My first 1903 Springfield!!
Sometime around 1966 I scrapped together the ungodly sum of $70.00 and had my father purchase me a 1903 high Numbered Rock Island arsenal rifle!! It is in the 426,000 serial number range and has an RIA 1922 dated barrel on it!! Anyway this rifle was lent out by a family member while I was away at college never to return !! Anyway 27+ years later I recieved a phone call from an acquaintance that asked me if I ever owned a rifle like this! he was cleaning the rifle and as in the 1960's people used to put a piece of paper under the buttplate with the owners name on it! I had also wrote my name in the wood under the barrel on ths rifle in old fashioned fountain pen ink!! I was able to get the rifle back and trace it back to the theif who was an acquaintance of my brother!! He was real suprised when I showed up at his door and told him that a stolen weapon report had been made out on this rifle and if I didn't receive the money he got for it immediately problems would happen!! So I bought this rifle when i was 14 years old, lost it when I was 20 and got it back when I was 42 years old!! When I bought it 30-06 ammo was 6 to 6 1/2 cents through the DCM, I can remember saving up the money with other club members and we sent an order in and then a large gray 40mm can would come from the DCM from Savannah Army Depot with several thousand rounds inside !! The good old days !! That old Rock Island was shot until the hand guards were so hot you couldn't touch them! I let all my friends shoot it because the club's M-1 rifles were all old and extremely worn out ! At least the 1903 didn't break down, Always something in those days with the old M-1 rifles!!