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Remington 1903a3 with 1903 barrel and rear sight

6K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  Gen Jack Ripper 
#1 ·
Hello,
I was at my neighborhood gun store and he had a Remington 1903a3 without the a3 rear sight and it had the 1903 rear sight on the barrel. It was made in 2-43. Its in nice shape. Its just weird because its missing the rear sight on the receiver and also has the milled trigger assembly and milled floor plate. It does have the stamped mag follower in it.

Is this rifle a mix that someone put together or did it leave remington that way?

No I am not asking for a price or value, but he put a $1399 price tag on it. No way I will pay that much for that, but its on gunbroker right now with a much less bid price.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
There were transition rifles where they started doing the A3 Machining cuts and cost saving changes to the 1903 rifles.
 
#3 ·
Do you have an auction number, you don't have to post a link just the number.
 
#6 ·
Yes, it had the cut on the rear bridge for the a3 sight. The receiver had a slight green patina. It has the cartouche markings on the stock. It is a nice rifle. I dont have the money to even offer to them or bid on the GB when I find it. The store is Trigger Happy Guns in Bend Oregon.
 
#8 ·
627415845

Here is the number. They did not put very good pictures of the receiver. You never know during war time I didn't have time this evening to look up the serial number. They could have been finishing up old stock. The stock appears to be a replacement.
 
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#10 ·
I read his description and said it was a rare one by Remington. LOL... Oh and thank you for finding it.

Its a nice rifle, if I had the money I would try to buy it. I am going back into the store to try and get a remington 1903 rifle that is pretty beat up. Maybe I will try to trade for this rifle since its a franken rifle.
 
#12 ·
I go to his store every now and then. He is only about 4 blocks away. He has 2 garands in stock. One is a CMP special...what for it.....$1899. The other has a synthetic stock......$1599. If someone offered me $1599 for my garand with wood stock, its sold. Take my money and buy 2 more.

But I am going to see what I can do tomorrow!
 
#14 ·
I believe it was mid summer of 1942 that Remington was authorized to use stamped metal parts to speed up production, so many later production '03's had stamped parts, and these rifles were unofficially called '03 modified".
I have seen a couple of late production '03's that had the rear sight dovetail for the '03 during the transition period to the 03-A3, but they were marked 1903, not 03-A3.
 
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#15 ·
The 4 million serial on that Remington 03A3 receiver dates it to Sept-Oct of 1943, the barrel is a SA dated 3-42, which makes them from 2 different manufacturer's and 18 months apart.

It would be interesting to know if the bolt serial matches, but, by the looks of the pics that rifle is either a mix master or got another receiver. I would pass on this one and look for a correct 03A3...
 
#16 ·
And where did you find this information? I assume on the Gun broker site??? Good information.
Obviously a put together rifle. I would pay $500-600 for it, and install a 03-A3 rear sight and 03-A3 barrel. That is assuming the dovetail is there for the rear sight. The '03 barrel you could easily sell.
 
#19 ·
As others stated it is simply a civilian parts rifles. No A3's were produced with the M1903 style barrel. Late Remington M1903's did have some stamped parts but no A3's were shipped with milled parts (referring to the bands, buttplates, trigger guards, etc..).

Military rebuilds of A3s COULD have milled parts mixed in. The military rebuild would NOT put a M1903 barrel on an A3 as that would constitute a design change that would not be consistent with the A3 designation.
 
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#22 ·
Looking at that rifle, seems to me it's more correct being a 1903 if one can come up with an SA receiver, rather than trying to make all the parts match the 03A3 receiver.

Thing is, Sarco Inc will build you an 03A3 rifle using mostly brand new USGI parts for $600 when they have them in stock. So, kinda makes this mismatched rifle a charity case and hardly worth dealing with...
 
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