Springfield 1903 National Match

[mawkie]

-Just a couple months ago I mentioned in my Springfield 1903 NRA that I would love to acquire a 1903 National Match but that I had other "fish to fry". Well that fish "didn't pan out" and out of the blue a 1903 NM popped up in an auction filled with Springfield 1903 goodies. It was obvious someone's collection was being sold off. The auction listing of U.S. SPRINGFIELD ARMORY MODEL 1903 BOLT ACTION .30-06 RIFLE was vague but there were enough photos and that, along with the SN, allowed me to positively ID it as a genuine National Match model from 1926. Looking at recent comps I figured a bid in the mid teens was appropriate. In the end it was more than enough, hammering in the low teens, giving me a mid teens OTD cost.
-Sadly the story takes a drive down a rough road, something I'll share so others can profit from my experience. The auction house didn't have a shipping dept and out-sourced it to a local UPS Store. In the past I've realized that it will cost me more in shipping fees but never more than roughly 1.5 times the cost of shipping direct from an auction house. In this case I get a quote for $250 for a steep $45 transfer fee (must be nice to charge a FFL holder $45 for 1 minute of labor to log an entry in and out of a bound book) and $200 for packing and shipping via Fedex ground. I called to verify that this wasn't a mistake and was told by the owner of the UPS store that it was indeed too high and that they "would do much better". Well "much better" was $150 to pack and ship for a $200 total. The worst part was that this was my only option, short of the non-starter of abandoning the Springfield. Suffice to say the auction house will be getting some not so glowing feedback on their choice of shipping partners. So when in doubt contact the shipping and ask for a rough estimate to see if it's worth the gamble. Had this been a $300 rifle it certainly wouldn't. Rant off...
-Getting back on subject, it arrived today and other than a thin finish here and there it looked great. The stock had been upgraded from the original scant stock at some point in time as the A1 style didn't get released until 1928. Springfield was selling A1 stocks directly to NM owners to install as well as using them on all new NMs built. You'll notice on this example that the cocking knob was milled away, done on early scant stock rifles to allow the shooter to creep up on the receiver sight without hitting the knob. When the A1 stock was adopted that creep wasn't an issue anymore and the cocking knob was kept intact.
-NM barrels were star gauged and a mark stamped on the muzzle to denote such. Mine has had the std sight blade removed and replaced with a Lyman sight. Lucky for me the original sight was included along with a pack of Lyman sight inserts. The web sling will be replaced. I'm thinking of a replica of the 1923 web sling. I've had a fascination with that quirky design.
-MN bolts were polished, along with the rails and the SN was engraved onto the bolt body. The trigger is nice and crisp with a 4.5 lb pull. Sports the typical Lyman 48S receiver sight.
-Provenance for this gem was kindly provided by the Archival Research Group. It was sold through the old DCM on 7/1/1926, finding its first home in Hamilton, Montana.

 

[TheOriginalMexicanBob]

Schweet!

 

[somd_mustangs]

Whew, thankfully the shipping saga resolved positively.
I was under the impression that UPS Stores could not ship firearms. Maybe that store owner has an FFL?
Ironic that a UPS store ships FEDEX ground.
All's well that ends well and now you can sit back and enjoy it

 

[28Shooter]

That's just nice - Congrats Mawkie!

 

[Doco Overboard]

Is this the same rifle you displayed a short while ago? I think I understand by what you wrote that may have fell through.
Anyway,
If you ever choose to break it down to inspect it further I would be interested in seeing pictures of the barrel channel and in-letting around the receiver ring at the front and rear where the sides of the tang rest.

I suspect someone ground the gas/grasping knob off it to improve lock time and not so much to crawl the stock for a better sight picture. Thats just speculation on my be-half but I believe that was done as remedy for the notoriously slow lock time for the 03's.

When you check it out you should see some pins driven through it to secure the striker to the striker rod. it would be interesting to understand how that was done too. Not often does someone get to see that sort of thing or the inside of the stock in-letting for that matter.

Nice rifle and pictures, thanks for sharing them!

 

[tallen702]

Beautiful piece as per usual sir! Glad the shipping fiasco was resolved.

 

[SmokeEaterPilot]

Gorgeous rifle, thanks for sharing.
Sorry about the headaches with the dealer.

Seems like an interesting guy.

