Quote Originally Posted by Schuetzenman View Post
Swiss Vetterli model 1871. Caliber 10.4 x 38 mm. A .44 magnum bullet can be used in these. They are a rimfire and I thought for a while about converting the bolt to centerfire. But being a purist to preserve history I couldn't bring myself to modify the bolt. This thing was very minty, barrel looked like it left the factory yesterday.

Cartouche on the stock.


Close up of the action cycled to eject a spent casing. This rifle (if I recall correctly) could hold 10 rounds in a tubular magazine. It loaded like the Winchester rifles through a side loading gate as seen in this photo. And yet the action is a bolt action type. Very odd mashup of technology.

The middle rifle is a WWII rebuild of a 1903 Springfield rifle built by the Rock Island IL arsenal. This was a minty CMP / DCM rifle. Had a High Standard barrel on it. Bottom rifle is a 1903A3 which is the cost reduced model of the 1903 rifle built during WWII. This is an Smith Corrona manufactured 1903A3. SC was a type writer manufacturer before and after the war. 1903 Springfields had milled steel trigger guards, barrel bands, magazine wells, , magazine follower and even the buttplate. The 1903A3 swapped all these parts to stamped sheet metal versions and put a peep sight on the receiver replacing a very fragile ladder sight with windage adjustment that the 1903 had on it.

Rear sight of the 1903 type Springfield rifles. The large knob at the far right of the image is the windage adjustment. Notice the white marks on the left of the image. These are the windage increment marks. The sight was very precise but also very fragile. I can't imagine they would survive being hit on a rock or tree branch.

Thanks for the write-up, buddy!

The Vetterli does look interesting. Looks like it uses a Henry style case ejector. Also I totally agree on not converting the bolt.

Cool Springfields! I was not aware of the changes to the A3 model that you mentioned besides the peep sight. I had always thought of the A3 as an improvement, but it sounds like the sight itself was the only improvement and everything else was cost reduced. If I recall, I believe the Marines used A3's instead of M1's during WWII.