NRA Sporter arrives

[Blockhead]

Good day for me. Received a Numrich 22 conversion kit, my FFL01 license, and this beautiful NRA sporter. It is in near-mint condition with a very nice Boyt 43 sling. I could only find one small ding in the stock. The bolt matches the receiver. Trigger housing has a slight rainbow sheen to it. I just wish my poor pictures could do it justice!

I'd love to hear some feedback about the rear sight. Herschel seems to know as much about these as anyone and said it's a later sight than what is normally seen on NRA sporters. Does anyone know which model this is and which is the model that is more commonly seen on these?

[Johnny P]

The barrel appears to have been polished and reblued as the markings have been partially removed. This is a new Sporter barrel that was never installed.

[Willie_Maker]

Wow, thats a fantastic rifle!

[Cosine26]

I Agree with Herschel. Your sight is either a late pre WWII or early post WWII. Of course the original owner may have ordered the late model knobs from Lyman and installed them.
Here is a picture of a normal Lyman 48 0n a NM1903. Top rifle. Note small knob.
Beautiful rifle.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o15/Cosine1/M1903/M1903R.jpg

[The Wolf]

Beautiful rifle! Congrats on an excellent purchase!

Best Regards from Virginia,

Chris

[Gary L. Bush]

Please post a few more pictures showing more detail of the front sight.
Gary Bush

[Herschel]

Blockhead, Congratulations on getting a fine NRA Sporter. There are Lyman 48Y and 48J sights pictured in the 1939 Shooter's Bible that have the same windage and elevation knobs that are pictured on your rifle. The caption with the pictures says the w/e adjustments are 1/4 minute. I would bet the Lyman 48 for the 1903 with the same adjustments and knobs were available in 1939 but were not pictured.

I would bet that the story is that your rifle was owned by a target shooter that wanted the 1/4 minute sight adjustments. The aftermarket, wide front sight is more evidence that the rifle was used by a competitive target shooter.

Check and see if the three numbered parts of your rifle's rear sight have the same number. If they have different numbers it could be an indication that the windage/elevation slide that came on your rifle was replaced by a w/e slide only.

Additional: As Cosine26 said above, the rifle's owner could have ordered the 1/4 minute sight adjustment knobs from Lyman and installed them. I don't think that is the case as the w/e slide on your rifle lacks the hinged peep in the front of the aperture.

[EriCal]

Lyman long slide on G & H 1903:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/RubEric/IMG_1647.jpg

Lyman on 1903 Sporter with 'speed' striker and reversed safety:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/RubEric/IMG_1620.jpg

Lyman long slide on 1903 Sporter:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/RubEric/GHLongSlide-2.jpg

Lyman on POSSIBLE G & H 1903:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/RubEric/IMG_1589-1.jpg

Lyman on Sedgely 1903

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/RubEric/42.jpg:

Incorrect Lyman on M2:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/RubEric/IMG_0819.jpg

[Herschel]

EriCal, The photo you describe as a possible G & H looks very similar to a G & H 1922M1 that I have. The stock in your photo looks like an NRA Sporter stock that has been modified. My rifle does not have G & H's name on it but I have SRS paperwork that shows it was shipped to G & H from Springfield Armory. Have you run the serial number of the rifle on SRS to see if it is listed as an NRA Sporter?

[EriCal]

Herschel:

Thanks for your reply. Here is another pic of both rifles; the possible G & H (top) and the labeled G & H.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/RubEric/IMG_1665.jpg

The barrel is marked with a the star gauge symbol so may have originated as a sporter. The person from whom I purchased it swore it had. Others on this site have opined that it appears to have a lot of G & H in it.

I have not run a SRS check. The s/n is 1288876 if anyone can check for me.

Eric

[Rick the Librarian]

Just did (see other thread) - no match.

[Cosine26]

Herschel
I did not mean to imply that by changing the knobs on the older Lyman 48 that you could convert from ½ MOA to ¼ MOA. I do not believe that it would work. I thought that the knobs could be changed so as to be a little larger and make changing a little easier. The early 48 had a rounded rather coarse left handed thread. To convert from 1 MOA to ½ MOA one only needed to change the knob. All that was necessary was to add detents to the knob. If you look at Brophy’s book you can see a picture of the 1/3 minute knobs created by Lyman for the Olympic shooters. The detents are very close together and I believe that to try to make them closer for ¼ minute adjustment would run them together. The post war update to the 48 changed the elevation thread to a much finer pitch and was right handed. On the older sights one revolution of the elevation knob raised the elevation five minutes. On the newer sights, one revolution only moved the sight three MOA. This change created some confusion among shooters because to raise the elevation on the older sight one rotated the knob in the CW direction while on the newer sights; to raise elevation you rotated the knob in the CCW direction. .The same change was made to the windage knob also. The early windge knobs did not have a scale and windage was measured in “points” on the gallows arm scale. On the later sights thes graduations were in minutes. A great improvement in the later sights was that on the windage knob a scale was added in MOA. On the very latest version, directional arrows were added. It looks to me as if the 48 on the pictured sporter is a 1/4 MOA sight-probably a later model.
I am not a Lyman 48 expert – only a long time user and these are my personal observations.

[Herschel]

Cosine26, You may not be an expert on the Lyman 48 but you are ahead of me. I just happen to have a lot of books that are useful in answering questions from time to time.

[Cosine26]

Thanks Herschel.