1925

1927

 

[mawkie]

Whew, thankfully the shipping saga resolved positively.
I was under the impression that UPS Stores could not ship firearms. Maybe that store owner has an FFL?
Ironic that a UPS store ships FEDEX ground.
All's well that ends well and now you can sit back and enjoy it

My friend you're spot on. This is the first UPS Store I've ever seen that has its own FFL. I asked for Fedex because they have a store within walking distance from home and I routinely have shipments held for pickup there. What's ironic is that while I paid more for Fedex their quote for using UPS as a carrier wasn't all that much cheaper. For me dealing with the UPS hub sucks because of their very limited hours and now they charge $8.95 to have a package held for pickup! The concept of charging customers for a service that saves UPS money is just hurtful.

 

[mawkie]

Wow, thanks for the follow up on the original owner! Love learning about previous owners and their lives.

 

[mawkie]

Is this the same rifle you displayed a short while ago? I think I understand by what you wrote that may have fell through.
Anyway,
If you ever choose to break it down to inspect it further I would be interested in seeing pictures of the barrel channel and in-letting around the receiver ring at the front and rear where the sides of the tang rest.

I suspect someone ground the gas/grasping knob off it to improve lock time and not so much to crawl the stock for a better sight picture. Thats just speculation on my be-half but I believe that was done as remedy for the notoriously slow lock time for the 03's.

When you check it out you should see some pins driven through it to secure the striker to the striker rod. it would be interesting to understand how that was done too. Not often does someone get to see that sort of thing or the inside of the stock in-letting for that matter.

Nice rifle and pictures, thanks for sharing them!

-The "headless" cocking knob was a std feature starting in 1924 and I'm wrong, it was the reverse safety flag that was adopted along with it to keep "stock crawlers" from getting their noses hit by the safety in recoil. You are correct that the headless cocking knob was adopted to decrease lock time. It was John Garand who had the job of measuring the difference in the fall of the FP. Headless lock time was .0049 sec vs .0057 for the std cocking knob.
-This is what happens when you run off of memory and are too lazy to pickup Clark Campbell's The '03 Springfields reference book which goes into great detail about 1903 match rifles. A must have if you decide to add a Springield match rifle to your safe.
-National Match parts, while mostly identical to service rifle parts, were selected or built to tighter tolerances. Some were built using better grades of steel, like the FP and sear (chrome vanadium) or ejector (nickel steel). In the case of the bolt, it was polished and shooters had access to the aforementioned reverse safety flag and headless cocking piece.

 

[Doco Overboard]

-The "headless" cocking knob was a std feature starting in 1924 and I'm wrong, it was the reverse safety flag that was adopted along with it to keep "stock crawlers" from getting their noses hit by the safety in recoil. You are correct that the headless cocking knob was adopted to decrease lock time. It was John Garand who had the job of measuring the difference in the fall of the FP. Headless lock time was .0049 sec vs .0057 for the std cocking knob.
-This is what happens when you run off of memory and are too lazy to pickup Clark Campbell's The '03 Springfields reference book which goes into great detail about 1903 match rifles. A must have if you decide to add a Springield match rifle to your safe.
-National Match parts, while mostly identical to service rifle parts, were selected or built to tighter tolerances. Some were built using better grades of steel, like the FP and sear (chrome vanadium) or ejector (nickel steel). In the case of the bolt, it was polished and shooters had access to the aforementioned reverse safety flag and headless cocking piece.

I do not own, Campbell's book but do have US rifles and Machine guns Colvin-Vial from Cornell University Engineering library.
I was also looking at the stock pictures more closely, it looks like its been inlet at the front of the reciever for a hand guard ring or maybe even possibly opened up for some additional clearances to improve shooting characteristics by another owner at some time perhaps.

 

[mawkie]

Is this the same rifle you displayed a short while ago? I think I understand by what you wrote that may have fell through.
Anyway,
If you ever choose to break it down to inspect it further I would be interested in seeing pictures of the barrel channel and in-letting around the receiver ring at the front and rear where the sides of the tang rest.

I suspect someone ground the gas/grasping knob off it to improve lock time and not so much to crawl the stock for a better sight picture. Thats just speculation on my be-half but I believe that was done as remedy for the notoriously slow lock time for the 03's.

When you check it out you should see some pins driven through it to secure the striker to the striker rod. it would be interesting to understand how that was done too. Not often does someone get to see that sort of thing or the inside of the stock in-letting for that matter.

Nice rifle and pictures, thanks for sharing them!

