1919 SA question

[mitchell6776]

I recently started a thread about a possible 1919 SA NM rifle. I have finally seen the rifle and here are the details:

Receiver finish and rear sight base finish are near 100%. The receiver is black, the rear sight base is blued. Barrel and front band are post WW1 parkerized, a dark grey-greenish color. Trigger guard and floorplate parkerized as well. Middle band and rear sling swivel are blued. The J5 bolt body and extractor are in the white. The remaining bolt components are blue/black. The cutoff is case hardened. Checkered buttplate looks blue-black, or maybe dark parkerized.

The trigger is serrated. The rear sight has the earlier dished large adjustment knob. The stock is in fantastic shape with a few handling dings are a nice clear DAL cartouche. The handguard is the high hump type, matches the stock color perfectly. The barrel is dated 4-19. Serial is 1, 040,xxx (I think, forgot to write is down)

Should the barrel be star gauged?

Any major discrepancies based on the description?

The condition is extremely nice. The only real issue is rust and pitting on the bolt handle and knob. There is a little rust on the front sight, and middle band, which would probably clean off for the most part. The finish is otherwise intact on both parts.

Finally, the rifle is on hold for me. The asking price is 2750. Is this out of line? Sorry, no photos. Aside from the rust and pitting on the bolt handle, its easily a 95%++ rifle.

Thanks

[ismith]

Sounds pretty good from the description, but a 1.04 mil rifle isn't in a NM serial range. The price seems a bit out of line to me, but pictures might change my mind. The barrels were star gauged, but were not marked as such until 1921 going off of memory. Get us a complete serial number and we can check our SRS books.

[Calif Steve]

Need JB to jump in. I think it is not likely, but JB will know for sure. A real NM is worth that money, but I have my doubts.

[mitchell6776]

I do have the serial number after all. 1094077.

[Calif Steve]

The 1919 NM's came out of Rock Island? Springfield was involved in the Mark1 project and lacked the time for NM work. JB can add to this. Could someone discuss the 1919 NM's?

[ismith]

1094077 is in the NM serial range. RTL has a very nice example of a 1919 NM in his collection. Springfield built two blocks of non-mark I modified rifles/receivers during the Mark I production run. I have a NM rifle from the second(1920 NM) block.

[Rick the Librarian]

Both RIA and Springfield built NM rifles in 1919 - the only time (to my knowledge) that this happened.

[John Beard]

I recently started a thread about a possible 1919 SA NM rifle. I have finally seen the rifle and here are the details:

Receiver finish and rear sight base finish are near 100%. The receiver is black, the rear sight base is blued. Barrel and front band are post WW1 parkerized, a dark grey-greenish color. Trigger guard and floorplate parkerized as well. Middle band and rear sling swivel are blued. The J5 bolt body and extractor are in the white. The remaining bolt components are blue/black. The cutoff is case hardened. Checkered buttplate looks blue-black, or maybe dark parkerized.

The trigger is serrated. The rear sight has the earlier dished large adjustment knob. The stock is in fantastic shape with a few handling dings are a nice clear DAL cartouche. The handguard is the high hump type, matches the stock color perfectly. The barrel is dated 4-19. Serial is 1, 040,xxx (I think, forgot to write is down)

Should the barrel be star gauged?

Any major discrepancies based on the description?

The condition is extremely nice. The only real issue is rust and pitting on the bolt handle and knob. There is a little rust on the front sight, and middle band, which would probably clean off for the most part. The finish is otherwise intact on both parts.

Finally, the rifle is on hold for me. The asking price is 2750. Is this out of line? Sorry, no photos. Aside from the rust and pitting on the bolt handle, its easily a 95%++ rifle.

Thanks

Your rifle is a 1919 National Match rifle. The barrel is star-gauged, but has no star-gauge marking. Everything in your description is correct.

Rick the Librarian is correct. Rock Island supplied half the rifles for the 1919 National Matches and Springfield Armory supplied the other half. Rock Island supplied all the magazine cutoffs, which explains the casehardened coloring and serifed lettering.

The Rock Island 1919 National Match rifles were the subject of a lengthy article in "Man at Arms" magazine some years ago by C.S. Ferris and me.

The rifle is easily worth $2750 if in excellent condition.

Hope this helps.

J.B.

[mitchell6776]

Thanks to everyone for their expertise.

[Doug Douglass]

Nice find.....welcome to the 1919 club. My NM is earlier, #1089025 with a Elbert H Dewey cartouch and appears to have been used sparingly and put away. I assume yours has polished rails and a NM butt plate. I shoot a 1921 NM and it is amazing how accurate they are over an issue 03.

[DWL in TN]

Back in Jan. 2007 Tom Jackson posted a pictorial essay on his 1919 NM RIA & SA rifles, showing the distinctive characteristics of each, with side by side photos. The old-timers here remember that he took excellent photos of his rifles.

Maybe someone can find them in the archives and provide a link to them. I have them copied on my computer, but I'm not computer literate enough to figure how to get the text and pictures both to up load.....the forum rejects them since they are in html format. Maybe Rick has them or will help out. (Also, not being my pictures, I'm hesitant to post them without permission).

Haven't seen any posts from Tom lately, which is too bad. He has (or had) some beautiful 03s......

[Fred]

Was it that long ago? They were great pictures!