I’ve read several articles about “low number” 1903s and the fact that they are considered unsafe to shoot, but this is a slightly different twist (at least different for me).
I walked into my favorite gun shop looking for an early model 1903 to go with my later 1903A3. I quickly spotted one with an S stock that appeared to be in pretty good shape. It was a Rock Island rifle with serial number 240,XXX. Not sure of the low number cutoff, I found a book on the 1903 right there in the gun shop. As I suspected this serial number was just under the 285,507 identified in the book.
I was quite surprised that my favorite gun shop would put this rifle up for sale at all, much less sell it without any type of disclaimer. I asked the salesman about the rifle and he told me the bolt had been replaced and the shop owner considered it safe to shoot.
My understanding was that the heat treating problem was in the receivers and not the bolts. What do you more experienced guys say?
I walked into my favorite gun shop looking for an early model 1903 to go with my later 1903A3. I quickly spotted one with an S stock that appeared to be in pretty good shape. It was a Rock Island rifle with serial number 240,XXX. Not sure of the low number cutoff, I found a book on the 1903 right there in the gun shop. As I suspected this serial number was just under the 285,507 identified in the book.
I was quite surprised that my favorite gun shop would put this rifle up for sale at all, much less sell it without any type of disclaimer. I asked the salesman about the rifle and he told me the bolt had been replaced and the shop owner considered it safe to shoot.
My understanding was that the heat treating problem was in the receivers and not the bolts. What do you more experienced guys say?