The fish that got away wasn't a Springfield it was a Luger. My inability to stick to one gun collecting lane has me constantly bookmarking items that I find interesting and often complete catnip. So you see all kinds of stuff from me (there's an oddball Unique Model 17 coming soon along with a couple of my favorite subject: .22 training rifles).
-I'm also a collector of opportunity. In the case of this NM it was three different auction houses all selling off advanced 1903 collections filled with 1903 International, heavy barrel "T" rifles, NM and NRAs as well as 1903, 1903A1 and 1903A3 service rifles. Something I haven't seen in quite some time. Rifles like this one tend to stay buried deep in collections and only come to market when someone like me dies or downsizes upon retirement. Such is the secondary market.
-Morphy has an upcoming auction with some interesting early low serial number 1903s along with an early pre-WW1 NRA marked 1903. Though I expect no bargains there, that house usually gets top dollar for their offerings. But you never know. One of the Mawkie Rules of Acquisition ™ is to buy when everyone else is distracted. Especially true the closer we get to Christmas and your competition is saving coin to get their kids the GI Joe with the kung-fu grip (you'll get that reference if you're old like me).

 

[SmokeEaterPilot]

I do not own, Campbell's book but do have US rifles and Machine guns Colvin-Vial from Cornell University Engineering library.
I was also looking at the stock pictures more closely, it looks like its been inlet at the front of the reciever for a hand guard ring or maybe even possibly opened up for some additional clearances to improve shooting characteristics by another owner at some time perhaps.

It's a inletting for a receiver ring. To hold in place the back of a A3 handguard. A lot of WWII replacement M1903A1 stocks were universal to either M1903 or M1903A3 rifles.

To your comment about accurizing. I can't confirm beyond USMC rifles. But you'll see USMC special targets (reconditioned match rifles) and USMC Unertl Sniper rifles with inletting around the rear sight base, almost enough to slip a dollar bill through. It was probably to give a free floating barrel or 6 o'clock bed. I don't think you'll see them on match rifles used at Camp Perry (in that configuration) because the Ordnance Department was strict that no modifications were allowed and would threaten disqualification. So that everyone competed on the same platform.

Cheating and getting an edge goes all the back to Krags used at Camp Perry. In the early 1900s, Winchester wrote to the Chief of Ordnance saying shooters were requesting special unmarked barrels. It was an odd request at the time and the Chief of Ordnance concluded it was someone trying to gain an upper hand at Camp Perry using a higher quality barrel than what was being issued.

 

[Doco Overboard]

It's a inletting for a receiver ring. To hold in place the back of a A3 handguard. A lot of WWII replacement M1903A1 stocks were universal to either M1903 or M1903A3 rifles.

To your comment about accurizing. I can't confirm beyond USMC rifles. But you'll see USMC special targets (reconditioned match rifles) and USMC Unertl Sniper rifles with inletting around the rear sight base, almost enough to slip a dollar bill through. It was probably to give a free floating barrel or 6 o'clock bed. I don't think you'll see them on match rifles used at Camp Perry (in that configuration) because the Ordnance Department was strict that no modifications were allowed and would threaten disqualification. So that everyone competed on the same platform.

Cheating and getting an edge goes all the back to Krags used at Camp Perry. In the early 1900s, Winchester wrote to the Chief of Ordnance saying shooters were requesting special unmarked barrels. It was an odd request at the time and the Chief of Ordnance concluded it was someone trying to gain an upper hand at Camp Perry using a higher quality barrel than what was being issued.

I saw the inletting for the handguard ring.
That makes me think it’s not a Springfield stock and why I asked for additional pictures.
Either a keystone replacement or a later commercial offering.
Springfield stopped making C stocks in 1928 is my understanding.
And yes, the ground gas deflection knob is a no go but I bet that rifle passes through a lot of hands and it’s still a beautiful example.
I only have one sight with the flip aperture so that’s a fair trade off for me.

 

[SmokeEaterPilot]

I saw the inletting for the handguard ring.
That makes me think it’s not a Springfield stock and why I asked for additional pictures.
Either a keystone replacement or a later commercial offering.
Springfield stopped making C stocks in 1928 is my understanding.
And yes, the ground gas deflection knob is a no go but I bet that rifle passes through a lot of hands and it’s still a beautiful example.
I only have one sight with the flip aperture so that’s a fair trade off for me.

Oh yeah I agree it’s absolutely a gorgeous rifle.

And the stock to me is minor anyways. And I always say. There were usually two types of people that purchased these luxuries during the Great Depression.

Avid shooters (which this buyer was) and wealthy elites that wanted status symbols.

The former, parts wear, break, need replacing because they’re being used by someone who knows how to use them. The latter, just some rich guy that wanted one and it sat as a safe queen which is why it’s a minty time capsule.

