Reactivating a 1903A3 Drill Rifle

[TX Hunter]

Im just curioius, I saw some 1903A3 Springfield Rifles that have been deactivated, the add said that the barrels have been plugged and welded, bolt face cut off and welded, and the magazine cut off welded.

I have found replacement barrels, and replacement bolts, Im sure with some work the welded cut off could be freed up, or done away with.
Has anyone out there ever done this, or is their other things done to the reciever that would make this project useless?

 

[JohnKSa]

You'd need to heat treat the receivers after getting them back into the proper configuration.

 

[TX Hunter]

Thanks John,
Im not sure I have the skilll to do that, I have found some restored A3 recievers, I may go that route, and have a gunsmith rebarrel it.
The rest I could do a little at a time. I just want one for a shooter.
I do however want to bring it back to as close to original condition as possible. It wouldnt be original, but would still have the look and feel.

 

[DoctorXring]

.

Just don't look at it as a cost effective project. Original '03A3's
are not that expensive. Why put money into a rifle that will always
have a compromised future ?

Just something to think about.

dxr

.

 

[Malamute]

I'd say it depends on how much weld and how good the welder was that did the work on them. I've seen some that were pretty bad, and I've built a couple rifles on drill receivers that looked like new guns were used, and didnt need much to clean them up. My gunsmith wasn't the least bit worried about the welds, the heat didnt travel much past the rather small, clean welds, and wasn't near the locking bolt recesses. Parts arent hard to come by. Bolts are fairly easy and cheap. I think the best one I have, which looks like about a 95%+ gun, I have about $275 or so in.

 

[Scorch]

Found a new barrel, a new bolt, a new stock, a new receiver, and a new magazine assembly for you. There are a few other parts thrown in, too. I think you can get these for less than you are considering spending on the drill guns. Towards the bottom of the page.
http://www.sarcoinc.com/gunorderinfo.htm

 

[Tamara]

The '03 drill rifles are pretty thoroughly de-milled.

I'm not saying that with enough time, money, welding, and machine tools you couldn't turn one into a firearm again, but it'd probably be nearly as easy to just machine a fresh one out of billet.

 

[TX Hunter]

Thanks Scorch

Thats exactly what I want, That will be the route I go.
I think this is the best deal,I have seen.

 

[berettaprofessor]

Not to throw a wet blanket on the fire, but is what the OP is considering going to be looked at as "Manufacturing."?

 

[Malamute]

I don't believe so. It already is what it is, has it's very own serial number, he isnt converting it to anything else (rifle into a handgun), or creating it from scratch. A receiver is a "firearm". I bought recievers. I still had to do 4473's on the couple I bought, even tho they wanted a "nonshooting statement". The statement basically said they were not suitable to be fired, which was pretty evident from the firing pin hole being welded up and the chunk of junk welded into the barrel.

 

[sergestorm]

I bought a "de-milled" 03-A3 from SOG it came in good condition but the bottom half of the front action was cut off, removing the bottom of the locking lug area. Ther is no way this couod be "restored" to shooting condition. A few years ago there was a large group of "parade" rifles that only had the firing pin holes and cut-off levers welded in addition to the plugged chamber. With work some of these could and were restored. I suspect this is the reason the current batch is completely ruined. Before you buy one inquire about the extent to which they were altered.

 

[Malamute]

That sheds some light on what others have been saying. I havent seen one that was that badly altered. The ones I've done had very little done to them, and took very little effort to get back into shooting shape. Firing pin hole was welded shut, bolt stop welded in, and the plugged barrel was tack welded to the receiver. I replaced the bolt with a $15 part, cut the weld for the bolt stop with a dremel cut-off wheel, and had about $10-$15 more in replacement parts there, and I bought a good barrel for about $75. Took the gunsmith a short time to cut the weld on his lathe, I carefully hand filed it to clean it up, and the replacement barrel indexed up correctly with the right torque spec. The rest of the parts I bought here and there to complete the guns. The best one is a Remington 03-A3 action that looked like a new gun was used to make the drill/parade gun out of. I did it up with all milled parts in a straight grip cross bolt stock.

 

[Slamfire]

A bud of mine bought a M1903A3 drill rifle, used the receiver to build a new rifle.

I have handled the receiver. You could not tell that it every had been welded. No marks, looks new.

However, he shot it with ball ammo and the headspace grew. He found an oversized bolt and the headspace grew some more.

We believe that the welding was done with acetylene torch and weld material. Whoever welded the barrel to the receiver got the receiver ring way too hot destroying the heat treatment.

That is your risk.

I built one up with a drill rifle receiver, shot well over a 100 rounds, no headspace change.

 

[James K]

"Whoever welded the barrel to the receiver got the receiver ring way too hot destroying the heat treatment."

Remember, he didn't care about the heat treatment; his job was to make the rifle unusable, not preserve it for later use.

Jim

 

[Bill DeShivs]

An individual may manufacture a firearm for his own use under federal law.