Early 1903 Springfield Project

[P0H0]

That helps a lot! I’ll check this afternoon when the receiver comes out of the kerosene. I’ll also see if I set the bolt stop in the don’t blue bag.

[P0H0]

Okay BR — I found the bolt stop. I missed the little guy during prep, so it went along for the entire rust blue process.

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[P0H0]

High resolution photos of both the Nitre and rust blued parts cleaned up. Click HERE

[P0H0]

Working through the last remaining things:

- Stiff bolt operation with cock on open (I will add lube/oil in the next few days)
- More lube — the trigger squeaks
- Flag safety hard to move out of “Ready”position — I’ve been working on this today and should have it back to standard effort shortly
- 2 BLO applications to stock and handguard

Note: front sight blade isn’t mounted yet so I can remove the upper band for breakdown for lubing and BLO.

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[butlersrangers]

Your metal turned out with a good look and color.

The wood is handsome. Though, I would prefer a darker stain.

[P0H0]

I like a darker look too, but I fear losing the tiger stripes. I think the dark looks came after years of handling, gun oil, and repetitious linseed oil.

I still need to apply BLO, so it will darken up more.

I grabbed these stills from videos of rifles early 1903s to compare — one is only about 15000 off on my serial number. Click HERE

[butlersrangers]

Sean - You are the one who must be happy with the outcome of your restoration work.
Lots of gunstocks and finishes look beautiful. We all have our preferences.

IMO - European walnut stocks with 'tiger stripes' seem to show that lovely feature, even when stained.
This is the case with Krag stocks made from Italian walnut wood, that were stained to fit in with a unit's American walnut rifles.
The striped areas seem to take the stain differently than the rest of the wood.

There seems to be a widely repeated belief that U.S. Military stocks get their color exclusively from raw linseed oil, lubricants, sweat & dirt, age and oxidation.
I don't believe this is entirely true.
We certainly know that 'log wood stain' was used at U.S. armories and arsenals, till the late 1920's.

Attached are photos of two 'striped' Krag stocks of Italian wood, that were stained at some point in service. The stripes still show!

Also, a photo of my 1903 and 03-A3 Springfield shooters.
I like the coloring of the bottom two.

I don't know why the unmarked 'scant' stock is so gorgeous. This 03A3 likely underwent arsenal or DCM 'rebuild', after ww2.
I bought it because of the beautiful parkerized metal and wonderful wood.
I wipe it down, once and awhile, with 'Pledge'.

The 1903 was made in 1935. I restored it, from a crude Hunting Sporter, using nice color/condition-matching G.I. parts and a WW1 "S" stock, that I found on ebay.
The handguard was an unfinished (NOS) one, from WW2. I was lucky and got a good match using several coats of different stains and thinned linseed oil.

The 'cut-down' 1903 at the top has the remains of a boring, lighter colored, WW2 replacement stock.

By all means, keep the 'tiger-stripe' beauty of your new stock, when finished!

[P0H0]

Those are beautiful rifles BR! I live the Italian wood closeup — wish mine looked like that.

I do agree, but right now I’m 3 stain applications in — I want to pause for now until the new handguard of the same wood arrives so I can catch it up in the process. From there I can look at another coat of dark walnut stain. I did apply a coat of linseed oil today to the 1903 stock and it darkened up a touch — I still have options though…

On a side note, I’m still annoyed by the M1917 Italian wood stock color (heart wood on right side of stock) — the CMP gunsmith loves it though lol. I may strip that one down and start over — let your freak wood show *cough*.

All this is good practice, I have the Krag stocks to stain once the handguards are cut for the sight. This 1903 has been a good experience in preparation for the Krag rifles. Right now my gunsmith is going to rust blue them, but it has crossed my mind that I should take it on. Heck I’d love to learn barreling and chambering too.

Here is my other 1903s — two are dark (1943 A3 and 1919 Mark I — the other 1919 Mark I is lighter):

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[P0H0]

Project Completed:

I just returned home from testing the rifle — everything went really well (no issues). I have also taken photos to compare before and after — the objective was to conserve the rifle by performing what the arsenal would have done in (I followed the U.S. Arsenal Refinishing Requirements from 1907). New 1903 Springfield receivers were case hardened in production — like the Krag. The Arsenal has all the previous case hardened parts browned (rust blued) when they go through the process. Also, all the rifles are broken down to their individual parts, inspected, and repaired or replaced. Here is what I did:

- Stock: Replaced the scant stock with a standard straight stock
- Parts: All the parts were inspected and the buttplate and magazine spring were replaced.
- Finish: The trigger guard, magazine floor plate, swivels (includes stacking swivel), lower band, front sight base, front sight blade, middle band retaining spring, were all Nitre Blued. The remaining parts were all Rust Blued/Browned (receiver, barrel, sights, bolt assembly etc.). The magazine spring and other springs were set aside and cleaned.

Here are links to the before and after photos:

CLICK HERE FOR BEFORE PHOTOS

CLICK HERE FOR AFTER PHOTOS

[butlersrangers]

Nice rifle, how was the accuracy?