I love this example because the buyer was clearly an avid shooter and used it. So parts probably had to be replaced as a result. Stock itself is a consumable part same as a barrel or bolt.

Just my two cents. I could be way off anyways. And missing everything entirely. I’ve been wrong before haha.

 

[Trepang]

Very nice

 

[ChannelCat]

Simply gorgeous! I like black rifles well enough, but I have an affinity for furniture.

 

[mawkie]

I knew the stock wasn't the factory original. Was hoping when it was delivered that I'd find a Springfield circled P proofmark on the stock but no such luck. But I do love the wood's figure and expect I'll enjoy it at the range.
Many years ago a co-worker and friend, who was a USMC veteran and served in Vietnam, went with me to a Howard county show (probably Silverado) with the intent of finding a 1903. He found a Springfield converted to NM configuration. Me, I was more intent on a pure service rifle and went home with a Remington 1903A3. While content with my find the shooter in me always envied my buddy. This NM closes that long open circle and I'm content.

 

[Doco Overboard]

The last one I picked was off a parade rifle but isn't quite fit for your rifle. It's been stripped of white paint.
Its worth it to me to get one for you, to outfit that rifle so its just so.
I can let you know when I locate something if you like.
Otherwise content, is an apt description and that whats most important.
Thanks for taking the time to share and provide detailed descriptions of your acquisitions.
I for one find them fascinating, enjoyable and always informative.

 

[TheBert]

-Just a couple months ago I mentioned in my Springfield 1903 NRA that I would love to acquire a 1903 National Match but that I had other "fish to fry". Well that fish "didn't pan out" and out of the blue a 1903 NM popped up in an auction filled with Springfield 1903 goodies. It was obvious someone's collection was being sold off. The auction listing of U.S. SPRINGFIELD ARMORY MODEL 1903 BOLT ACTION .30-06 RIFLE was vague but there were enough photos and that, along with the SN, allowed me to positively ID it as a genuine National Match model from 1926. Looking at recent comps I figured a bid in the mid teens was appropriate. In the end it was more than enough, hammering in the low teens, giving me a mid teens OTD cost.
-Sadly the story takes a drive down a rough road, something I'll share so others can profit from my experience. The auction house didn't have a shipping dept and out-sourced it to a local UPS Store. In the past I've realized that it will cost me more in shipping fees but never more than roughly 1.5 times the cost of shipping direct from an auction house. In this case I get a quote for $250 for a steep $45 transfer fee (must be nice to charge a FFL holder $45 for 1 minute of labor to log an entry in and out of a bound book) and $200 for packing and shipping via Fedex ground. I called to verify that this wasn't a mistake and was told by the owner of the UPS store that it was indeed too high and that they "would do much better". Well "much better" was $150 to pack and ship for a $200 total. The worst part was that this was my only option, short of the non-starter of abandoning the Springfield. Suffice to say the auction house will be getting some not so glowing feedback on their choice of shipping partners. So when in doubt contact the shipping and ask for a rough estimate to see if it's worth the gamble. Had this been a $300 rifle it certainly wouldn't. Rant off...
-Getting back on subject, it arrived today and other than a thin finish here and there it looked great. The stock had been upgraded from the original scant stock at some point in time as the A1 style didn't get released until 1928. Springfield was selling A1 stocks directly to NM owners to install as well as using them on all new NMs built. You'll notice on this example that the cocking knob was milled away, done on early scant stock rifles to allow the shooter to creep up on the receiver sight without hitting the knob. When the A1 stock was adopted that creep wasn't an issue anymore and the cocking knob was kept intact.
-NM barrels were star gauged and a mark stamped on the muzzle to denote such. Mine has had the std sight blade removed and replaced with a Lyman sight. Lucky for me the original sight was included along with a pack of Lyman sight inserts. The web sling will be replaced. I'm thinking of a replica of the 1923 web sling. I've had a fascination with that quirky design.
-MN bolts were polished, along with the rails and the SN was engraved onto the bolt body. The trigger is nice and crisp with a 4.5 lb pull. Sports the typical Lyman 48S receiver sight.
-Provenance for this gem was kindly provided by the Archival Research Group. It was sold through the old DCM on 7/1/1926, finding its first home in Hamilton, Montana.

I would love to get a 1903 Springfield NM. No A1's, A2's or A3's. I would like to get one that was used by the USNA 1931 team that won the nationals but that is mostly a dream to far. My grandfather was on the 1931 USNA rifle team where they won the nationals.