Stephan
07-06-2014, 12:54
About a month ago I bought a battered/crusty Rock Island 1903 out of my retired gunsmith buddy's 'clunkers gun rack'.
Aside from abuse and neglect the Rock's biggest problem is what appears to be a .30 caliber bullet lodged just in front of the chamber!! Besides the bullet..there was also better than 20 inches of wooden dowel-rod wedged in from the front and pounded flush with the muzzle.....DOH!!
My pal swears he didn't do that...but that a fellow had brought the gun in for repair back in the 1990's and balked at the suggestion of a new $50 surplus barrel and install fee. left the poorly treated '03 to cover the inspection bill...
I was attracted to it because it has a S type finger-groove stock that's not totally unfortunate(I think it's a Springfield stock). The hand guard appears to be a near-new WWII 'low-hump. The action is in the double-heat/NS serial range for RI and has a milled mag-box still. The rest of the parts are a mix of this and that..the barrel a Remington(that I can't read the date on). The bolt is an A3 with a mix of Remington and Smith-Corona internals.
Fankly..I bought it to rob the stock off of and put on my much-much nicer Rock Island 1903 which is wearing an A3 buttstock. Then spin the dud barrel off the action and have a rusty 1903 action laying around for a future project, plus a bunch of 1903 spare parts.
The problem is that my son and I managed to extricate the wood dowel-rod... soaked the bore in 'Marvel Mystery Oil' overnight. then I took my Trapdoor rifle's cleaning-rod and 'bounced' the rod down the bore three or four times with force and the bullet fell out! :eek:
The bore ain't too bad..some rust pits and frost but has rifling from breech to muzzle and passes the 'bullet test' at the muzzle. Now I'm torn between parting the battered Rock out or nursing it back to health.
It's a minor conundrum!
Aside from abuse and neglect the Rock's biggest problem is what appears to be a .30 caliber bullet lodged just in front of the chamber!! Besides the bullet..there was also better than 20 inches of wooden dowel-rod wedged in from the front and pounded flush with the muzzle.....DOH!!
My pal swears he didn't do that...but that a fellow had brought the gun in for repair back in the 1990's and balked at the suggestion of a new $50 surplus barrel and install fee. left the poorly treated '03 to cover the inspection bill...
I was attracted to it because it has a S type finger-groove stock that's not totally unfortunate(I think it's a Springfield stock). The hand guard appears to be a near-new WWII 'low-hump. The action is in the double-heat/NS serial range for RI and has a milled mag-box still. The rest of the parts are a mix of this and that..the barrel a Remington(that I can't read the date on). The bolt is an A3 with a mix of Remington and Smith-Corona internals.
Fankly..I bought it to rob the stock off of and put on my much-much nicer Rock Island 1903 which is wearing an A3 buttstock. Then spin the dud barrel off the action and have a rusty 1903 action laying around for a future project, plus a bunch of 1903 spare parts.
The problem is that my son and I managed to extricate the wood dowel-rod... soaked the bore in 'Marvel Mystery Oil' overnight. then I took my Trapdoor rifle's cleaning-rod and 'bounced' the rod down the bore three or four times with force and the bullet fell out! :eek:
The bore ain't too bad..some rust pits and frost but has rifling from breech to muzzle and passes the 'bullet test' at the muzzle. Now I'm torn between parting the battered Rock out or nursing it back to health.
It's a minor conundrum!