Is this a USMC 1903 Receiver?

[John Beard]

Thanks John and everyone else. Guess at this point all I can do with it is say "yay, it's a USMC receiver". I had originally intended it for a sporter project since it had a tomato stake barrel and a hatcher hole and had lost it's "originality", but I don't want to bubba up a USMC receiver.

Do you have the original barrel that was in it when I inspected it at the CMP? Just curious.

J.B.

[MoMallard]

What was the barrel date from your notes? I didn't keep a lot of notes on some of the early guns I had. I may have gotten it from CMP South for parts/receivers. I still have every 03 I have bought, so it may be sitting on one of the early project guns. I recall changing one AV-19 barrel that I still have stashed somewhere.

[MoMallard]

Bet that was it. I looked at the AV-19 barrel and it has vice marks on it. D****it! I think I remember that gun now. I got it for the tight AV barrel to put on my CMP shooter and was going to use the receiver to built up a .257 Roberts deer rifle, since in my rookie opinion, the Hatcher hole ruined the receiver from a collector standpoint, and it was a "parts gun" so I wasn't doing anything bad. Heck, it even had one of those crappy, might be dangerous due to mfg process AV barrels that were derided! I put the barrel on a C stocked 924K receiver and shot it in some CMP matches. It shot great, but had a bad ring in the chamber that made extraction a pain in rapid. SO....later on, I sent that in to the CMP to build me a Vintage Sniper rifle with a brand new Criterion barrel. They pulled the rear sight sleeve and front sight sleeve for the Criterion. I have a stripped Marine AV barrel that they sent back.

This is a great example of how a rookie who had about a thimble full of 1903 knowledge took a verified USMC rifle and screwed it up because he didn't know what he had. After 10 years of haunting this and other sights, reading all things 03, and from associating with and emailing knowledgeable folk, I at least have a hatful of knowledge now. Enough to look back and wish for a time machine to go and slap an exuberant but stupid younger man who took something out of the collector world. Anybody got a Faberge egg they want me to smash?

[louis]

That's a good story. Can you take a few photos of that barrel and post them?

[MoMallard]

ARRRGGGHHHHH! It's getting worse. This discourse made me start trying to remember everything about that gun. It was a decade ago. I recalled a punch stippled butt plate that came back to my foggy memory from stripping that gun down. At the time, I didn't think twice about it. Just thought it was some bored GI thing. I don't have it now, as I remembered giving that stock to a buddy. I called him up, and yes. It had a stippled butt plate. God help me. I need a beer.

[louis]

Lol yep I agree

[MoMallard]

Louis: In response to your last post, here are some pics of the barrel and vise marks.

IMG_1041.jpg

[MoMallard]

AV Markings

IMG_1039.jpg

[louis]

Thanks for the photos. Interesting to look at. I'm a big Usmc collector so always interested in what people have.

[John Beard]

At the time I inspected your rifle at the CMP, it was fitted with an S.A./5-18 barrel.

J.B.