1903 rifle with 3-19 AV barrel..

vikingsfaninmi

I just purchased a SA 1903 from the CMP with a barrel marked:
A V
(flaming bomb)
3-19

Who is the barrel maker? Any additional info?

Thanks,

Brad

Ambrose

Avis. It is, I believe a replacement barrel. Yep, just looked it up, replacement made by the Avis Company, 198 Brown Street, West Haven, Connecticut. (From page 333 "The Springfield 1903 Rifles" by William S. Brophy.)

Ambrose

OK, I should have quit there! The following is from the book "The '03 Era" by Clark S. Campbell:

"Armory barrel blanks were produced by heating and rolling bar stock between specially grooved rollers that, in twelve passes, converted the origional 13 1/4" bar into a roughly shaped barrel blank 25" to 25 1/2" long.

"But during the First World War a huge supply of barrel blanks and finished barrels was supplied to the armories by civilian contractors, some of whom, instead of rolling the blanks to shape in formed rollers, used smaller diameter round stock and heated the breech ends and upset the billets to give the required increased diameter at the chamber end. A few of these blanks--perhaps one in a couple of thousand--were overheated and "burnt". (Particularly subject to being "burnt" were barrels supplied by the Avis Rifle Barrel Company, and stamped AV near the muzzle.)"

I don't know whether that should scare you or not, but that's what the book said!

shoots2much

I'll give ya $25 for it ?


HeHe..