1903 Remington Restoration Complete Pic Heavy!

[Smokeeaterpilot]

Hey Guys,

Just thought I'd share one of the few projects I set out to complete and actually follow through with....

Started out with a 1903 Remington, original finish and the barrel is a replacement but gauged at a TE 0.5 and MW 0, so essentially a brand new barrel. The barrel should be a January - March 1942. If I find one I'll swap out but I'm kinda burned out at this point. You'll see why.

Came in a Keystone Replacement C Stock. Had a few Remington parts but at least gave me a platform to work with. The right parts really helped.

[Smokeeaterpilot]

More pictures...











The parts that were swapped out before I took the pictures were the

Rear sight base, sight hoot, front sight blade, Cut-off, and bayonet lug. I had spares so I immediately replaced those.

[Smokeeaterpilot]

Here is the finished product.

[Smokeeaterpilot]

More pictures














There she is.

I was fortunate enough to find a Boxed RLB stock (which has some issues like a chip behind the tang, someone cut a chunk out of the TG area, and routed out around the rear action screw [fortunately, that's covered up and inside the stock and you can only see it when the rifle is disassembled])

The stock also came with a Remington Buttplate and the action I found later happened to have a Remington Trigger guard.

The Remington lower band is not the original finish but the best with what I could find they're hard enough.


The blued 1903 Remington bolt came from Greece and was pretty pricy but beggers can be choosers. I love the contrast between blued and parked parts.


At the end of the day it's a "put-together" which I know the experts can pick a part and probably is only worth 2/3 or 3/4 what an all original would be.

But you do the best you can with what you got!

What do you all think?



I don't like naming people or quoting people without their permission. But there were a few members, one in particular that really helped with answering a lot of difficult questions. I almost bought a heavily faked stock on gunbroker and it helped me from learning a very very expensive lesson.

I am truly grateful for the knowledgeable members that are willing to share their expertise and advice. It keeps me grounded and from making poor choices. Not to mention it's be an absolute blast in the process!

Sorry the pictures aren't better quality I'm not the best photographer.

[Alkali]

I really liked the end result to your resto effort. Finding a boxed RLB stock was a small miracle in itself. Like you said, " you do the best you can with what you got."

[Smokeeaterpilot]

Yeah I sometimes wonder, put this in the hands of one of the more knowledgable members probably would've turned out better, but I'm still learning. Thanks for the support! Glad I didn't screw it up.

[1563621]

Very nicely done!

[Punch the Clown]

Nice job. You still need the bolt shroud and firing pin. I don't know if the bolt shroud should be the 2 position or 3?

[Smokeeaterpilot]

Nice job. You still need the bolt shroud and firing pin. I don't know if the bolt shroud should be the 2 position or 3?

The shroud I have on there now is blued with an R right behind the bolt handle on the shroud. Now I'm starting to worry did I put on an incorrect part? 2 position or 3 is over my head...

[Smokeeaterpilot]

Thanks guys!

Only thing I wish I did was take a picture of the hand guard before and after. The one I received was almost NOS and very "blonde" in color. A friend of mine (his wife actually) does beautiful stock work and blended it to match the RLB stock. I think she did an amazing job! You can barely tell they weren't together from the start.

[Punch the Clown]

I found this pic on Milsurps. This is a 1903 shroud.
r41-1.jpg

[Smokeeaterpilot]

I found this pic on Milsurps. This is a 1903 shroud.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]30363[/ATTACH]

What should I be looking for in comparison that differs from mine, you'll have to forgive me I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be seeing but don't.

[Darreld Walton]

I really liked the end result to your resto effort. Finding a boxed RLB stock was a small miracle in itself. Like you said, " you do the best you can with what you got."

Not JUST an "RLB" stock, a New Zealand Lend Lease "RLB"......

[Punch the Clown]

What should I be looking for in comparison that differs from mine, you'll have to forgive me I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be seeing but don't.

If you notice the machining marks on the 1903 barrel sleeve are vertical. The ones on the A3 are curved. The 1903 bolt sleeve's detent cut does not extend into the side of the bolt sleeve while the A3's does. Basically the 1903's looks like an RIA with an "R" stamp on it.

[Emri]

one like this..........

Here are some pics of what to look for. The detents mentioned are for the safety position. Early ones have 3, after that they will look like this one but have 2. You have an 03A3 sleeve and firing pin.

Good luck in your search. It took me some several years to find this assemble. It is in my 3,008,xxx Remington.


HTH,

Emri