I'm not the biggest 1903 fan but I just sort of fell into one, you know how that is.

It is a Rock Island Arsenal 353XXX somebody did up in 25-06.

Test fired it today and it is chambered nice and tight. Funny thing is, is that the barrel is stamped on the bottom '250-3000' and then below it '25-06.'

A shame it isn't a 250 b/c I'm already set up for 257 Roberts AI and have the reamer. Not quite enough shank left to set it back, oh well.

My questions are these:
Is it one of the safe ones? I found some data about 250,000 and unders being produced in late 1918, so would this be a peacetime gun?

Furthermore, it has that typical green color to the metal, but I thought that green finish was mostly later 03's like WWII. Is it a bitch to polish off like I remeber? Its been years since last screwing with a 1903.

-Spencer

The "good" double heat treated Rock Island receivers started at SN 285,507. Additionally, the nickel steel receivers started at Rock Island with SN 319,921. Your gun would fall in that latter range. So you have a safe gun. Nickel steel construction began in April, 1927.

If you supply the exact SN at this site, you may find more information about your gun.

http://armscollectors.com/srs/lookup_m1903.php

It's been awhile since I've had to remove parkerizing, but I don't recall it being more difficult than sanding or polishing off bluing. I'm not sure if the same solution for removing bluing would work.....might be worth a try. I would presume some type of acid solution would do the trick.

GV

quote:

It's been awhile since I've had to remove parkerizing, but I don't recall it being more difficult than sanding or polishing off bluing.GV

The main problem I've noted when polishing off parkerizing is that often the steel was not even rudimentarily finished before it was parkerized, and there are tons of tool marks and turning grooves that have to be polished out before the thing can be lued......