A "Legitimate" Air Service M1903 ...

[Rick the Librarian]

Those of us who have been studying or collecting M1903s over the years have seen several M1903s identified (mostly by greedy sellers) as "Air Service M1903s". Nearly all of them have been revealed as sporterized rifles or attempts at fakes or "reproductions".

I was contacted via email by a gentleman who revealed that he had been given a cut-down M1903 and wanted help identifying it and sent me some pictures. I first noticed the serial number, which was in "Air Service" range (usually in the 825,000-860,000 range); then, I noticed the peculiar rear sight, as well as the shape of the cut-down fore-end. I compared it to pictures I had in various reference books and it seemed to match up.

I finally sent the pictures to John Beard, who confirmed that it was indeed an Air Service M1903. Obviously, it has seen considerable hard service over many years.

I have no "interest" in this rifle, I was just thrilled to get a chance to see pictures of a "legitimate" one. The gentleman said it may have come from his great grandfather, but he did have a grandfather who served in the cavalry during WWI. He is working on the story.

[Shooter5]

Neat! Did those also have the 20 round magazine?

[pickax]

Very interesting Rick!
Was this one modified for the detachable magazine? Or were some not modified.
Would love to see more pics and hear the full history.

[chuckindenver]

star gauged barrel? the others that i have seen, had them

[Rick the Librarian]

As far as I know, it doesn't have the 20-round magazine. The owner said it had seen extensive use as a hunting rifle and a 20-round magazine would get in the way. As far as I remember, the 20-round magazine was modified for the rifle, not the other way round.

Chuck, I'm assuming you mean the Star Gauge registry number on the top of the barrel towards the receiver end? The "star" on the crown wasn't fitted until the early 1920s.

[emmagee1917]

The 20 rd. conversion mag was not detachable as we think it. It replaced the floor plate and would work on any '03 that had a floor plate . The kit also had a longer magazine spring ( of course ) and a metal plate to hold it all together as the mag had no feed lips as those were built into the rifle.
Chris

[Fred]

What on earth does the man intend to do with the rifle? Surely he doesn't intend to develope an interest in and start collecting fine and expensive 1903's...
He could sell it to an advanced collector though who would give him a serious and fair amount of money for it to pursue other interests. There are plenty of such collectors out there I'm sure who have been looking for such a rifle to fill an empty nitch in their collection.

[m1903rifle]

Will it be for sale? If so, I'm interested.

[Rick the Librarian]

To my knowledge, the rifle will be a "keeper".

[Shooter5]

RTL: peruse the USAF Museum virtual tour, IIRC there is an air rifle on display.

http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/full/tour-std.html

Try the Navy museum as well but I can't recall seeing an air rifle:

http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/e.../virtual-tour/

SA Museum:

http://ww3.rediscov.com/spring/VFPCGI.exe?IDCFile=/spring/DETAILS.IDC,SPECIFIC=9705,DATABASE=66380668

[Rick the Librarian]

Will do - thanks!

[ClaudeH]

I hope he controls all that surface rust!

Rick: Do you have any more pictures? I'd like to see a close-up of the nose of the stock and a shooter's eye view of that rear sight.

[jaie5070]

Does anyone have a close up of a modified mag or know what needs to be done to modify one? I have a couple of BAR mags sitting in my garage that I can play with.
john

[Fred]

No need to do anything so drastic. The correct 25 round extension magazines are always being sold somewhere. I recently sold three. These magazines are not modified. They are made of heavy gauge steel and are unique in their design and construction.

[Fred]