Attencion los expertos

[ElWoodman]

.....and not experts in its use. Here's a question-1906 receiver with a very nice SA 9-19 barrel. Bore is almost pristine. They had figured out about brittle LN receivers by 1919, so why would an 06 receiver get rebarrelled? NoNo SRS hits on sn 256861, so poss NRA or DCM? Maybe an Officer or NCO purchase? It's in a Single bolt high wood "JFC" SA stock, with a polished "J6" bolt. Any thoughts from those of you who've been at this since Christ was a Corporal would be sincerely appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[cplnorton]

You know this might be a more John or Rick question as this early stuff is their strength. But I might be able to add a little. I mostly study the Marines, which the Marines never officially stopped rebarreling low numbers. So at least from the Marine side, they didn't stop. The Marines policy did change some over the years on the low numbers. Which it would be long to explain. But for the most part, they just didn't fire rifle grenades out of low number receivers. Otherwise they mostly just used them, and rebarreled them until the receiver wasn't serviceable anymore.

As for the Army, I remember a late 1920's doc for the Marines, where the Marines were addressing the low number receivers. It was a letter to the Commandant of the Marines by someone from the Philly Depot.

And in the the document, he states that he thought the low number fuss was more political than anything. Which he claims that SA was still rebarreling low number receivers, up to a couple years ago, as they were rebarreling them for war reserves and putting them into long term storage.

This doc was dated 1928 I believe. So I sort of took it as SA was still rebarreling low numbers at least till the mid 20's and putting them into long term storage in case another war happened and they just need anything that would shoot.

I'm sure others can add more to this, but I just remember the MArines mentioning that SA was rebarreling low numbers for War Reserves. Which sort of makes sense.

By the way, do you have pics of your rifle? I have to say I'm sort of intrigued by your description of it. :)

[Rick the Librarian]

I can't answer all your questions, but only about 5-10% of M1903s land on SRS - just because a rifle isn't listed is not a guarantee it is a NRA or DCM rifle. In fact, your rifle is too "early" for that. It is probably just a service rifle that wasn't listed. The J6 bolt is probably from the time the 1919 barrel was added. Replacing LN receivers didn't start until well into the 1920s.

[milboltnut]

Hatcher explains that. It was hit and miss with failed receivers... so along the way barrels would fail for the same reason as receivers. As long as the receivers didn't fail they just addressed the barrels. That's what I gather... Help me out Rick, and correct me if I'm wrong.

It must have been frustrating to the folks repairing these rifles, and the developers.. high brass and politics and all.

[Rick the Librarian]

All I can add is that from about 1927 to ca. 1940, any low numbered receivered rifle turned in for major overhaul had the receiver scrapped. My friend cplnorton has made some good points, though.

[Griff Murphey]

I don't still have the document but there was a DCM price list I remember when I was first buying O3 parts about 1966 and it had a notation in it about exchanging low number receivers for high number ones. If I recall it correctly they were still doing exchanges that late. Subsequently I think there was a later price list saying that program was discontinued. I remember buying new 03A3 two groove barrels for $3 and new milled trigger guards for maybe $4.00?

[Rick the Librarian]

I was on the DCM mailing list as a teenager in the late 1960s (used to dream about ordering one of those $119 M1s, but was as far as I got! :) ) and remember you could still exchange LN receivers at that time.

[Bob in WA]

In the early 70's I exchanged a damaged low number receive. I received a new Smith Corona barreled stripped receiver with a note saying they were out of 1903 receivers.