I have a Remington made 1903 A3 that I was just given by a family member. The exterior all looks great, no rust, the wood looks great. I'd say as good as 80% to 90%. The bore.... You couldn't even see the lands and grooves! So I started cleaning. I used a chamber plug and soaked the bore in kroil for several day. Pored that out, run a few patches through and soaked the bore again. This time when I went to run the patches through the bore, my cleaning rode "wobbled" with the rifling. Looking down the bore, one of the (I guess it would be the Lands) looks to be taller that the others from one end to the other.

The gun has been shot obviously, so I'm going to go see what kind of group it will print next. But with the way the cleaning rod went down the bore, my hopes aren't very high.

I have thought things like lapping, just shooting the fire out of it with a good cleaning every few rounds, to doing nothing and just putting the gun up (which would be a shame).

So here I am to pick everyone's brain. Any thoughts or ideas?

I am not trying to start a Fire lapping, hand lapping, no lapping debate.. It was just a thought I had to maybe smooth out that bore some.

Thanks.

(Also Posted in the gun cleaning forum)

Since the bore is done with a gun drill before the grooves are cut, that land can't be "higher" than the others. Perhaps the grooves adjacent to that land are deeper, but even that seems unlikely.

Try slugging the bore and taking careful measurements of the slug.

Or just shoot it.

I believe you can still find new, surplus barrels for them.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Kobe:
I believe you can still find new, surplus barrels for them.

Shoot it first.

If one has to replace the barrel there are very few that haven't been rebuilt don't worry about it.

I have both 2- and 4-groove original barrels, never mounted on actions (short-chambered), that would meet your needs if that barrel doesn't pan out.

Clarence

I would first take it out and shoot it. See what it does. If it is accurate enough then problem solved I have seen some ugly bores that actually shot pretty well. My personal feelings are that if it is pretty far gone there is no hand lapping fire lapping home trick or juju that will bring the rifling "back".
If it does not shoot to your liking there are 2 and 4 groove barrels available as one poster offered. I think CMP still has them available as well.
Enjoy your old Springfield I love those rifles.

Criterion makes new short chambered barrels that shoot lights out. I believe they are even "match" legal.



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Going to slug the bore, and go shoot it ASAP. I guess the biggest thing I'm worried about, is how hard it will be to clean.. But we will see.

Thanks everyone.. And if I have to change the barrel, going to .308 would be nice! I have three tons of brass for that..

It wouldn't be a 03-A3 unless its a .30/06!

sounds like a VFW return. Here is a cleaning method I picked up off of CMP.

"Brownell's sells .30 caliber stainless steel bore brushes, and they work miracles with cleaning up corroded bores.

I've learned that corroded bores usually contain three different kinds of deposits that require successive uses of three different kinds of solvents. These are:

Rust - which is water-soluble.
Powder and metallic fouling - which is soluble with bore cleaners
Grease - which is soluble with petroleum-based solvents.

The water should be boiling hot and contain a few drops of dishwashing liquid. Shove the muzzle down into the pot of hot water and use the bore brush to draw the soapy water into the bore.

Dry the bore, then clean it with a good bore cleaner.

Wipe the bore, then clean it with a petroleum solvent, such as acetone or lacquer thinner. Avoid getting solvent on the stock.

Repeat the three preceding cleaning steps until the bore is clean and you see bright shiny metal at the muzzle.


Hope this helps. Good Luck!

J.B. "

A couple of other people suggested using 8mm/338 bore brushes.

I eco mend having the headspace checked befor you shoot it.

If it is really a vfw return, then the barrel is likely a corroded mess; they shoot only blanks and never cleaned them. I re-barrel them all the time. I did one last summer in 308 but that is not legal for service rifle matches. Shot great though,

I would try a couple treatments with Wipe-out.

I picked up a US1917 a few years ago that had a dark bore and didn't look like there was much left to it. Hoppe's, Sweets, and some G.I. bore cleaner didn't do much.

I tried the Wipe-out, and it was dripping blue and black crud the first application, a then a gray and blue on the 2nd application, and two more applications of progressively lighter blue until it finally came out clear.

Now the bad thing (good thing?) is that once it was finally "clean" the first 10" or so of the barrel was badly pitted. Probably a VFW return. The good thing was the crown was good and it shot reasonably well... 3-4" groups from the bench at 100 with ball ammo.
Good enough for a collector type rifle that only gets shot occasionally.

Good luck with yours!

Don't know what you want from your gun, but I had a CMP 1903 Springfield with an original 1932 barrel. Running a patch through it I could feel the throat erosion (i.e. not much resistance) for the first third of the barrel.

It shot ok for what it was. It would "hold the black" at 100 yards on a 100 yard SR-1 target.

If it can't do that, either get a New Old Stock (NOS) barrel for it or get a new Criterion (Krieger company button rifled barrel).

Thank you for all the info.. The holidays have put a crimp in my shooting/gun work. I hope to get to fool with it some Friday.. I'll let everyone know how it shoots and what the slug turns out like..

clean the bore. if you don't like it, rebore to .35 whelen, or rebarrel with a NOS 2-groove. they are still out there.