Competition Springfield 1903

vandj1318

Hello All,

When target shooting with the Springfield Model 1903, does the shooter load one round at a time or do they load a full clip? Or does it depend on the type of competition entered? Thank you.

Jim

richarda

Classic rapid-fire big bore competition was 10-round strings, clip-loaded.

perry shooter

With the 1903 Rapid fire became 70 seconds not 60 for the rapid fire back in the stone ages when I shot High Power . The semi last surviving old school 03 shooter was everyone Favorite because it gave all the rest an extra 10 seconds. Today's rules most likely have been updated.

EDITxxcross WHEN I WANTED a M1 from DCM/CMP you could only purchase ONE in a life time and you had to have a HIGH POWER Classification Card to do so and belong to a CMP CLUB I shot a borrowed
bolt gun to get my 100 Rounds down range. Of course at that time My M1 cost me $112.00 and came in a sealed Metal foil bag with all accessories and spare parts price list Mine was Mint with new glass bedded stock for trigger group. and paperwork from Arsenal rebuild.

XXCross

Well that's an eye opener ! Us bolt gun shooters were always
having to wait for the guys with the auto-loaders to cycle....so why the "extra time"?

vandj1318

The reason I ask is, I've come across a Redfield style sight mount that looks like it would mount to the rear dovetail of an 03. It has a rail with three mounting holes that would be right in front of the cut-off. The rail enables use of Redfield Olympic or International sights. Are there any other rifles that compete that have the raised dovetail?

Mobuck

oops

Hawk Carse

Are you talking about a 1903A3?
A 1903 does not have a dovetail in the vicinity of a receiver peep sight. I don't know of another bolt action that does.

Slowfire is commonly shot single loading, the extractor will snap over the rim.

jonk

Lots of semi-true info here.

If you're talking CMP games events, they have an 03/03A3 division, with the longer time frame.

If you're talking NRA rules, you have 60 seconds.

In any of these high power matches, you load some rounds singly, others from stripper clips. You do NOT let the extractor 'snap' over the singly loaded rounds- at least such isn't good practice- and this presents a problem anyhow, as the bolt will catch on the follower. You press each round singly into the magazine, chamber, fire, extract; press the next into the magazine, repeat. For rapid fire, you load on command and reload during the rapid fire stage- and yes, you CAN fire 10 rounds, aimed, in 60 seconds with a bolt gun without any issue whatsoever, if you are familiar with the gun.

Of course, there are bench rest matches, and other types too; so yes, it depends on the match. But for the standard high power course of fire, you do some of both.

navc130

The Springfield Model 1903A3 (WW2 manufacture) is the only rifle that has the "raised dovetail" rear sight mount. Be aware that there are now rifle matches using vintage military rifles that must be in "as issued" condition. An Olympic target sight would not be allowed in that type match.

Ambrose

The 1903 was designed to be single loaded to prevent what was then considered a soldiers inclination to "waste" ammunition--hence the ON/OFF on the magazine cut-off/bolt release tab. With the cut-off in the OFF position, the bolt can not retract far enough to catch the rear of the follower. While that feature was obsolete by the time of the 1903-A3 production, it was retained on the A3.

I have read several times, on these forums, cautions against allowing the old long extractors to ride over a cartridge rim on closing the bolt. At least in the case of the 1903, it was intended to be used in this way. Apparently, the powers-that-be felt that "wasting" ammunition was a greater problem than the possibility of a combat rifle being rendered useless by a broken extractor.