Amer Rflemen mag----

[dave]

this month has an article about US Marines in WW1. Members will be aware but non-members who are avid 03 collectors should get a copy (or maybe join?). It lists serial numbers of 6-8 03's used by certain named Marines while winning awards. They may all be in museums, article makes no mention of where they are now.

[cplnorton]

this month has an article about US Marines in WW1. Members will be aware but non-members who are avid 03 collectors should get a copy (or maybe join?). It lists serial numbers of 6-8 03's used by certain named Marines while winning awards. They may all be in museums, article makes no mention of where they are now.

I'm pretty certain I know where they got those serials, because I got them the same place, bc I had the same idea. lol You find a rifle documented to one of those Marines, it would be a holy grail, bc those are some famous WWI Marine names. lol

They didn't find them in a museum or anything though, they found those serials in records and posted them. Because that is where I found them. As far as I know those rifles havne't been found, bc I've been looking for them for years. lol

In all honestly they probalby don't even exist. The Marines in the 20's couldn't get loose replacement barrels, so they swapped stripped barreled actions with the Army. I think it was RIA if I remember right. But it's been a good year since I read that exchange. Anyways it was a lot of barreled receivers, and they give a count of like over 8000 low number barreled recievers they swapped for new barreled receivers. I've atually wondered if that is why so many RIA's with 20's dated barrels seem to be Marine. But RIA in the 20's was also one of the top rebuild depots in the Army. So hard to say.

But I'm guessing a lot of the WWI France serials, which all I have pulled except for a very few, have been low numbers.

But I imagine most met their fate at the Army's hands when they were on their whole kick in the late 20's to scrap low number receivers. And the Marines did even have a auction once of low number receivers that probably went to some scrapper.

And the Marines wore out a lot of receivers that woudn't headspace. Then they were scraped.

So if I was a betting man, they are a paperweight somewhere. :(

[dave]

I know that people like Sedgley used many lo numbered receivers for their sport conversions. I have one.