Some photos of an early 1903 and ammo belt

[Fred]

Here are some photos I took this morning of an early 1903 and an early ammunition belt that would've been used with this type of rifle. Each of the pockets only carried one clip of Five rounds of 30-03 with the rounded 220 grain bullet. Enjoy.

[Fred]

This illustration in an early manual shows the unique Solid rear band that was used on the Rod Bayonet 03...

[11mm]

Thanks for posting the pictures. I don't expect to get lucky enough to ever own stuff of this sort, but the pictures are a good thing to have in case, and just in case, I do get "lucky".

[rebound]

Thanks for posting the pictures. I don't expect to get lucky enough to ever own stuff of this sort, but the pictures are a good thing to have in case, and just in case, I do get "lucky".

At this point in life, I guess one can still dream of getting lucky..
FWIW

[scosgt]

Rod bayonet '03. You don't see one of them every day.
Hell, you don't see one of them ANY day.

[Fred]

Here's a neat old photo of a guard at Rock Island Arsenal posing with the then new model 1903 rifle and cartridge belt with suspenders.

[m1ashooter]

Did you step back into time? Everything looks brand new. Great post. Thank you.

[Major Tom]

What a great looking rifle! I drool when I see rifles like this. BTW, the Collie is good looking too. 8-)

[Fred]

I'm Happy that you all find the photos neat! I'm having a lot of fun with this iPhone camera.

The rifle and Load Bearing Equipment / Ammo Belt is way too small to fit me. It would've when I was in Army boot camp 38 years ago though. I was real skinny then.

I'm going to send off for three boxes of 30-03 Springfield brass from a Company that sells loaded rounds and empty brass made from 270 Winchester cases. As you guys probably already know, the 270 Winchester was designed long ago from necking down the 30-03 Springfield case, so it has the proper length of neck. I'll be getting some sort of a loading press and powder scale too. Then I can load the ammo belt up with 30-03 Springfield.

Does anyone know if the original round fired a 220 grain bullet at 2200 fps or 2400 fps?

I'm extremely happy that I've finally got one of these rifles. I'd wanted one for over 45 years and had only seen one in an Army museum long ago in the 1970's while doing some training. I can't remember if that was Ft. Benning, Ft. Riley or Ft. Knox. I gave up hope of ever being able to touch or hold one, let alone own one.

Studying the old photo of the guard wearing the web gear and holding the rifle, I see that the pockets of his ammo belt are puckered at the bottom. That was the 2nd type of such a belt that came out. This was supposedly done to better protect the webbing from the pointed bullets of the new 1906 cartridge. I've read that the 1st type of belt had no puckering and that it carried the old 30-03 round nosed bullet just fine without wear on the material. I'm curious as to when that photo had been taken. I know that after the new 1905 updated rifle had been designed and had started being assembled, there were still a lot of the Rod Bayonet model 03's waiting to be altered.
Then again, a well known U.S. contractor of WWI, 1918 dated 100 round cartridge belts produced a belt with pockets that also had no puckering, so maybe the type of 30-03 Springfield ammo belt that I have was just one of the two types made by contractors, like the 1918 contracts and not necessarily a 1st type...? Anybody have any ideas?