Removing the magazine follower from the top on a M1903A3

[Richard H Brown Jr]

Greetings:

New experience for me, I've read that you could remove the magazine follower and spring from the M1903A3 from the top, but tried a few times and didn't manage to do it.

Until today, was fiddling with my e-book collection, and started trying to find how the 1903 was zero'd on the range. And then I remembered that the mag followere on the 03a3... Quick check of the FM and TM from 1943 or so, I finally came across a procedure to remove and reinstall from the top. Typical machinery, you need 3 hands to do it right. Any way, the quick explaination:

1. place the rifle on your thighs muzzle to the left.
2. place the mag cutoff to the *ON* position, and open the bolt fully.
3. with the tip of a bullet, dummy round or flat blade screw driver, place the point on the left side of the central lip on the top of the mag follow. (the manual says just in front of the extractor)
4. with your spare hand, press down the rear of the mag follower so the front of the follower is above the guide ramp on the front of the receiver.
5. push the bolt home, this drives the mag follower up and pushes it away from the mag spring and disconnects them from each other.
6. pull the bolt back fully again, and remove the mag follower and then the mag spring. Success! Hurray *Fireworks display*!

Putting it back together:

I found it easier to totally remove the bolt.

1. remove the bolt.
2. attach the mag follower to the mag spring.
3. compress the spring against the follower and hold it there, with one hand using your thumb and index finger.
4. rotate the assembly 90 Degrees away from you so you can see the spring leaves.
5. lower the assembly into the mag well so it's below the lips of the receiver. Let the spring leaves go and hold the mag follower with our fingers, and rotate it back into it's normal orientation, and then release. It should pop right into alignment. If not, Lather, rinse and repeat.

Cheers.

R Brown

[John Beard]

Seasons' Greetings!

If you remove the magazine follower in that manner, you run a significant risk of damaging the magazine spring. The magazine follower has a dimple on the rear to keep the magazine spring from disengaging in the manner you describe.

Happy Holidays!

J.B.

[deadin]

My question would be "Why would you want to in the first place??"
Isn't popping the floorplate loose simpler?

[leftyo]

My question would be "Why would you want to in the first place??"
Isn't popping the floorplate loose simpler?

thats what i am thinking. always neat to learn new ways of doing things, but why?

[dave]

Floor Plate??? On a 03A3??? You guys got the wrong magazine in your rifle!!! Or you 'speed' read!

[deadin]

Or you 'speed' read!

OOPS! I did.
But I will still stick with "Why"?? (2 screws and you don't take the chance of messing something up.)

[dave]

Field cleaning, the less comes apart the less chance of losing parts! As I remember it could be done simply with out jamming the bolt forward, do not remember doing that, but its been a long time!
Instructions/manuals were written for the soldiers, some times in the field, not the collector with a bench full of tools!

[Randy A]

OOPS! I did.
But I will still stick with "Why"?? (2 screws and you don't take the chance of messing something up.)

Because GI's constantly removing and reinstalling those two screws every time they cleaned was more detrimental that a mag spring. They wanted to avoid removal of the T/G as much as possible, effects on zero/ accuracy and stock life.