Drift Slide on an Early '03 Question

[Deacon]

Good evening,

The #5-marked drift slide on my 1907 vintage Springfield seems to have had the peep hole reamed out to the point where the hole is at least twice the size as it would have been originally. Also, there are no markings on the slide, other than the "5" stamped adjacent to the hole. So my question is, since I don't plan on shooting this low-numbered rifle, should I leave the original drift slide on the sight as it is, or try to find another #5 slide as a replacement? (I assume the consensus on the forum would be to leave the original parts on the rifle, but I thought I would seek opinions anyway.)

Thank you very much for your time.



Deacon

[PeteDavis]

The apertures are pretty easy to replace. Tiny drift pin. The problem with opening up the hole as has been done on your sight, is that under practical conditions, the hole and diamond opening above it tend to resolve into a mass and sight picture becomes impossible. That may or may not be why the USMC conversion used/uses a solid plate with the hole only.

If you are going to shoot the rifle you could leave it and bottom out the slide, using the triangle opening and notch at the bottom. That's a better sight picture for quasi-geezers like me that sometimes hunt with the rifle. Look at your sight picture and see if it blurs the two together.

Easily found part. If you want to keep it "original" then leave it.

PD

[PhillipM]

Pete,

What do you use for hunting? Aperture, open, battle?

[PeteDavis]

Phillip

Last time I used the M1903 battle sight for hunting I used the triangle notch with the slide bottomed out. It takes some getting used to but can be hunted with. This was from 2005.

PD

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[Fred]

So with that notch, bottomed out, you were sighting at 100 yards. That's called the Field Sight. It's a good sight to use. With the sight leaf laying Flat, then THAT sighting notch on the slide is then called the Battle Sight. Battle Sight on a 1903 is a fixed 547 yards or pretty close. Battle Sight on a U.S. tank used to be 1200 yards. Don't know if that still applies. Anyway, the term Battle Sight usually means whatever range that rifle is fixed to hit with the sight ladder (if a rifle) in the down or non adjusted position.

[RCS]

Fred, The USMC front and rear sight - with the sight leaf laying flat is 200 yards not the 547 yards of the normal 1903 (I could be wrong on this ?)

[Fred]

That was a much more practical sight!

[emmagee1917]

Fred, The USMC front and rear sight - with the sight leaf laying flat is 200 yards not the 547 yards of the normal 1903 (I could be wrong on this ?)

Nope , you are right about this . The rear notch does not change , it's the taller front sight that makes it a 200 yd sight .
Chris