New to me 03A3

[Remmy4477]

Found this old gal on one of our local sites.

Smith Corona with a barrel date of 2-43, bore is about mint.
Has been Sporterized.
Has a shueler safety and scope mount with low rings fitted with a nice 60's vintage Redfield 3 by 9. Stock is some old aftermarket stock in solid shape but the clear finish is cloudy in spots.

Took it out today and killed a few cans with it! Shoots as good as I can hold it!

Should be a fun rifle! I have a Sporterized Eddystone 1917 so these two look good together!

[Mauser48]

Looks kinda like an M40. Does it have a 4 groove barrel?

[Remmy4477]

Looks kinda like an M40. Does it have a 4 groove barrel?

Looks like 4 or more? Used to looking down a 45-70 bore so this is aweful small. LOL

[Mauser48]

Haha. If you can post a pic of the rifling at the muzzle I can tell you.

[elk hunter]

Looks like a Bishop stock, they were very popular during the 50's and early 60's when most of the Springfields were surplussed.

[thegatman]

My original shoots great. Right out of the war with no scope. Iron sights. Sweet.

[lobogunleather]

I have 03-A3's with both 4-groove and 2-groove barrels. They all shoot cast bullets very well.

Mine are all unaltered military rifles. Depending on the actual load in use I find that I need to use the 300 or 400 yard sight setting to shoot at 100 yards with 170 and 180 grain cast bullet loads in the 2000FPS range.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Yours looks exactly like an 03-A3 I have that was partly `Buddaed`, I finished doing the sporter job on it with about the same results as yours. It shoots very nicely with either `J` bullets of 150 gr. or appropiate cast boolets for its barrel, nice score.Robert

[Remmy4477]

Haha. If you can post a pic of the rifling at the muzzle I can tell you.

4 groove. Took some bright light to be able to see it!!!

[Remmy4477]

Looks like a Bishop stock, they were very popular during the 50's and early 60's when most of the Springfields were surplussed.

yes I believe your right. I found a few on fleebay that match its pattern. Think I'm going to redo the finnish on it. The clearcoats in good shape just foggy in spots.

[Mauser48]

Very nice! They have proven the 4 groove barrels don't really shoot any better but it's more of a collector thing.

[guicksylver]

Very nice! They have proven the 4 groove barrels don't really shoot any better but it's more of a collector thing.

That's an old argument....still unsettled......

BUT...this much I can tell you for certain each rifling prefers different style boolits.

The two grooves like bore riders the four groove shoot conventional boolits better.

Both shoot most cast boolits really well...just shoot some styles better...


Win-Win right !