Cosine26
01-16-2017, 09:25
I believe that the Sporter barrel uses the standard M1903 front sight. The first thing to do is to determine if the diameter of the barrel has been reduced at the point of installation of the front sight. If it has not, it seems to me that there is a solution, which while not entirely satisfactory should work. A competent machinist should be able to duplicated the front sight machine cuts as used on the 03A3 barrels. Then a key could be fabricated which duplicated the key on the 03A3. This key could be installed on the barrel. Then the 03 front sight sleeve could be installed and the hole drilled to match the hole in the 03 base. The barrel now has the correct front sight. Matching the bluing may be a problem.
All that having been said I believe that you will have to accept the fact that your NRA "Sporter" will never be original again. It will lose some of its "personality" (having been owned by Major Culver) if the sight is changed.
Many of the pundants of the era (including Capt. Crossman) suggested re-working the Sporter. Stoger's , Griffin and Howe, and Sedgley all offered to rework it onto their version of what a "sporter" should look like. I know that having the improper sight will detract from the value to the true collector , but trying to "fix" it, may make it worse. Even if one were able to find an original Sporter barrel to replace the present barrel, it would still not be "original".
Many M1903 NM's have Lyman 48's installed which makes them "altered" NM's and does not seem to detract from the value. At one time in the 1930's, the presence of the holes and the stock cut for the 48 were questioned as to whether a rifle having the alterations was truly a "service rifle" as defined by the match rules. It was ruled
YES" if the sight were not installed.
Just some thoughts.
FWIW
All that having been said I believe that you will have to accept the fact that your NRA "Sporter" will never be original again. It will lose some of its "personality" (having been owned by Major Culver) if the sight is changed.
Many of the pundants of the era (including Capt. Crossman) suggested re-working the Sporter. Stoger's , Griffin and Howe, and Sedgley all offered to rework it onto their version of what a "sporter" should look like. I know that having the improper sight will detract from the value to the true collector , but trying to "fix" it, may make it worse. Even if one were able to find an original Sporter barrel to replace the present barrel, it would still not be "original".
Many M1903 NM's have Lyman 48's installed which makes them "altered" NM's and does not seem to detract from the value. At one time in the 1930's, the presence of the holes and the stock cut for the 48 were questioned as to whether a rifle having the alterations was truly a "service rifle" as defined by the match rules. It was ruled
YES" if the sight were not installed.
Just some thoughts.
FWIW