US Springfield 1903 dated 1911 Lessons learned

[Rescue190]

I picked this up for a reasonable price. I brought it home thinking it was the avg early Springfield. The receiver and barrel manufacture dates matched. The bore is very nice. I noticed the handguard looked like the early pre-war handguards. The S stock marking on the nose was another indicator of early Springfield. The the cartouche was the correct inspector for a 1911 Springfield production. The milled parts and bluing also lead me to believe I had won a small lottery, a pre WWI Springfield in original condition. I am obviously a bit of a novice for the 1903 vs 03A3 rifles. I posted to the main Gunboards forum for additional opinions. The end result is a scant stock for a 03A3 rifle faked to be an early Springfield production. The inspector markings are fake and they look much more fake in the photo than the eye. At least that is my excuse. The gaps between the stock and barrel also show it is a 03A3 stock. I also surmise the the S marking on the nose is also fake. Thankfully I was not paying for an pre WWI rifle as they are very expensive. I need to brush up on the 1903 rifles. In the end it is a fairly nice Springfield made in 1911. These have also been known to have brittle receivers that was caused from the lack of proper heat treating of the receivers. This is is well document and was not fixed by Springfield until serial number 800,000. Those issued after this serial number were properly heat treated. The common opinion is the pre 800,000 Springfield's are display pieces and not shooters.
John

[carpediem]

All the Springfield rifles I seem to run across have been sporterized, or are asking astronomical prices. Unfortunate because I would like to add one to the stable. Nice clone!

[MAP]

If it wasn't for the metallurgy issues, I would have said it would be a good shooter.....

I'm sure it will still display well.

Lesson learned for sure. We've all been there more than once (for me....a dozen times with some high end awards)

[Politefaun]

Great looking Springfield! Its a shame you can't shoot it but the low serial makes it a cool piece of history. Not sure if you've seen this video by Ian from Forgotten Weapons but at 9:12 he goes over the early heat treatment issue, the whole video is definitely worth a watch if you want to hear some interesting history about the early years of the rifle.

[CBH]

Learned something new today, so thank you for posting this informative thread, well photographed as well.

[battle gear]

it would make a nice "reenactor's piece" you could fire blanks

[Anderson]

Someones gone to a lot of trouble to be devious. Still, it will look good in display.

[Rescue190]

Thank you for the information and replies. I am not going to be keeping since the collector value is not there and does not fit into the WWII era like many of the rebuilt ones due. This would fit well into a Banana war period display of US marines. That is where it belongs IMO.
John

[lithgow]

Ah! the terrible conflict in the late 1960s between the Banana Splits and the Sour Grapes Bunch-what a tragic waste of human/non human life-didn't realise that the USMC were involved though...

[Rescue190]

lithogow; I am not sure if that was an intentional disrespect or a not so funny joke but neither approach is appreciated. The US had many casualties during this period in central america and the Caribbeans.
The term Banana Wars is a period after the Spanish American War 1900 and the end of US involvement in 1934 resulting in the Good Neighbor policy. The term became popularized in 1963 with a book that was written but has nothing to do with the 1960's The US marines led all of the actions that took place during this period with additional support from naval artillery. The US Marine Corp were the first to be issued the 1903 rifle on a large scale and were not done until the rifle had undergone changes to the 30-06 cartridge. It is not my intention to start any kind of feud, just clearing the air for me.
John