1903 Springfield Sporterized

[roostersgt]

Father gave me this rifle over 20 years ago. It had a really bad cut down barrel and a cut down soft wood stock on it. It also has a muzzle brake and a weaver 4X scope and funky mount. I have been working on fitting it into this stock for the past couple of days. Lots of dremel work, sanding and chiseling to make it happen. This rifle will later get a fitted Limbsaver recoil pad, be action bedded and receive a home applied bluing job out of the bottle, in addition to the obligatory True Oil treatment. It will primarily be used as a back-up big game hunting gun in my collection. Please don't hate, restoring classic military arms has never been my "thing", and besides, this rifle was too far gone from the get go. It will be used when it is completed, not just stored in a safe.

Sorry most are upside down, but for some reason when I upload them, they flip. Dunno?

[smoothy8500]

Sporterizing old milsurps was common in the 60's and 70's. At least it will get used.

[kendog4570]

Beautiful figure in that stock.

[Spartan301]

1903

Looks like a classic 60's sporter!

Nice looking stock.

[roostersgt]

The stock was $10 from a garage sale years ago. I like how robust the action and bolt are. They sure built them solid back then.

[Heatseeker]

I have this one. Very similar story, given to me by my father. It came to him from a friend's widow years back. The finish was once beautiful, but the rifle had been left neglected for quite some time and the finish suffered. It now has a 60's vintage Weaver K5 scope on it. I keep threatening to go hunting with some friends and using it. Hasn't happened yet though.

[Full Clip]

Nice rifle.
I hunt with a sported M1917 from my grandfather. Gets the job done!

[Enfield47]

It is a beautiful stock. At least you can now put the rifle to good use.

[roostersgt]

Certainly like your scope mounting system better than what came on mine. The side mounted type doesn't appear to be as strong. We'll see how it does once I'm done finishing it and go to the range. I have other new scopes, but am leaning on keeping the fixed 4X Weaver on it.

[Heatseeker]

Certainly like your scope mounting system better than what came on mine. The side mounted type doesn't appear to be as strong. We'll see how it does once I'm done finishing it and go to the range. I have other new scopes, but am leaning on keeping the fixed 4X Weaver on it.

The rifle actually came with this scope mounted:


I didn't know what it was so I posted here to inquire. MJ1 knew exactly what it was, an Enfield sniper scope. He and I worked out a trade deal for the Weaver and a few bucks since he needed it for a sniper build. It turned out that the Weaver mounts were not correct for the rifle, so I ended up starting over. I got as far as bore sighting the new set up. Someday, I will take the old gal out, sight it in and make some noise with her.