: stock barrel .735, this barrel .8085
At 18”: stock barrel .67, this barrel .6895
At the tip: stock barrel, .6185, this barrel, .6215
As you can see it’s certainly thicker, mainly at the chamber end and a ways out.

As to the rest, it has a serial number of 976699 dates to 1918 I believe. It has a Timney Sportsman trigger, a mixed part Rem bolt and a Redfield sight base. The trigger guard isn’t marked but has been converted to a hinged type. The floor plate is R stamped and engraved. The receiver has been drilled and tapped for a Lyman type sight as well as the scope mount.
All in all, a rather nice sporter with an odd barrel, thought you guys might find it as interesting as I did.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2920_zpse8fd9979.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2914_zpsee437ea1.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2916_zpsbf56f1f4.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2912_zps0a661436.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2925_zpse7914b23.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2924_zps3e2abef2.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2922_zpsd64ab8e0.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x35/Supercub99/Springfield%20Sporter/IMG_2921_zps375aaab8.jpg

And, much, much appreciation to John and Rick for all the help, and right in the middle of Thanksgiving!

[chuckindenver]

iv seen this marking on other barrels that were new reject barrels, all the ones iv delt with had index issues, some with the sight bases, others with the extractor cut.
iv run into 4 of these over the years.
all shot just fine, once i worked the other issues.
measure all the way to the gas hole. it will be 24 inches long..

[Kurt]

Interesting Chuck. Out of curiosity, were the barrels you ran into problems with mounted on guns or were they unused.

Kurt

[Crashyoung]

Except for the checkering, it reminds me of my Mark I I had to sell...
But I doubt I would have bought my current 03 if I had kept it!

[chuckindenver]

the barrels iv had, were safe, just had issues with sight rear or front alignment, ect.
witness mark was off a bit on one with the extractor cut, that made everything else goofy.
these were short chambered, bores were fine as far as i could tell.
id bet your rifle is just fine, check the headspace ect...and enjoy.

[Kurt]

Chuck, As John mentioned, there were no sights installed on this particular barrel. No slots on the rear sleeve and the front sight was put on with two cross pins, no spline. I did check headspace and it's as good as it gets, passes on all counts. The muzzle measures 0, the throat 0 or less. The index marks line up and look good, the bolt functions fine.

On another note, the scope...it's a Bear Cub vintage 4x nice and clear, little use. The rings are stamped 26mm on the bottoms, later???.

Kurt

[chuckindenver]

id shoot and enjoy....and not sweat the petty stuff....pet the ...oh never mind lol

[Kurt]

No worries Chuck, just curiosities. The range is closed till after the first of the year, just in time for the minus temperatures, yea!

Hope your move to your new digs is going well, might have a small project for you when your up and running again.

Merry Christmas and happy Holidays!

Regards

Kurt

[chuckindenver]

close on a place Jan 13, long story, and ill post it once im moved in...
ill be moving back in the place i moved out of.... just think....they will be running our heath care...

[pelago]

handsome rifle, years and years ago i bought a 03A3 from a pawn shop only because it had a good lyman 48 long slide and i wanted that more than the rifle, i only paid 150 bucks for the whole thing.
when i got home I test fired the rifle and damn if it did not hold great at 100 yards,,, sub minute group with commercial hunting ammo. the stock was worst case of barnyard 'sporterizing' i ever saw, but plate nailed on! saw marks on front of stock where it had been cut back
I picked up a good walnut stock from a local dealer, already had a redfield junior base and had a nice 6 power scope not being used. I put it all together glass bedded it and gave it to my son
one thing i did that was out of the ordinary was
Put on a 3 position safety from brownells now these arent cheap but sure look and work great, never did like the cheap add on safety modification but here it is with the 3 pos safety
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w57/pelago177/1903A3Sporter003.jpg

after a few years we had the rifle parkerized and replaced the tasco with a good weaver 6 power no photo of it, but darn it sure looks good and shoots better, i believe my son has killed over 50 deer with it and some of the shots were 200-300 yards

[Kurt]

Thanks Pelago. My brother calls these sporters folk art, seems appropriate and probably should be a sub class. I have read your other thread on the safety mod you did and it's a nice looking and functional addition. This particular one has the Beuhler safety and seems to work fine so far. There is a Mark II that looks similar and I don't know if there are/were problems with those or not. I may look into the 3 position at some point as I will probably be giving this to my son in the near future. First I need to get it to the range and see how it does!!

Regards

Kurt