1903A4 trouble

now for the downer, I decided to knock the front sight post off and... it's not parkerized underneath, which means that this barrel was destined for an A3. would having the thing reparked kill the value or is this an acceptable practice for a restoration project?
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When my Dad got "our" 03-A4 back in the day from the old DCM, it wore both a rear A3 sight and has the front blade as well. He pulled both off. Oops, no park'g under the front sight, put that sight back on, found a one piece redfield and an old Weaver 330 and voila, good enough for him/me.

Not unusual for them to be rebarreled post war. Don't sweat the small stuff. If it has the split receiver markings it is the real deal tho maybe not 100% fresh from the battlefield as issued. These things happen. M2Carbine sportorized his back in the day as I recall, because, well, these things were cheap and who cared back then?

Tho the Weaver 2.5X scope is kind of limiting, they used what they had and called it good enough. Put a quality 4X optics on it and you'll own anything out to 500 yds I betcha. And more than likely, someone knowledgable will offer you an obscene amount of money for it at the range someday. You can smile and say, "Nah, it's not all original. Don't wanna sell it today" :D
he tried telling me that the scope was killing the value on it and appraised it at $300 and told me that I needed to switch back to the iron sights if I wanted to sell it.
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Hopefully you shared a good laugh with him on that, eh? (grumble)
 
they have cheap FFL transfer fees and they aren't all that bad on their prices although the owner is cranky and the son(guy who appraised it) is a bit of a know-it-all but if I can get their stuff for cheap and not have to drive 15 miles to the rest of the gun stores in my area, I'd rather not burn the bridge. I just let him sit there and tell me that my gun was worth nothing and politely said I'd keep it for now.

on the other hand the place that worked on it fixed the reciever, attached the mount, mounted the scope(redfield revolution 3-9) and even bore sighted it all for 37 bucks(I was expecting over $200) and they seem to know their stuff when it comes to milsurps, they have a lot of them move through there but a number of them have been sporterized.
 
finally some pics

well the screen on my camera is smashed but apparently it still takes pictures, only problem now is I have no idea how they turn out until after I hook up to a computer. of about 50 attempts here are the nicest of the bunch.
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this is where I need madcratebuilder to tell me whether this is a smith corona floor plate or a remington floor plate.
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A beauty tahunua.

Might want to pull the front sight base spline out of the I slot before you go shootin' or risk losing it on the range. Rub some grease or oil in the I slot to prohibit/slow rusting.

Also, might want to begin a quest for an older Weaver or Lyman scope and rings... just because. Not that it'll be easier to or better to shoot with, just to take it back to warhorse status should you decide to dress it up for re-enactment sake.

But, I'd say your value of that A4 is far far north of $300, by a factor of X8 or X9 at least. Find a period scope/rings, maybe X10 or more to the right buyer someday.

Really nice.

ETA, might also want to look for a C or scant stock as the straight wrist was NOT correct for the A4 as I recall.
 
I ordered a C stock 2 days ago so hopefully it will look similar to the real deal by then. thanks for the assessment, makes me feel a little better than $300:D I went with modern optics just because I didn't want to get too deep into the restoration so I picked a 150 dollar optics settup rather than a 450 dollar setup. it's a decent scope but I agree that it does kindof detract from the overall appearance of the rifle.
 
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I was placing 3 holes touching at 35 yards when it had irons, I'm hoping to take it out and put it on paper at 200 tomorrow.
 
where is the serial number, is it under the scope mount?
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Hi

No, it is not.

On Tahuna's rifle, similar to how the '03A3' is offset to the left of the mount, the serial number is also offset, but to the right, so it can be seen with the mount on.

On for example my 'home-built' 03A4gery, the serial number is partially obscured by the mount. Also, on my rifle, the '03A3' is under the mount

All real 03A4s will have '03A3' stamped on them to my knowledge, but always offset, as shown in the photograph on page one of this thread
 
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