There's been some interest when I mentioned the
Springfield '03 in the post about trade-ins for my Colt. It's a fine rifle in very good shape. The serial number dating of it says it was manufactured in 1918, AFTER the receiver tempering problem was addressed. (The older tempering method was imprecise and can lead to cracked
receivers under firing pressures, in some instances. Disastrous, but not my worry.) It was passed down to me by my father in law, and my interest was it was the rifle we drilled with in my ROTC years.
According to the armory marks, it was re-barrelled in 1942.
I like it, well enough, but it shoots left. I had to crank the
windage almost all the way over to center the shots on the bull.
I half considered getting it tapped for a scope mount but the gunsmith took a look at the condition and BEGGED me not to. A $200 modification would take $500 off the value of the rifle. My Luddite tendencies, and respect for history kicked in, and I quickly agreed with his assessment. When I reported this exchange on this blog,
Tam was also relieved I refrained from butchering the piece and introduced my to the term "
Bubba-
ized." As in "Don't you DARE
bubba-
ize that rifle!"
But I don't shoot it, much. Bolt action and me don't agree. Mainly because of the right handed nature of the beast. It's sights are notch and leaf, instead of peep. I prefer peep. If I need an iron-sight rifle for hunting I can use the M1A. Or, if I want to use a scoped rifle I can use the
Garand (I added a scout scope mount to the
Garand. But don't worry, the modifications are easily reversed, returning the rifle to it's original Navy-
Garand configuration.) The windage issue on the '03 really bothers me, too. I shouldn't HAVE to crank it right over. It's too quirky. So the rifle stays well cared for, but comes out but rarely.
And yes, I'll hunt with an M14 semi-auto clone. Military style rifles have 'sporting use' besides target competition. And even Obama promised not to ban my hunting rifle.
When I was in military school in college we did rifle drill with Springfield ‘03s. Plugged barrel and certainly no firing pins. So I was familiar with that rifle, if only in close order drill. When dating my soon to be wife, I noticed a rifle up in the joists of my future father-in-law’s basement in a ratty and disintegrating fleece lined rifle sleeve. I took it down to look at it and found it to be a Springfield ’03 in good looking shape. I bought and donated a new case to protect that handsome bolt-action rifle. I oiled its action with fine machine oil, too, just in case, but it showed no sign of rust. It had been my Father-in-Law’s Father’s gun, a worthy old engineer and machinist who I only knew from his tools and his rifle. After returning it to it’s place in the joists I forgot about it, until my Father in Law gave it to me just after I got married. I didn’t want to fire it, no one there to show me how, and I wanted it checked out before I tried. I didn’t even know what size rounds it took. I knew .30 caliber, but there are lots of .30 caliber bullets. My Father in Law thought someone had fired it in his lifetime, but wasn’t sure. I had also heard that you need to check the headspace on old rifles, whatever that was. I took it a gunsmith in the Florida panhandle to ask. He told be the receiver was late enough that it wasn’t going to explode like some earlier rifles (good to know!) and the serial number indicates it was made in 1919. He also told me .30-06 is the cartridge it takes (pronounced Thirty, Ought Six). He showed me a mark on the barrel that indicated it was re-barreled in 1942 and the Springfield armory, but the headspace was too tight (and he explained what that was). Fine. I was too poor to explore anything about it further, much less take it shooting. It stayed in the closet. 
