#M1903

The Civilian Marksmanship Program offers vintage military rifles and pistols for sale from time to time for a purchase to the general public. In their latest site update, CMP warns against the use of certain types of .30-06 Springfield ammunition inside specific rifles that are at least 70 years or older. The warning is being issued as an addition to the manual that is included in each of their rifle shipments.

A few weeks ago, a Redditor named Mark happened across a Remington M1903 “03-A3” sniper rifle at a yard sale.  He snatched it up without being sure of what he had, but it turns out his gut was right.  Mark provided more photos of his new-to-him Remington M1903-A3.  Given the many faked surplus rifles out there, Mark’s example would be hard to fake as you can see from the photos below.  The following is from Mark’s initial post on Reddit.

There is a lot of internet chatter about whether or not it is safe to shoot a “low number” Springfield M1903 bolt-action rifle. When I say “a lot,” I mean a whole lot: a Google search of the phrase “1903 safe to shoot” brings back 20.2 million hits, including 148,000 videos. Now, not all of those are going to be specific to the problem, but even if just 10% are, well then, man, that’s a lot of bandwidth on this topic!

What’s the best way to pass a line between massive naval vessels in rolling seas with the deck pitching? Firing it from a rifle of course! The US Coast Guard continue to use specially adapted Springfield M1903s, in service since the 1930s, for the job.

During the interwar years, Springfield Armory shrunk drastically. To the extreme point of going from five thousand full-time employees to two hundred. One of the ways that Springfield Armory dealt with this was to commit to producing rifles for the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio. At first the Armory was taking production rifles and tightening up a few tolerances. But this later progressed to dedicated National Match rifles with heavy barrels, Lyman rear sights, and a shortened forend. Through the Civilian Marksmanship Program, these could be sold to civilians that were eligible in purchasing them (which still exists to this day). During the course of the National Matches, it was found that a pistol grip style stock lended itself much better to accuracy and controllability during the firing process. Now, Springfield Armory by no means didn’t invent the pistol grip stock, these had been around previously. But the change from the straight stock to the pistol grip stock during the National Matches led to changes in the 1903 design as a whole because the Ordnance Department realized the benefits it could have for soldiers in the field. This resulted in the M1903A1. However, there was the problem of tens of thousands of stock blanks left over from the First World War. They couldn’t be made into the full pistol grip “C” type stock because there wasn’t enough wood in the blank. So the Ordnance Department authorized a variance, allowing a “Scant” stock to be created by the various contractors that made the M1903A3 and M1903A4 rifles during the Second World War.

What usually happens to numerically significant firearms is that they get put in a museum and carefully guarded. Not the first Springfield M1903, Serial Number One though! Crazy enough, this particular rifle actually rolled right off the production line and into Army service when it was produced before the war. Originally a rod bayonet version and in .30-03, it was later reconfigured into a non-rod bayonet variant and barrel changed to .30-06, having been made in 1909. But this is actually completely typical of many low serial number M1903 rifles during that era when these changes occurred. In fact what makes Serial Number One so much more significant is that for its service life, it wasn’t at all and was treated like any other Springfield out there in the Army’s service.

Initial production runs of small arms are always objects of great interest and fascination. They represent the tangible beginning, the first of many, a historical landmark. Especially if they are of designs that go on to influence small arms history. Usually when they come off the line they are set aside by the factory, put in a presentation case and locked up for eternity in a reference collection. Subsequent landmark production serial numbers can also be just as historically important. Such as the Millionth M1 Garand to roll off the production line at Springfield Armory that was presented to John C. Garand as a testament to his service as a firearms designer.

Exhibition rifle drill is a relatively new sport, starting to becoming popular in the 1970s and 1980s among JROTC and ROTC drill competitions. Today it occupies a vast amount of programs across the United States and continues to expand every year from the High School to the collegiate and even professional level. In this episode we link up with some of the top tier performers part of a civilian drill team called New Guard America. The team is a collection of hardcore drillers, many of whom have been drilling since they entered double digits in age. Whether traveling across the country or across the world, the team has thrilled audiences at numerous opportunities.

If you’re not following both C&Rsenal and Forgotten Weapons you are missing out on some of the best gun history videos around. With C&Rsenal’s current World War One focus, systematically working their way through the weapons of the Great War, and Ian’s impressively prolific output the two occasionally cover the same subjects.

Here is another photo sent in by Miles. These Marines were cutting a cake celebrating 100 year anniversary of the 6th Marine Regiment with a bayonet mounted Springfield M1903.

The gear of the US infantryman during World War I was some of the best in the period, from the ammunition pouches, to the uniform, and the rifles. Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons has taken a reproduction uniform and an original M1917 rifle and M1911 handgun out to the Two-Gun Action Challenge Match, to put them to the test:

(This is Part 2 of the TFB Rifle Weight Omnibus. You can read Part 1 here.)

In the previous previous installment, we looked at how to assemble our eligibility package for the Civilian Marksmanship Program. In this installment, we will look at how to actually order a rifle from the Program. Ordering is not a particularly difficult process, so this post will not be very long. To order from the CMP, you can navigate the website to the ordering page located at this link. You will be presented with this text:

Ever since the news broke that the CMP would be able to sell M1911 handguns to the shooting public, thanks to a provision in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, I have received a lot of emails and comments asking me “how do I qualify for the CMP?” Well, you’re in luck: Not only will I be walking our readers through the process, but it’s easier than you think!

Pedersen designed a device to caliber convert a Springfield M1903 from a 5 round bolt action rifle into a semi auto 40 rd 30cal rifle.