Plain Old Dave

Originally Posted by Plain Old Dave

Read the entire thread, and have a couple thoughts.

The biggest issue with LN 1903s is what happens when (not if) you have a case failure and 50K PSI gas gets about in the action. The double heat treat receivers will let go, too, but they won't grenade like LNs will. The steel is brittle in the LN receivers due to the inconsistent TLAR heat treatment; some were burned and others weren't gotten hot enough. The following link explores the problem from the vantage point of a medical doctor trained in epidemiology:

http://m1903.com/03rcvrfail/

I concluded a while back that the US replaced a fine magazine rifle (the Krag) with one that simply had capabilities beyond present metallurgy for reasons of political expediency; Elihu Root used the "slow firing Krag" controversy to cover his revolutionary changes in the War Department. The down side is the US did not have a shoulder arm superior to the Krag until fairly late in the 1920s and the adoption of nickel steel recievers for the 1903 to solve the receiver failure issue and M1 Ball to solve the jacket fouling issue, which IMO at least contributed to receiver failures along with Mobilubricant. Both increased chamber pressure and therefore bolt thrust and stress on cartridge cases, increasing the probability of cartridge case failure and receiver failure in single and double heat treated 1903s.

Bottom line here is there are plenty of Nickel Steel receiver 1903s to shoot and no real reason to shoot a low number 1903.