A rebuilt Mark 1

[Jan'42]

I recently acquired a Mark 1 - well, action at least. Basically it appears like MANY of the rebuilt for ARVN 03's we see here (MANY were imported to Australia by an importer with Vietnam manufacturing affiliations years ago) - had a SC pinned stock (with clear Ord Wheel, FJA, P and geometrics), SC triggerguard and typical Booher WW2 chunk handguard. Bolt was a CC (YAK!). Barrel is a Rem-4-43 4 groove.

I have set to rebuild it to represent a range rifle for me - already put it in a Keystone C stock, replaced the handguard with an as-new pre-WW2 style, and acquired milled triggerguard and a BF 46 bolt. Looks better already!

ANYWAY, my issue is I believe the barrel to be an 03A3 barrel fitted with the RSFB (Rem) - whoever fitted it had the RSFB off a few degrees, and mangled the living day lights out of the front lip underneath. I have acquired a nice replacement Rem RSFB, and now to fit it. The bore is absolutely immaculate/new, so I feel rather reticent NOT to use it, and not to go to the expense acquiring a new HS or similar.

The gun plumber did NOT drill the crosspin nor the rear longitudinal pin, so removing the old mangled RSFB will be easy - little heat and a cold chisel (nothing to lose with that RSFB anyway, so mangled it shall be!). My questions regard refitting the replacement.

In y'all experience, is the lateral pin vital to holding the RSFB under recoil, or could I get away with permanent Loctite? I am not a good solderer, so I would prefer Loctite :) Or should I go to the extra complication of drilling or milling the crosspin slot on the barrel? I will be omitting the longitudinal pin so as to facilitate getting the alignment right with the front sight. Mausers get away with solder only...

Appreciate feedback as to whether the Loctite should hold under recoil - I don't want it to slice into the rear lip of my lovely handguard.

A big shout out thank you to Bob Vischer for helping in this rebuild. It should make a pretty, and hopefully fine shooting range rifle

[Emri]

Loctite should be plenty enough strong if the fit is tight as you stated. If you have an A3 barrel, make sure the turning at the end was done properly. You said you weren't sure which one it is......A3 barrel will have a key way for the front sight spline/key. '03 barrel will have a spline built in for the front sight.

HTH,

Emri

[purple]

I've installed a couple of M1903 rear sight collars on 03A3 barrels and have also put a couple of collars on M1903 barrels. They fit quite tightly, but can be driven on. In one case I needed to grind out the inside of the collar to get it on an 03A3 barrel. I didn't use either the longitudinal pin or the cross pin. As I recall, the 03A3 barrel profile is such that the cross pin wouldn't engage the barrel anyway. Both collars have remained in position after firing several hundred rounds in both rifles.

When driving on the collar it's a good idea to use an unserviceable moveable sight base in the collar so that isn't distorted. I use a hardwood donut around the barrel which seats against the front face of the sight collar and then use a length of steel pipe as a driver/sleeve around the barrel which butts up against the hardwood donut (the same idea as using a lower band driving tool on an M1 Garand barrel). This avoids buggering up the face of the collar. The idea is to use a hammer to pound on the pipe from the front until the sleeve is seated, but make sure that the steel pipe is long enough to clear the muzzle as the collar is driven into it's final position.

I have a project pending to install a sight collar on a nice 1918 dated RIA M1903 barrel which will go on a 1918 production RIA receiver. I'll use this installation method for the collar w/o the pins. See the post a couple down for more info/opinion on this.

[Parashooter]

http://i56.tinypic.com/2lnxnvs.jpg

[Jan'42]

Thanks.

Can't find any copper pipe that large Down Here, so gone with a steel pipe with a section of copper coupling (will mill off the threads) which I will braze to the front.

failing that, may turn a delrin "pipe"