1903 A4

[Calfed]

Several months ago I threw a couple of bids in at an auction. I kinda forgot about the bids, but last week the auction house advised me that I had won both rifles.One was for a 1903A1 NM rifle. SRS was able to confirm that it had been sold by the DCM as an NM and even found the original sales ticket.

The other rifle I bid on and won was an 03A4.





Description advised:

A US MILITARY .30-06 CAL KEYSTONE 'M1903 A4' BOLT-MAGAZINE SNIPER RIFLE, serial no. 3420685, Built on the M1903 A3 rifle, 24in. barrel, no fore-sight, the muzzle with 'R.A.' over the ordnance bomb and '3-44', fore-part with bayonet lug and 'R' mark, receiver with 'US REMINGTON MODEL 03-A3' marking, the serial number rotated to the right side of the receiver ring (correct for the Sniper variant to remain visible with the scope mounted) and mounted with correct later Korean war era Lyman 'Alaskan' B-prefix serial numbered scope, no. B4851 with rubber eye-piece, Parkerized receiver and barrel, R marked low profile concave bolt, stock with bolt notch and various letter stamps 'W', 'N', 'U', and also with the 'K' stamp for 'Keystone', steel buttplate with square stamp chequering and trap, in tidy overall condition

[flintlok]

Those must have cost a pretty penny. Nice. My buddy has an original Marine sniper 03 that features a handguard cut out for the Unertl scope. He bought it years ago from a widow for $75 not knowing what it was. Those Springfields are great guns. You can never have enough. Nice find !!!!

[Ray7756]

Very nice looking guns you will have to let us know how they shoot
Cheers
Ray

[Calfed]

Those must have cost a pretty penny. Nice. My buddy has an original Marine sniper 03 that features a handguard cut out for the Unertl scope. He bought it years ago from a widow for $75 not knowing what it was. Those Springfields are great guns. You can never have enough. Nice find !!!!

Thanks, flinty. I'm looking forward to shooting this one. I agree about Springfields--thay are nice.

Sounds like your buddy scored. did the 03 still have the Unertl scope?

[Calfed]

Very nice looking guns you will have to let us know how they shoot
Cheers
Ray

Thanks, Ray. I'll definitely post a range report.
I'll post some pictures of the 1903A1 National Match Rifle, also.

[flintlok]

Those must have cost a pretty penny. Nice. My buddy has an original Marine sniper 03 that features a handguard cut out for the Unertl scope. He bought it years ago from a widow for $75 not knowing what it was. Those Springfields are great guns. You can never have enough. Nice find !!!!

Thanks, flinty. I'm looking forward to shooting this one. I agree about Springfields--thay are nice.

Sounds like your buddy scored. did the 03 still have the Unertl scope?

The Springfield Marine sniper rifles were sold withing the Corp to service members upon decommissioning of the rifles and sold mostly to officers. The particular rifle that my buddy has may have had a scope however he bought it form the widow of the Marine in the late 1970's. He didn't know enough to ask about the scope and the widow didn't know enough to offer if she had it. She probably did have it kicking around somewhere. What was really cool about the rifle is that it had an index card in the cleaning rod storage in the butt of the stock. The card listed all of the sighting in numbers of clicks out to about a 1000 yards. It was an old card. My buddy left it out on the kitchen table and his wife tossed it out with the trash thinking it was junk. The gun was definitely cut and drilled for the Unertl mounts and it's was original. I know that there are lots of fakes out there however I know the provenance on this particular rifle. It's the only original that I've ever seen.

[Calfed]

The Springfield Marine sniper rifles were sold withing the Corp to service members upon decommissioning of the rifles and sold mostly to officers. The particular rifle that my buddy has may have had a scope however he bought it form the widow of the Marine in the late 1970's. He didn't know enough to ask about the scope and the widow didn't know enough to offer if she had it. She probably did have it kicking around somewhere. What was really cool about the rifle is that it had an index card in the cleaning rod storage in the butt of the stock. The card listed all of the sighting in numbers of clicks out to about a 1000 yards. It was an old card. My buddy left it out on the kitchen table and his wife tossed it out with the trash thinking it was junk. The gun was definitely cut and drilled for the Unertl mounts and it's was original. I know that there are lots of fakes out there however I know the provenance on this particular rifle. It's the only original that I've ever seen.

I'm trying to piece something like the USMC sniper rifle together for the CMP vintage sniper match. The 8X scope seems to be a deciding advantage and those rifles regularly clean up at the match. I've got a high number Rock Island that I got dirt cheap that had the scope blocks mounted as well as a Redfield target sight. The stock needs a bit of work and there are few odds and ends that need fixing. Currently has a Lyman 8x Junior Targetspot scope on it.

I'll post a few pics of it.

[Calfed]

The 03A4 arrived at my FFL. Both rifles look pretty good, but I can't take them home for 10 days, due to California's infamous 10-day "cooling off" period. I was able to grab a few pictures at my FFL's place of business before they went into the safe.

The stock is in pretty good shape, has a "K" in the mag cutoff cutout and a few miscellaneous letters stamped into the side of the stock.








The scope mount looks legit and the scope is a B-series Lyman. It has fine crosshairs and the optics are clear.





The barrel is in great shape and gauges just under a "1" on the CMP muzzle gauge. it looked like a 2 groove.

Better pictures in 10 days.