Goin' gunshop hoppin' this AM. My shooting buddy said he saw a French MAS in .308 a coupla' weeks ago in one o' the local shops. I called yesterday and they still have it.
I think I'll take my Sharps repro and see what they'll give me for it. I'm gonna hang on to the molds, dies and sizer for that 'cause I plan to get a Gibbs Summit soon.
If something follows me home, I'll let y'all know.

Puncher

Puncher, If you buy that .308 MAS, get an iron-clad guarantee you can take it back if there is any functional difficulty. I have seen a lot of comments on several boards about unsatisfactory rechambering of these rifles. The .308 is not big enough to clean up a 7.5 MAS chamber unless the barrel is set back. I have one in the original 7.5 and it works like a champ using Lapua 6.5X55 cases neck expanded to .30 cal. Hope this relps, curmudgeon

I'd stick with original chambering. I've also heard dubious reports on the .308 conversions.

Hey, Dad!
Look what followed me home! It's a '03 Smith-Corona '06! Can I keep him? Huh, Dad, please? I'll feed him and take good care of him, I promise! He looks real sad and kinda' hungry. I'll give him a bath and he can sleep in my room. Huh, Dad, please? Can I keep him? Please?

Puncher is a VERY happy little boy!

puncher,
good choice. The Mas in .308 aren't that great. I see lots of them for sale. The original caliber is much better. Them 03's are usually really good cast shooters. My 03 likes the 311332's, 311334's and 311413's. It shoots the other 30 cals but I've had my best accuracy with those so far. I have lots of other 30 cals to test. Orygun

Puncher, Now you're talkin! The '03A3 is the best cast shooter of all the milsurps, if in good shape. Is yours two-groove or four-groove? Congratulations, curmudgeon

Curmudgeon,
As best I can tell, it's a two groove. I can't believe the bore. It's in MINT condition and the top of the muzzle is stamped "6-43" with the bomb & flame.
I got a coupla' questions. There's a small lever on the left side of the receiver that flips up and down and is stamped "OFF" and "ON". With the lever in the "OFF" position, the bolt will not fully retract to allow it to feed cartridges into the chamber. What was the original purpose of that?
With the rear peep all the way down, I'm still hitting a tad high at 100 yds. with milsurp ammo. How can I cure that? I'd like to have more down adjustment in the peep. I'd like to be able to hit "dead on" at 50 yds. if I so choose.

Thanks for the thumbs up, guys,

Puncher

Puncher

The lever is a magazine cut-off. This was for the troops to load ammo singly while keeping the cartridges in the magazine in reserve. The military powers that be still had a single shot mentality at the time. Kind of a neat feature though.

Puncher, When the "on" is visible on the magazine cutoff, the bolt will come back far enough to pick up the top cartridge. when the "off" is showing the cartidges in the magazine are held in reserve. Standard operating procedure in 1903 was to load single rounds while saving the magazine full for the next banzai charge. The middle position is for bolt removal. Two groove barrels often shoot well with boolits that have a nose that rides on top of the lands. Welcome to the proud association of '03 owners. curmudgeon

Rob & Curmudgeon,
Thanks for the history lesson! That's a neat piece of trivia.
Curmudgeon, you mentioned the two groove barrels seem to shoot bore riders better. I have the Lee .309-200 mold and am planning on working up a load for use with that boolit.
It'll be awhile, but I'll get it down, eventually. I'll keep ya' posted on the progress.

Puncher

Puncher, you did real good on your shopping trip. Went out to look at an MAS and came home with an O3A3. Mine also has an unbelievable shiny bore, and is a 4-groove made in 1943. I don't know how they made those barrels so nice under wartime conditions of mass production. The best cast bullet shooter that I own. Your front sight sounds normal, they seem to shoot a bit high with factory type velocities at 50 and 100 yds. I have to set the rear sight at 400 yds to be in the black with cast bullet velocities around 1800-2000 fps.

Welcome to the Springfield cult, duke.