1903 Springfield

[madcratebuilder]

SA M1903's to about 70,000 used a Serif letter about .090 high. 70K to about 288+K used Serif about .125 high. Then they uses a Sans Serif about .125 high until end of production.

The OP's rifle has Sans Serif and should be Serif at that serial number.

Why would the ring be scrubbed and remarked with a low number? I've seen a "1" added to make a "high number" rifle.

 

[smoakingun]

now kraigwy has me doubting my rifle again. my reciever is high numbered, (7 digits) but my bolt is bent straight. while I can accept the mix matching of parts, is there a problem with bolts too? I have never read any ord. dept. report about it, but you seem to have spent more time on the subject than I.

 

[Slamfire]

is there a problem with bolts too

Bolts were made out of the same cheap plain carbon steels as the receivers and they came out of the same forging shop which over heated the receiver billets, so there is no reason to assume that they did not also burn bolt forgings.

I used to read advice about changing out the single heat treat bolts to later bolts, maybe it might make a difference.

The real story is that these old guns are made from materials that were so variable in quality the Army was never able to sort out the "good" from "bad". Plus when these plain carbon steel 03's have issues, they tend to frag, which is all due to poor gas handling and poor materials.

 

[oneshot onekill]

I'm glad I kept reading after looking at the pictures. I would have felt stupid posting that rifle is some kind of fake after so many others already did.

Make no mistake! That is some kind of forgery! It is definitely NOT a Springfield 1903! It actually looks like it might be some kind of fake used for School Drill Teams or something... Made to look like the real thing but NOT!!!

Maybe a foreign copy?

Don't know... But it's wrong.

 

[coach225]

1903 Springfield Rifle

Hoping I can get some help and advice on a 1903 Sringfield rifle. My father was in WWII and in cleaning out his house last week we found his 1903 Springfield rifle. Wondering if it has any kind of historical or monetary value. The serial # is 220130 and on the barrel are the letters S and A then below that is 5-09. I have no desire to shot it and also wondering if I need any kind of license to keep it or sell it. Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

 

[tahunua001]

coach225,

assuming it was manufactured by springfield and not rock island the serial number places it as a 1906 manufacture date and had the barrel replaced with another springfield made barrel that was made in may of 1909. this is a very low serial springfield and could be worth quite a bit if it is not a forgery such as the one described in this thread. looking underneath the bolt handle you should be able to make out a single letter stamped on it. S for springfield, R for remington, I don't recall the stamps for rock island or smith corona bolts. if it was indeed your grandfathers rifle then it probably has a mid 30s-early 40s remington bolt. if it is all springfield then that increases the value more. I would advise you to look at all of the pictures in this thread and compare the markings and fonts to your grandfathers rifle and see if it is correct. a few other things to look at is has it been sporterized and has it been converted to another caliber? a lot of people chop the stocks down to a certain length to lighten them, ramp the magazine followers, drill and tap the receiver for scope bases and a popular caliber conversion is 300 win mag. I recently got a little upset when I walked into a LGS and found a low serial M1917 with all of the above mentioned modifications.

if your grandfathers gun has not had any of those modifications then you have a priceless family heirloom that should be cherished for generations.

 

[madcratebuilder]

Hoping I can get some help and advice on a 1903 Sringfield rifle. My father was in WWII and in cleaning out his house last week we found his 1903 Springfield rifle. Wondering if it has any kind of historical or monetary value. The serial # is 220130 and on the barrel are the letters S and A then below that is 5-09. I have no desire to shot it and also wondering if I need any kind of license to keep it or sell it. Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated!

The best thing to do is star a new thread and post some pic's of the rifle. The bolt may be unmarked, these early rifles are marked much different than the later rifles.

A pre war1 M1903 could be north of $1k if in original condition. Could be south of $200 is sporterized.

 

[coach225]

1903 Springfield Rifle

Thanks Tahunua001 and Madcratebuilder for your info. This was my father's rifle and was used in the south Pacific in WWII. He showed it to me along with some other WWII items when I was very young. Then it was hidden away. There is no strap or bayonet for it. It has not been changed or sporterized in any way. Looks like there may be some kind of marking under the bolt handle but I can't really distinguish what it might be.
Posting a couple of pictures. Any thoughts about it would be appreciated

 

[madcratebuilder]

That looks pretty nice to me. S stock with grasping grooves, finish appears correct.

Personally I would keep this rifle as it belonged to a family member and it's something that can passed on in the future. There is no Federal law effecting ownership and it's highly unlikely you have a state law concerning old bolt rifles. As far as value, without close ups and serial number I would ball park it in the $600-800 area. Could be more depending if it's in original conditions or a clean and repair post war2. Either way it's a fine rifle.

 

[Willie D]

Serial says 220130 in the older script style. Barrel says 09.

I thinks it's probably worth a bit more than $600-800.

 

[tahunua001]

Serial says 220130 in the older script style. Barrel says 09.

I thinks it's probably worth a bit more than $600-800.

not really, at least out this way nobody seems to want low numbered serials. my 1912 springfield sat in a pawnshop for almost a year before I took it out the door for 700 all because it's considered unsafe to fire, guns that fire have nearly double the value as ones that don't and just because of serial numbers nobody wants to take the chance of testing whether it's in firing condition or not. 600-800 for his fathers gun is a pretty accurate appraisal in my book. if it was a post 800,000 then it would probably go up a couple hundred.