I found one! Remington 1903A3

[rdfact]

After a fairly short hunt, I found my latest obsession - a Remington 1903A3. Barrel is dated 4-43, receiver appears to be from August '43 according to http://www.vishooter.net/ra_serialization.txt
All the metal parts have an R stamp.









A "Z" or "N" in front of the P? Some stocks have a P within a circle and others have a P within a block?

[rdfact]

Exceeded the 10 pic limit...


Crack in the hand guard:


Don't think that is an arsenal repair:


Found this in the butt stock:

[DennisCA]

Congrats!

[SonofWWIIDI]

Nice! I'm jealous!

[Emdawg]

Very nice!


Be careful and check for any more cracks. Had one in the wrist I did not see until it was too late.

Stock split open on me when I was shooting mine.

[rdfact]

Is this front sight hood standard? I have seen so many without a hood. Maybe because they fall off?
Pics with the hood slid forward:

[Bobby Ricigliano]

Beautiful rifle. Is this one of the ones that are 'safe' to shoot? I am still trying to figure out the whole low number deal.

[kendog4570]

Nice rifle.
The front sight hood is a protection device for the blade. Not meant to be used when firing.
Shoot it a lot.

[jonc]

Sweet!!!!

[rdfact]

Should be perfectly safe. The safety issue was with the sub-800,000 serial numbers I believe.
I failed to mention this has a shiny 4 groove barrel with nice rifling all the way to the crown. A little bit of copper fouling that is being cleaned out. Should be a good shooter.

[Enfield47]

Congrats, very nice looking rifle!

When you take the bolt apart for cleaning and inspection, be aware the extractor can be a bear to get back on. I spent 1 1/2 hours trying to get it back together, then finally it just went together. Squeezing that ring makes your thumb and finger a bit sore.

[the_tunaman]

Beautiful find - congratulations! I'm on the hunt myself and hope to get so lucky... How much did she cost, if you don't mind my asking?

[rdfact]

Congrats, very nice looking rifle!

When you take the bolt apart for cleaning and inspection, be aware the extractor can be a bear to get back on. I spent 1 1/2 hours trying to get it back together, then finally it just went together. Squeezing that ring makes your thumb and finger a bit sore.

I took the fire pin/spring assembly out of the bolt body but did not take it down further. The previous owner seems to have done an excellent job cleaning and lubing this rifle. It didn't feel the need to fully strip the bolt.
I ran a few cleaning patches soaked with Hoppes down the barrel and they were almost spotless.

[rdfact]

Beautiful find - congratulations! I'm on the hunt myself and hope to get so lucky... How much did she cost, if you don't mind my asking?

Why do you want to buy it?
Well I think I got a deal. It was listed at $799. I got it for $725 out the door. Came with the Brownells leather sling and a slip on recoil pad.

I picked this up at a shop in Sacramento. I originally saw this on my way to Reno last week. I started a thread "Cabellas Reno C&R update" describing some stuff I saw in Reno. I purposely left out this little gem because I didn't want someone else to snag it. The Sac shop was closed on my way back from Reno.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=849459

[Enfield47]

That's great, your rifle has been well taken care of. Hopefully you will be able to get in a range trip soon to test her out.

Just curious, on your bolt sleeve, what intial(s) is it stamped with? Mine has BP on it. I found a link to the army manual for it http://www.easy39th.com/files/FM_23-...M1903_1943.pdf. It was fun to look through. The odd thing I noticed it calls for only oiling the parts, no grease. I put a little Mobil 1 synthetic grease on the bolt lugs and anywhere that slides and it is much smoother now.