If we didn't jump into the war so fast in the summer of 1917, Winchester had been gearing up to produce 1903's since 1916. I found all the documents when I pulled all the Marine A5 docs. But the Govt had been tryin to outsource the production of 1903s, and Winchester was trying hard to get the contract. And it appears from the correspondance they had been successful. But the war started, and they told the govt it would take them to long to get into production the numbers they requested, so they mentioned they could produce the 1917's and well the rest is history.

But yeah WRA was going to make 1903's, how cool is that. lol