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Look what followed me home today: (PICTURE)
11BravoCrunchie
Member Posts: 33,423 ✭✭
My National Ordinance 1903A3. It might be an arsenal remanufactured rifle, but I bought it to be a shooter, not a collector's piece.
Comments
Jeff
When did they make an M1903A3 that WASN'T .30-06?
I don't know,that's Y i asked. Remember,"their are no stupid questions" Just smart-assed answers..[^] Sorry i asked..
STIR STIR! Just kidding, nice rifle!
Me LIkey !!!
Jon
Isn't that bayonet blade half size?
Yeah, it got cut down at some point.
When did they make an M1903A3 that WASN'T .30-06?
If you hadn't specified A3, it would have been a valid question. The 1903 was originally chambered in......
.30-03
The 1903 Springfield as originally adopted used a "rod bayonet" and a .30-caliber Model 1903 cartridge (".30-03") with a 220 grain round nose bullet. Approximately 74,500 rifles were finished by the end of 1904 and being issued to the Army. However, on January 5, 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt wrote the Secretary of War "I must say that I think that ramrod bayonet is about as poor an invention as I ever saw." Production stopped immediately. The offending rod bayonet was eliminated and a knife bayonet, similar to the previous Krag bayonet was adopted. Since the Model 1903 rifle was shorter than the Krag, the M1903 used longer bayonets to have about the same "reach". Just as the bayonet fiasco was being corrected, it was decided that the .30-03 cartridge had serious problems, so a 150 grain pointed bullet in a shorter case was adopted in 1906. The .30 caliber cartridge, Model of 1906, known simply as the ".30-06" was born. All rifles had to be modified for the new cartridge and bayonet before being issued, resulting in chaos in the Armories until about 1909. Probably less than 100, perhaps as few as 50 original rod bayonet M1903 Springfields remain, along with a similar number of rifles like this one which have been restored to their original appearance.
http://m1903.com/odd1903/
Just your useless fact for today!
Doug
Ben