Red Star M1903 "oddballs"

[Rick the Librarian]

About 7 years ago, I had the chance to examine a large number of "Red Star" M1903s. Virtually all of them (almost! See below) were in the 3,053,000 range or less. However, there were two "exceptions to the rule".

1) A correct Remington M1903 in the 3,136,000 range, significantly higher than nearly all of the rest. By all appearances, this is a total correct mid-range Remington M1903. Note, especially, the "spread RLB" instead of the boxed RLBs on the other rifles.

[Rick the Librarian]

2. This was without doubt the most unusual. As you can see, not a Remington at all, but a mixmaster Springfield in the 221,000 range. It had the red band, as do the others. It had an AV barrel and a Rock Island stock. I nor the owner had no idea how this rifle got mixed in with the others. To my knowledge, this is the ONLY non-Remington M1903 which was included in the 200 rifles Will Levin imported. There still are two more crates of rifles that have not been opened. Who knows what waits within??

[Rick the Librarian]

For you "math wizards" who are interested in statistics, I have 145 of the 200 Red Star rifles listed with at least the serial number - they are broken down as follows:

1) 3,020.000 or less: 7 rifles

2) 3,020,000-30,000: 11 rifles

3) 3,030,000-40,000 : 43 rifles

4) 3,040,000-50,000: 51 rifles

5) 3,050,000-55,000: 29 rifles

In addition, there are the two rifles pictured above, plus the following:

-- 3,089,452
-- 3,090,031

(neither of the above rifles were observed - apparently sold long ago).

Obviously, there is no way of knowing if this was the ratio of M1903s the British received or not.

[1mark]

Nice work Rick. So how does one go about buying a Red Star?

[Rick the Librarian]

Nice work Rick. So how does one go about buying a Red Star?

PM sent