1903a4 and dang I love pawn shops

[Blicero]

Here's a Remington 1903a4 I just liberated from a pawn shop. I don't think they had any idea what it is. The tag was marked "1903a3 with scope mount $799". I griped and moaned about the fake stock and how bubba unwittingly ruined a perfectly decent o3a3 by stealing the front sight, offered $650 otd, and they said yessir thank'ye sir.

I spent the last couple weeks bringing this rifle back to sniper status. Here's how the rifle breaks down, according to my amateur opinion:

-The rifle itself is a legit 1903a4 sniper, properly marked with the arsenal stamp on the far left of the receiver ring. All 1903a4s were made between 1943-44.
-The barrel is '44 dated, parkerized, and shows evidence of having worn a front sight. It is obviously not the original barrel.
-The stock is a total fantasy piece, I'm guessing a reproduction from Boyd. It was unfinished, almost blonde, and grated my eyes. The pics show it darkened after a few coats of oil.
-The bolt is an original Remington sniper bolt. It's picked up a replacement RIA extractor along the way.
-The Redfield JR mount is, I believe, a modern repro.

That's how the rifle came to me- just a gun and a mount. I needed rings, rough windage screws, and glass.

The rings were easy, I snagged some on ebay. The scope part is what took the time. We used the Weaver 330c, m8, m84 and Unertl and maybe one or two others on the 03a4. The military marked scopes are a bit expensive so I set my sights on a period commercial 330s. I considered that a better option than the $350 HiLux 330c/m73b1 repros. The 330s has the silent windage/elevation knobs that need a coin or tool to be adjusted, whereas our military demanded the hand-clickable adjustments found on the 330c.

So that's how it sits, a refurbed 1903a4 in new furniture, with Chinese rings and a WW2 era commercial scope. It's obviously miles away from a collector's orgasm, but I'm into it for less than one of the modern a4geries. I love it.

[Loose}{Cannon]

 

[Dannyboy53]

Absolutely cool looking Blicero, I'm jealous. Good job on it by the way!

[Phosphorus32]

Sheesh, that's the kind of killer find we all dream of stumbling upon     

That's going to be fun 

[running-man]

Neat one Kevin!  Why do you think the barrel isn't orig?  Because of the front sight having been in there at one time?  Seems period correct, how do you think it got on there?  What's a non humped one of these run these days?  Multiple thousands of $?

[1mlt]

Is that rifle a 30-06 or 308? Beautiful, BTW.

Marcus