One just came into work. What do I look for? Barrel dated 1943, haven’t looked it over real close but it’s something I don’t want to pass on unless I find something that makes it only good as a wallhanger.

I think it’s an old DCM rifle, still has cartouches on the left side of the stock. Not a drill rifle, a demilled example, no welds on the receiver or barrel. I’ve wanted a 03/03A3 for a long time so it’s in layaway.

Not a drill rifle/demil, not molested, not drilled/tapped, and not refinished. Those are the big things to look for.

Sounds like a good snag.

A3s aren't affected by the "low number" heat treat concern like the early production M1903s.

That may have been made in Cortland NY where I grew up. There used to be four or five Smith Corona Marchant (SCM) plants in the area, all closed 30+ years ago.

I left NY in 1986, I was not a gun guy back then and never did any research on the 1903 manufacturing.

Yes, never drilled and tapped.

We had a sporterized 1917 Eddystone come in a couple weeks prior. Top of the receiver was milled off for the scope mounts, sad.

A couple years ago we had a sporterized K98 come in. Needed a ladder sight,,stock and a couple other small things to bring it back to original appearance. Bolt and receiver were matching numbers, barrel was never shortened either.

I was aware of the heat treating issue for the early 1903’s, a friend has one of those and I advised him to never shoot it out of caution but with his age I doubt he would anyhow.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
That may have been made in Cortland NY where I grew up. There used to be four or five Smith Corona Marchant (SCM) plants in the area, all closed 30+ years ago.

These M1903A3s were made at the Smith-Corona factory in Syracuse, at the corner of Washington and Almond.

They moved down the road to their Cortland facility in the 1960s, a couple decades after the end of WW2.

The former Smith-Corona factory in Syracuse became a community college, and was demolished in the 1990s. That spot is currently the site of the Syracuse University Center of Excellence.

Besides just Smith-Corona, the Western NY area around Syracuse used to house huge factory facilities for a number of industrial powerhouses: Remington, Carrier, Xerox, Kodak, GM, IBM, etc. Nowadays, not so much.

S-C’s are great rifles. Sounds like a nice one to pick up by your description. Would love to see some pics to get some details for you. And also just to see a nice unmolested WWII rifle.

I inherited one a few years back. It had been destr- er…sporterized, so I had it fixed up and an unfired 1944 barrel installed. I also installed the scope mount. From what I hear, don’t try to drill/tap a Smith Corona receiver; they are made of unobtaniun and hardened completely through.

I’ll try to post some pics shortly.

Sounds like a good grab!

I love my Remington 03A3. I got it in a sporter stock with a redfield front globe sight, but it has never been drilled or tapped and the barrel still had the original notch for the factory front sight. I managed to find a stock and the other necessary parts to "de-sporterize" it, and I enjoy shooting it almost as much as the Garands. It's just so light and handy!

Well today I picked up the rifle, layaways don’t work, I get impatient. I traded in a AR-15 that I got almost two years ago that I tried to love but just couldn’t warm up to, been sitting in the safe since then.

Anyhow, barrel date 9-43, S-C manufacture, serial number looks to be a late October 1943 production so it’s probably the original barrel. Parkerizing looks to match. Stock has been over refinished,appears to have used grain filler and a ghost of the inspection stamp is still visible on the left side of it. Butt plate, large checkering. Has the front sight hood on it. No signs of import marks, welds, cut receiver. I think I did well with this one.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
Well today I picked up the rifle

After all, if you truly had picked it up, you would have posted photos by now...

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
Well today I picked up the rifle

After all, if you truly had picked it up, you would have posted photos by now...

I’m still photo challenged…
i might have it figured out, I’ll try again tomorrow.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: shovelhead,

If you want to email them to me I can upload them to flikr and post them for you. Email is in my profile. I'd love to see pics of your "new" SC 03A3!

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
If you want to email them to me I can upload them to flikr and post them for you. Email is in my profile. I'd love to see pics of your "new" SC 03A3!

Thank you, you’re my backup if needed! I think I have it down now, I posted in the Fun Vehicle ans watch threads last night as tests.

I’m looking for “dead relatives” aka genealogy research today at the local library, got a clue on a long missing (late 1920’s era) aunt that I’m going to dig into today. I’ll move things around tonight and get some photos.

92fstech, check your email.

Here's shovelhead's rifle. Very nice score, sir! When are you planning to shoot it?

Nice rifle. Take off that sight hood/protector and shoot that bad boy.

92fstech.

Thank you for posting these.

Well tomorrow and Monday I work and this upcoming week is supposed to be miserably cold so it’s going to be a few days until I try it out.

I have a couple Spam cans of the Greek HXP 30.06 that I got at the same time a few years back when I got my CMP Garands so I’m set there.