Possible USMC? Oh, What To Do?

[ElWoodman]

Eye spy the plumber's table vise marks, though they seem very faint for "Marine Torque".........Curious about a Hatcher hole on a high number receiver.....Wonder where that A3 sling swivel came from, as by A3 time the Corps had M1s....I'm a cynical bastard, Uncle Sam made me that way...

[cplnorton]

You do see variying degrees of how much the vise marks dig into the barrel. So that wouldn't really bug me as I've seen many that are identical to that.

The Marines actually had problems with both the high and low number receivers, it wasn't just the low numbers. So the Marines actually considered the Hatcher Hole as a safety for the shooter. So when you see them first start to mention the Hatcher hole in the summer of 1938. They mention they will do the Hatcher Hole on all receivers that pass through rebuild. It's sort of a long series of docs, but I don't remember seeing any distinction in the docs for the Hatcher Hole that mention it was only for low numbers. I just remember them saying it would be done on all receivers that pass through rebuild. Which is also what you see on the existing Marine rifles of today. It's rare to find a Marine rifle with a WWII era barrel that doesn't have the Hatcher Hole as well.

On the Remington parts, the Marines actually did have correspondance with Remington with the possibliy of getting replacement parts directly from them. In fact the first mention that I see is of this is around 1938. The Marines were asking SA for replacement parts for the M1903's, and SA said they had pretty much switched to the M1, and to contact Remington as they had purchased much of RIA's old machinery. But it is important to note that I have not see an actual direct order yet from Remington to the Marines, or if I have, I have forgetten it. But some of those documents are missing at the archives and it would not suprise me if the files were complete, there might be orders in there from Remington directly.

In nothing else, almost all parts orders for the 1903's were shipped by the Army to the Marines. And I have seen mentions in the Army docs of getting replacement parts from Remington . It would have only taken a simple line item order for parts by the Marines to the Army, and the Army depot filling the order would have shipped what they had.

And it could have also been swapped at anytime in the past 70 years as well. But you do see a lot of random R parts in Marine 1903's. It's just hard to prove when or where it was installed.

[Punch the Clown]

Guys, looking at this rifle I think it's been together for quite sometime as all of the "patina" is matching. A member of the forum here saw it at the gun show where I bought it. It was covered in old cosmo/grease and dirt but he looked at it from 10 feet away and said to me "Good Eye". Between that and the feedback from other Culver members I am pretty sure of this rifles USMC lineage.

[cram1903]

Hello Chuck,
Please explain the significance of the "T" mark that you mentioned. I was always under the impression that it was an indicator of a Greek rebuild however I recently obtained a rifle that is clearly not a Greek return and in fact has all the traits of a marine rebuild.

Cliff

[Punch the Clown]

I have a Marine 03 about 400 off the serial number of your bolt.

Is your rifle listed in the SRS? Any pictures?

[Kaliman]

Not in the SRS

http://imgur.com/a/Oq46b

[Punch the Clown]

nice

[cplnorton]

You know I haven't really seen too many serial hits. We have over 4,000 1903 Marine serials and are adding new serials not in the SRS every month. But I've still only seen maybe four or five direct hits since I've been tracking them.

[Punch the Clown]

You know I haven't really seen too many serial hits. We have over 4,000 1903 Marine serials and are adding new serials not in the SRS every month. But I've still only seen maybe four or five direct hits since I've been tracking them.

Cplnorton, do you have your own database? If so where do you find your entries?

[cplnorton]

Yeah a couple people have been working on building it. But there is a new Archives we found that we are pulling out a lot of especially WWI or before USMC serials.

The ones in the SRS, are almost all from the Quartermaster files at CP which are mostly the 20's and 30's.

But what is sort of neat if you have the docs Frank pulled the serials from for the SRS. They usually have the Marines name on the document. So at this time, a rifle was issued to a Marine in boot and he carried it till it became unserviceable or he mustered out. If gives you a good idea where the rifle was at that specific time. It's sort of interesting honestly.

[Punch the Clown]

Yeah a couple people have been working on building it. But there is a new Archives we found that we are pulling out a lot of especially WWI or before USMC serials.

The ones in the SRS, are almost all from the Quartermaster files at CP which are mostly the 20's and 30's.

But what is sort of neat if you have the docs Frank pulled the serials from for the SRS. They usually have the Marines name on the document. So at this time, a rifle was issued to a Marine in boot and he carried it till it became unserviceable or he mustered out. If gives you a good idea where the rifle was at that specific time. It's sort of interesting honestly.

Book down the road?

[Kaliman]

We're trying to get Steve to write one...