Can a 1903 Springfield action/barrel handle modern loads?

Actually, the military velocity changed a bit over time. It was 2700 fps, as Mr. O'Heir says, for the early stuff: .30 M1906 with a 150 grain bullet loaded with a charge of Pyro DG, a long-gone rifle powder that was less progressive and faster than the modern stuff. M2 Ball used in '03A3's and Garands for practice in WWII was loaded to 2740 fps with a 152-grain bullet (that's the maximum weight, as it's a unilaterally toleranced value with the critical side of the value at that maximum number, but the tolerance was -3.0 grains, so 150.5 grains was the average weight). Here's the catch, though. The old chronograph systems measured velocity at 78 feet, which is halfway between 6 feet and 150 feet, where the sensor coils were placed. So the muzzle velocity was higher. Hatcher's Book of the Garand, page 125, gives his extrapolated MV of 2805 ft/s. I have used range tables developed by military firings of that round to get a good drag model for it, and it looks to me like it would have been closer to 2802 fps, not that the difference matters much. In either case, neither of those are true muzzle velocities but rather are what the velocity would have to be at the muzzle position if the bullet were already flying from somewhere behind it and then went over the sensors. In the actual gun the muzzle velocity is a bit lower than that and the muzzle blast adds some speed to the bullet for the first few inches and it doesn't start to slow until after it catches up with the velocity of the expanding muzzle blast sphere. The error is probably on the order 70 fps or so.
 
Chaparral:
SN 3102000 is a Remington 1903 probably made 1942. One lookup says 1941 but I don't think they had made 102000 rifles that soon.
It is of nickel steel construction and is suitable for "modern" ammunition.

Rifletom:
I don't think Douglas makes or made two groove barrels and I suspect you have a military barrel polished down.

We will need close clear pictures to say much more.

If you are happy with 1940 or even 1906 ballistics, careful powder selection will get you 2700-2800 fps at very low pressure. Hodgdon shows H4350 will move a 150 gr Nosler BT to 2792 fps at 37100 CUP.
 
#3102: The gun store was located on the south side of town and then close and reopened on the east side of town. Like Ackley the maker of the rifle scrubbed the receiver and used his own system of serial numbers.

F. Guffey
 
Geez, now I'm starting to wonder what the heck I did get. Well, it shoots well enough and has never had problems with the load I used in it. That would have been : 150gr Hornady Interlock FB, 52.0gr IMR4064, CCI LRP and Win cases[from the 80's/90's].
OAL is 3.235". If I can get some pictures, I'll post 'em. Quite the thread.
 
F. Guffey said:
#3102: The gun store was located on the south side of town and then close and reopened on the east side of town. Like Ackley the maker of the rifle scrubbed the receiver and used his own system of serial numbers.

F. Guffey
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info guys. I'll work on getting some pics up.
 
I have a 03 2 groove 3006 barrel, found it screwed to a Chinese Mauser action.
This rifle sports a Red field peep and a Remington 700 type front sight ramp with fine bead.
That rifle is very consistent, I used F.Guffey's "lever policy" ....
 
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