An 03 on the cover of Life magazine

[Jeff L]

37428

[butlersrangers]

Is it just me? The rear-sight appears to be missing its leaf and slide. (1940 pre-war - Dog & Pony Show)!
37429

[bruce]

Re: Sight. Yes parts are missing. But, considering that the Navy tended to put its money in bigger guns than rifles, easy to understand that a drill rifle would not be in the best of shape. The Army was training with trucks as pretend tanks, stove pipes for cannons and flour sacks for bombs. JMHO. Sincerely. bruce.

[butlersrangers]

"A picture of your gun is worth 1,000 words". Ready for war?

[psteinmayer]

If it's of a boot-camp company, they would not have shootable weapons... only drill rifles, so the missing sight pieces may have been lost and just not replaced.

[cplnorton]

In late 1942 one Division in the Marines didn't have enough rifles. They were using sticks for training. And one document I had to laugh as they say they only had one stick per several men. So they didn't even have enough sticks. lol

[RCS]

There was a time when the USN had a retail surplus store at Great Lakes, among the items sold were 1903A3 barreled
actions and both 1903 and 1903A3 barrels

This barrel was purchased from the USN retail store and came from a "boot camp" rifle it is a SA 1-31 dated barrel with
an excellent bore, USN vise marks and incomplete rear sight37432374333743437435

[dave]

3743737438Navy purchased over 900 of these (without scope), never used them and post war awarded them as shoot prizes.

I once purchased a complete 1903 at the Great Lakes Naval surplus outlet for 16 bucks. They would allow civilians in once a week and put out 15-20 rifles. You had to get there early (6:00 AM) for 8AM 0pening if you wanted a rifle. Only made it once out of several trips. Still have it.
The Navy also purchased thousands of Moss 22 target rifles and thousands of training 'dummy's37436'. First on right is Army model drill dummy and second is the Navy MK 1, with plastic bayonet behind it on wall.