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Posted: 5/25/2009 8:34:32 AM EDT
| Years ago I purchased a 1903 that was shorter. I had done some reaserch afterwards and found out that some 03's were armory shortened to tanker models to be used by tank crews. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to info for these. mine is serial 318*** so I don't know if it is a real one or one that someone moded themselves. If it was it was done ages ago because the barrel finish and front site finish are the same. Thanks |
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A few thousand '03s were shortened for use as jungle-carbine style rifles in Panama. These were known as Bushmaster carbines, and IIRC, all of them were destroyed. I believe there are a couple of experimental shortened '03s still in existence, but these were one-offs and not official conversions.
If you have a shortened M1903, it was almost certainly shortened by someone other than the U.S. military. -Mark |
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A few thousand '03s were shortened for use as jungle-carbine style rifles in Panama. These were known as Bushmaster carbines, and IIRC, all of them were destroyed. I believe there are a couple of experimental shortened '03s still in existence, but these were one-offs and not official conversions. If you have a shortened M1903, it was almost certainly shortened by someone other than the U.S. military. -Mark Interesting points. Just out of curiosity why were they all destroyed 
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A few thousand '03s were shortened for use as jungle-carbine style rifles in Panama. These were known as Bushmaster carbines, and IIRC, all of them were destroyed. I believe there are a couple of experimental shortened '03s still in existence, but these were one-offs and not official conversions. If you have a shortened M1903, it was almost certainly shortened by someone other than the U.S. military. -Mark Interesting points. Just out of curiosity why were they all destroyed It's the government. That's why. Same reason they chopped up hundred's of thousands of brand new M-14 and M1 rifles. / No disrespect intended to the question or questioner. |
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A few thousand '03s were shortened for use as jungle-carbine style rifles in Panama. These were known as Bushmaster carbines, and IIRC, all of them were destroyed. I believe there are a couple of experimental shortened '03s still in existence, but these were one-offs and not official conversions. If you have a shortened M1903, it was almost certainly shortened by someone other than the U.S. military. -Mark Interesting points. Just out of curiosity why were they all destroyed At the end of WWII they were surplus/obsolete, and the soldiers in the Canal Zone were ordered to destroy them by throwing them into the ocean. As none of the rifles had been transferred anywhere else, it is likely that all of them were still in storage there, and thus were all destroyed as per orders. It's possible that one or more escaped destruction through the efforts of an enterprising soldier, but if any did, they have not surfaced. Additionally, even if one of them did survive, it would be extremely difficult to prove it was legitimate without supporting documentation/evidence, as we have no idea how these rifles were marked - we have only a handful of bad pictures to go by. -Mark |
| MG1, no it's not sporterized, just looks like a shortened 03. I have since found out that there were some made for airmen ,that were shortened,Also some that were shortened were in the 800,000 range. if this one is just one someone did on there own, they sure did a heck of a nice job making the site fit back on as original. |
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I'll try and post a picture, if I can figure out how I'd really be interested in seeing a picture of this. I've been wanting to replicate something like that, but I haven't been able to find a single picture online. To post pictures you need a way to host them. One way is to use photobucket.com or picturetrail.com. Set up an account, take a picture and upload it. Then you can put the picture link on here, or imbed it by clicking on the little picture (mountain with sun) icon in the "insert tags" part of post reply. |
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http://s684.photobucket.com/albums/vv203/rokcrlr/?action=tageditalbum There is a picture, if anyone wants just email me and I will send a better one You have a non-military shortened M1903. It does not look like either a Bushmaster or any of the experimental M1903 carbines. However, it was very nicely done. -Mark |
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