Remington A3

[milboltnut]

Hey Guys,
recently I was looking at the A3's original configuration and finish on Remingtons A3......

There's a deceased fella who posted pics of his A3. www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=19134

And I found a few pics of my own, along with an old Army training film on you tube with GI's shooting A3's. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJzXG7MYX1c

In the you tube vid you can see the difference in finish and also in the other pics, besides on Vi-shooter page with John Beard.

Recently I had my A3 redone to be this way.

My question is this........ Why did Remington only parkerize the barrel/front sight post and receiver and the rest of the parts were blued?

Guess the best answer to me is Remington was/is a sporting manufacture and they were set up with bluing already and had to set up parkerizing.....

Another question that might help is which process is cheaper to do? Parking or bluing?

[John Beard]

Remington applied the finishes to their rifle parts that were authorized and approved by Army Ordnance. Remington was not at liberty to apply whatever finishes were handy or convenient. The stamped parts on Remington M'03-A3's were not made by Remington.

J.B.

[milboltnut]

ok, so why were the receiver and barrel,front sight post the only parts parkerized?

[JOHN COOK]

Maybe thats what was authorized ???????
john in SC

[milboltnut]

just wondering why just the barreled/receiver were parked and not the parts.....gotta be a better reason other than authorized and approved by Army Ordnance.....

cost crossed my mind... in the military, cost, in my experience, from seeing requisitions and money not being an issue during peace time, but during a war it might have been something else.

[John Beard]

ok, so why were the receiver and barrel,front sight post the only parts parkerized?

I do not know.

J.B.

[milboltnut]

ah, if you don't know then my quest is over....

[Merc]

I seem to remember Rick the Librarian once spoke about Remington 03-A3s with mixed parkerized and blued parts. He doesn’t hang out here much. You might find him at www.m1903.com at the Q&A.

[milboltnut]

did already.... but if JB doesn't know neither will he.

[Rick the Librarian]

Hey, if John doesn't know, that's good enough for me! :)

[John Beard]

If the truth be known, the real answer is probably, "Because that's the way we've always done it." (At least since 1920).

J.B.

[Col. Colt]

Maybe the vendor that supplied the stamped parts wasn't set up for parkerizing and US Army Ordnance was OK with just blue - there was a war on a things were kind of in a hurry. CC