LKG
Well-Known Member
My first "real" rifle was an 03-A3 Springfield that my grandpa sporterized back in the late 60's, maybe 70's, chambered in 30 Gibbs. 65 grains of IMR 4350 pushes a 165g Nosler Partition well past 3100 fps, it's an absolute thumper. I will add, he was never afraid of a few pressure signs, haha. I have since dialed that load down a smidge. And you're correct, it'll shoot close to an inch when I do my job correctly (I wish I knew the barrel manufacture). When he gave it to me I spent hours/days polishing the entire bolt assembly, the floor plate/bottom metal, safety, etc. I even built a lightweight stock out of a slab of 8/4 walnut.A3 would be late production. The made some changes to enhance production. The triggerguard and floorplate on the A3 were made by metal stamping and the rifling went from 6 groove to 2 groove. Springfield 1903 rifles were the go-to bolt action gun for sporterizing in the post war era. My father bought one of the A1 rifles, made in the Springfield Arsenal at Rock Island, that look very similar, from a Gambles Drug store in Glasgow MT in around 1962. A few years later, we were stationed (USAF) in Yokota Japan, where he found a really old school gunsmith that sporterized it. That gunsmith used a Philipine mohogany that was so prevalent in the day/area. I restocked that gun myself in the late 70s, with a nice feather California Black Walnut blank and replaced the cheap scope and rings with Redfield base/rings and a Leupold scope. It's still in the safe. I hunted with it for a few years. With my handloads it could put 5 shots into about 1 1/4". So, those old guns could shoot.
Great to see one still in original configuration. So many were modified over the decades that there are fewer and fewer around
Thanks for stirring up the memories!
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