Remington M1903 .22 Trainer

[usmc69]

A friend of mine bought a .22 Cal rifle last night at an auction in Pa. It was billed as a Remington 1903 .22 Trainer. I looked through all of my books and can not find a Remington 1903 Trainer listed anywhere. Yes, I am well aware of the M1922's made by Springfield Armory, but have never seen one by Remington. Am I missing something or is this possibly one that someone made up out of spare parts?

[Cosine26]

Looks like a standard 03A3 with q Numrich conversion unit installed.
MHO

[usmc69]

Since I have never seen one and am 1300 miles from the one pictured, just what does a Numrich Conversion Unit consist of? Are they still available?

[RCS]

1903 converted to 22 rim fire

Numrich sold sold a kit for the rim fire conversion years ago, it had a M2 bolt, barrel
liner with special tool to install and a Numrich trigger guard with magazine. Also had
a piece of metal added to the bottom of the bolt for feeding. These are collectors items
now and very expensive. Numrich also made this 22 rf conversion kit for the Lee enfield
Mark 3 rifle.

A number of conversion just use a 1903 (low number) with a burned out bore and install
a quality barrel liner with extension at the rear and a M2 bolt with adjustable headspace.
The original M2 trigger guard and magazine are difficult to install but has been done, most
just use it as a single shot. These are quite accurate for the amount of money investedP1010053_0043.jpg

[usmc69]

Thanks for the information will pass it along to him. I believe he had a winning bid of $540 for the rifle with conversion unit. He has said the trigger guard/magazine well is there, but I don't know if he has a mag for it. Does anyone have a picture of one? I have a Lee Enfield MKV* that is a single shot, nice part about that is the empties fall into the gutted magazine. Makes clean up easier.

Thanks again for the assistance,
AJ

[Cosine26]

Numrich 22 Conversion Unit
Recently I have seen several inquiries about the Numrich 22 Conversion unit for the M1903/M03A3 rifle. Some were looking for installation instructions. I have reviewed my older copies of the American Rifleman magazine. So far as I can tell, the conversion unit was first advertised in the AR in January 1959 issue for $34.50 and by August had disappeared from the Numrich ads. I do not know why. Perhaps they ran out of parts. A modified 03A3 trigger guard with a commercial magazine and a plate to make the round feed was included.
I do not have the instructions but I can post the article which appeared in the AR in March 1959 which may be of some help. You will note that the pictured rifle did not have an ejector pin. The M2 bolt did not have a slot to accommodate th 03/03A3 ejector

https://imgur.com/4V9toK2

https://imgur.com/jUxn1sD

[retread12345]

True enough I never had one of these because for 40.00 I could have a M1903 I don't know who built them, but Numrich had the ability to fabricate them

[Kragrifle]

Numrich made 2500 units. They occasionally come up for sale for anywhere between $600 and $1200. Magazine is a standard H&R. Kits come with an installation tool, but I am not sure how essential it is. The bolt alteration is a subtle feature.

[RCS]

The Numrich conversion of the Lee Enfield Mark III to 22 rim fire are not as common. Years ago there were Lee Enfield
22 rim fire bolts and a few rim fire barrels available. I think SARCO also had the parts. I know that I put one together
for a friend. The short firing pin had to be fitted as too the correct length. Nice conversion but single shot.

I did convert a bolt for the Parker Hiscock magazine years ago, these magazines are very expensive now

[Kragrifle]

One of these units is currently available on EBay.

[usmc69]

One of these units is currently available on EBay.

Got a link?

[Herschel]

In my collecting of the 1922 Series Gallery Practice Rifles I have encountered 3 different types of conversions or modifications of the .30 cal to .22.

1. Rifle with Numrich conversion kit.
2. 1922, 1922M1 or M2 Rifle fitted into the 1903, or most common, the .22 cal rifle fitted into the 03A3 stock. This is easy to do as all that is required to make it fit is relievng a
small amount of wood from the forward part of the .30 cal stock to allow the M2 magazine to go up into the receiver.
3. .30 cal barrel replaced with the .22 barrel and M2 magazine.

I believe subject rifle is the third type I menion above because: 1) The H & R magazine that came with the kit extended below the floorplate of the modified 03A3 triggerguard assembly.
2) The 1922M1 or M2 magazine would not work with the 03A3 triggerguard assembly. It had had to have a special floorplate for the 1903 milled triggerguard assembly.

I have seen many conversions using the M2 barrel and M2 bolt as it is easy to do. The problem is designing a way to make a repeater out of it.

The assembly tool is often missing from the Numrich kits. I have a Numrich kit that was missing the tool. I found that a sheet metal shelf support for a shelving unit would go into
the receiver from the back, engage the barrel sleeve and by rotating it 90 degrees clockwise, lock the barrel sleeve into place. I read on some forum of a man that was making
the conversion tools but can't recall who it was.

There is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or 1903 Remington Trainer. FWIW

[usmc69]

In my collecting of the 1922 Series Gallery Practice Rifles I have encountered 3 different types of conversions or modifications of the .30 cal to .22.

1. Rifle with Numrich conversion kit.
2. 1922, 1922M1 or M2 Rifle fitted into the 1903, or most common, the .22 cal rifle fitted into the 03A3 stock. This is easy to do as all that is required to make it fit is relievng a
small amount of wood from the forward part of the .30 cal stock to allow the M2 magazine to go up into the receiver.
3. .30 cal barrel replaced with the .22 barrel and M2 magazine.

I believe subject rifle is the third type I menion above because: 1) The H & R magazine that came with the kit extended below the floorplate of the modified 03A3 triggerguard assembly.
2) The 1922M1 or M2 magazine would not work with the 03A3 triggerguard assembly. It had had to have a special floorplate for the 1903 milled triggerguard assembly.

I have seen many conversions using the M2 barrel and M2 bolt as it is easy to do. The problem is designing a way to make a repeater out of it.

The assembly tool is often missing from the Numrich kits. I have a Numrich kit that was missing the tool. I found that a sheet metal shelf support for a shelving unit would go into
the receiver from the back, engage the barrel sleeve and by rotating it 90 degrees clockwise, lock the barrel sleeve into place. I read on some forum of a man that was making
the conversion tools but can't recall who it was.

There is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or 1903 Remington Trainer. FWIW

Thanks for the info. Since I do not have it in hand think it is the Numrich version. But closer inspection will have to wait until this fall, when we go up for a visit.

[Kragrifle]

What??? No Easter Bunny???

[usmc69]

What??? No Easter Bunny???

No there isn't...........also did not believe that this was a Remington .22 Trainer. The auction company where my friend got the rifle had billed it that way. I could not find one in any of my reference books. So came here to see what was the opinion here.