1903 springfield

S

sg85

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I have a 1903a3 Springfield made by Remington in 09/43. How do I know what kind of barrel is on this rifle, ie 2 groove, twist?
 
Remove the bolt, look down the bore and count the grooves?

Standard twist rate is 1 turn in 10 inches.

You cal also measure the rate of twist with a tight fitting patch, cleaning rod and tape measure.
 
And it does not matter. 2 grove shoot just fine.

I have one on a 1917 and it shoots a wider range of ammo far better than the 5 grove normal one does (the 5 grove does great, but won't shoot some ammo worth a hoot). the 2 grove is not only as good a 5, but shoots it all well.
 
Thanks for the info. I was thinking about changing barrels, but now I'll just keep experimenting until I find a load that works.
 
My remi is the same year and it's a 4 groove, but it was assembled by an armorer when he joined the coastal militia/civil air patrol in WWII. It may not be exactly the same because it was assembled with "selected" spare parts in late 43.

Boomer
 
Springfield fan

I just picked up my first 1903A3 made by Remington with the same 9/43 barrel marking. I am looking forward to shooting it. The bore looks nice and appears to have the 4 grooves. Very excited to learn more about it.
 
FWIW, I have found that nearly all my .30-06 rifles shoot 165gr boat tail bullets the best. I can't find my loading data right now, but I think the load was either IMR4895 or IMR4064 (both work great) at around 2600fps.
 
It should be

a two-groove but some four-grooves were still in parts bins.

Also is the barrel marked RA or HS, as HS made only four-groove barrel for both the 03A3 and 1917 Enfield during WWII.

Post photo's, please!
 
The 9-43 barrel on my Sept. '43 Remington is a two groove. 5-43 barrel on my July '43 Remington is a four groove.
 
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It is not really that important, but the barrel date (when the barrel was made) is not necessarily even close to the rifle assembly date. Since the barrel making process was more automated than receiver manufacture and assembly, the date when the barrel was made sometimes ran months ahead of rifle assembly. Further, barrels were made and racked, then taken in no special order for assembly. So LIFO was common, with older barrels staying behind for long periods.

Also, needless to say, when a rifle was rebarrelled, no attention whatsoever was paid to either the barrel date or the manufacturer. For some strange reason, ordnance shops in WWII didn't worry a lot about the concerns of collectors seventy years in the future.

Jim
 
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