Collector's Guide to the '03 Springfield

[Faulkner]

I couldn't pass up ordering a couple of the 1903 Springfield's from the CMP's new cashe of '03's, but I really don't know squat about them. (I'm more of a Garand and carbine kind of guy). Being ignorant of these firearms, I ordered Bruce Canfield's book on '03's and after thumbing through it this evening I want to highly recommend it to any of you other guys who may have CMP orders in the mail, especially for us '03 newbies.

http://www.brucecanfield.com/images/cgspring-cover.gif

[neilwest]

1. Shy away from the low number receivers.:)

[Buster Charlie]

Originally posted by neilwest
1. Shy away from the low number receivers.:)

Why's that?


BTW What makes the '03 better than say a Mauser? Arn't they basicaly a Mauser knock-off? I mean sure it's cool to have a peice of american history, but when you can get a nice mauser for 5X less....

[RetVet]

Heat treating of the receivers on the low serial number 03's (at least the ones from Springfield Armory) was done visually. As such, their strength is questionable and they are not considered safe to shoot. People still do however, and who's to know how many were used in combat without failure. I don't have the exact serial number range handy here at work, but believe it to be near 750,000. Higher numbered receivers had more accurate heat treating and if otherwise sound are ok.

[gewehr44]

Where did you get the book from?

As far as the receiver failures, I read a report somewhere... ah, here it is:

http://mwade.net/1903/03rcvrfail/

I think I've also read that CMP is shipping the low numbered ones non-functional. Guess they're afraid of getting sued.

Waiting for my 1903A3 to show up...

[Schuetzenman]

http://www.scott-duff.com/ Here you go you can get it from Scott Duff along with a boat load of other books on military weapoons. Scroll down on the menu to the left and look for "Other military books in my collection". It's in there.