1903 MK1 conversions.

[Handsome Devil]

Rick were there any Marines on New Guinea? The last of my WW2 vet uncles passed away not long ago he was in the 32nd {Army} and was a changed man after that. Came back with some serious issues which later on subsided. Met an old Marine who told me he was WW2 vet and served in the most terrible place in the pacific theater and asked if I knew where it was. Told him New Guinea and he about stopped in his tracks and said "yes, that is where I was" or something to that effect. Not trying to discount what you said or what he said. Just normally there were Marines somewhere around even if in smaller quantities. Quite possible the old Marine was yanking my chain too. Remember reading {don't recall where or what book} that New Guinea and Indo China {RVN, Laos, Thailand/Cambodia area} and parts of India/Burma were some of most awful places to be. Maybe in an environmental sense more so than enemy action. The picture makes the helmet and rifle appear in pretty decent shape if they had been outside for 25 years in that environment. As often the case the environment your in can be as difficult as the enemy your fighting. At least for infantry types. Great picture regardless. Regards, John.

[Calfed]

Why would they "convert" them back at all? They were perfectly capable of firing '06 ammo as any '03 was. The divice was meant to be used only in raiding ememy trench's, not as an every day tool.

The Person devices themselves were destroyed, possibly with a certain amount of secrecy. I wondered if the MK1 specific parts had also been removed from the rifle and destroyed. I realize that some Pederson devices and MK1 rifles survived intact.

As for the "why" of it, the military seems to have an affinity for uniformity.

According to John Beard, orders were given to convert these back to non-MK1 configuration (insofar as possible), but said orders were widely ignored.

[Rick the Librarian]

Rick were there any Marines on New Guinea? The last of my WW2 vet uncles passed away not long ago he was in the 32nd {Army} and was a changed man after that. Came back with some serious issues which later on subsided. Met an old Marine who told me he was WW2 vet and served in the most terrible place in the pacific theater and asked if I knew where it was. Told him New Guinea and he about stopped in his tracks and said "yes, that is where I was" or something to that effect. Not trying to discount what you said or what he said. Just normally there were Marines somewhere around even if in smaller quantities. Quite possible the old Marine was yanking my chain too. Remember reading {don't recall where or what book} that New Guinea and Indo China {RVN, Laos, Thailand/Cambodia area} and parts of India/Burma were some of most awful places to be. Maybe in an environmental sense more so than enemy action. The picture makes the helmet and rifle appear in pretty decent shape if they had been outside for 25 years in that environment. As often the case the environment your in can be as difficult as the enemy your fighting. At least for infantry types. Great picture regardless. Regards, John.

To my knowledge, there were no large groups of Marines on New Guinea. They did land on New Britain, not that far away, at Cape Gloucester, in December, 1943.

[Weasel]

In the mid 90's some friends of mine and I bought out a military school's 03's when they closed the doors. There was over 150 rifles of which about 70% were MK I's and most still had the correct parts in them. I don't believe the gov. removed those parts when the were issued as most military schools 03's I have seen that had MK I's still had the correct parts still in them.

[Promo]

Both of my Mark I rifles have the same Cutoff lever installed. While Brophy pictures two different types, it appears that one is more commonly found.

Attached my better rifle, also the only "complete one" (though missing the metal can).

[Rick the Librarian]

What John says makes sense. From the large number of Mark Is, either with the correct parts installed, or the relatively large numbers of Mark I parts floating around, it appears that many Mark Is retained their parts.

[Fred]

Nice looking rifle Promo. What is the date on your barrel?

[Promo]

The shown one is a late rifle with serial 1.172.XXX and barrel date of 2-20, so also very late. Stock is only RA-P cartouched, but correct Mark I stock. My other Mk. I rifle is serial 1.139.XXX with barrel date 11-19 and is SA over GAW marked. I somewhere also have a very nice spare Mark I stock with SA GAW marking floating around ...