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Posted: 8/20/2007 11:22:29 AM EDT
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Looking for a little info on barrel originality. First off, the rifle was my Grandfathers, found it piled in the middle of a long walk through closet in his house after he passed back in 1986. He was a pack rat and the rifle had been there undisturbed for quite a long time, piled in with boxes and clothes.    Now it has been through arsenal at least once, due to the gas hole in receiver, greenish park, and a few "R" marked components (bolt for example). The receiver is # 1,086,1xx while the bbl date is "7-18" S.A., Mark I finger groove stock with Mark I cut. From looking through Brophy's book, the 1st Mark I # was 1,034,503 while the highest # observed is 1,197,834 w/ bbl date of 5-20. It looks like my rifle was made early on in 1919, while bbl is earlier. No signs of bbl swap that I can see. Can anyone speculate on how rebuilds were done? Did they pull bbls and reassemble or leave bbl/receiver section if bbl was good? The bbl I have is in excellent, tight shape. Very shiny and shot little. It seems remote that they would have pulled an old bbl (I'm guessing rearsenal around WW2) and swapped it with another old bbl. What say the experts on bbl originality, possible, not possible, or probable? Thanks |
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That rifle has not seem many, if any, rebuilds it at all. The barrel matches the receiver. Judging form the date on the barrle, it is original to the rifle. If you look into Brophy's book a bit further you can see if you still have the Mark I trigger group in it also. Even the stock is original. You can tell that because the has the cutout near the ejection port cut into the side of the redceiver. This rifle should carry a premium in the collector's market because of this. There were only about 100,000 Pederson devices manufactured. Less that 15 are known to exist today. They were purposely destroyed after WWI. In today's market the go for mid 5 figure range or more if they do change hands. You are very lucky to own such a fine rifle. Even with my old eyes, I can usually hit a 4" target at 200 yards with mine using open sights. Anything you so to this rifle will greatly diminish it's value. |
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Thanks for the response gaweidert. It does not have the Mark I specific trigger/sear or cut-off. I have looked into getting these parts but cannot justify the money people want for 'em (unless I find one of the Pederson devices, yea right). I will keep it as is, I rarely shoot it b/c the straight grip is hard to get comfortable behind. Barrel is as tight as i have seen. mfn |
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It looks to my eye to be a WW2 era rebuild... maybe rebuild isn't the right word. Its been through an overhaul inspection. The greenish parkerizing is WW2 era. This rifle was beautifully blued when it was new so its lost the original finish and the Mk1 parts. There's really little that's special about it other than the Mk1 stock. My 1903 is 1011856 with a barrel date of 7-18 A. The 'A' means it was found to be acceptable when inspected and wasn't changed out. You have to remember that 1918 was a month of very heavy production at Springfield Armory due to WW1. My rifle came back from Greece in a C-stock with the same WW2 type parkerizing instead of that ugly black crap on a lot of Greek rifles. Your rifle isn't in original configuration so I see no good reason not to take it out and shoot it. Shoot it alot. If you have no experience with .30-06 you're in for a pleasant surprise. Its an awsum cartridge. Its better if you handload Sierra Match Kings in 180gr or 200gr. IMR4831 is my favorite powder for heavy compressed maximum loads with 200gr MatchKings. Hold on tight  . I don't remember what the cutoff is for double heattreat receivers. Mine is a double heattreat. The later ones are nickel steel. Both are more than strong enough for anything you can stuff in it... normal rifle powders that is. vishooter.home.att.net/m1903.html cartridgecollectors.org/30-06intro/ m1903.com/ Download Hatcher's Notebook: stevespages.com/page7d.htm Dutch |
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mfn, I agree about holding the stock during firing. If I am not careful how I hold the rifle, the rear band can bite you. I have also found that it shoots AP ammo even better than regular M2 ball. My father in law confirmed this too. He used to shoot on a Marine Corps rifle team before and after WWII and they used AP ammo in their matches. I have a Mark I and while it has the finger groove stock, it has no cutout for the ejection port. Great piece of history you have there. It just never got to be used for clearing tranches. I doubt it would have been very good at it anyways. The long 40 round mag that stuck out right side would have been a real problem to maneouver in the close quarters of a trench. Enjoy it. |
I have to agree with you. It was a novel invention at the time when more firepower was needed. The U.S. had the BAR which would have done the job much better imho, but didn't deploy it in any number or at all for fear of German capture. I would still love to see someone remanufacture the Pedersen device for those that have the Mark I cut receivers, since real ones are unobtainable. It would be fun to shoot, especially if it was made to shoot a modern .30 cal round. mfn |
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