WW1 Shortage of '03 Springfields

[11mm]

Prior to the entry of the US into WWI, the government was not organized to support large scale overseas combat operations. It is to be expected that efficiency would suffer in the rush to equip military units for deployment.

Oh. I agree. But the incursion into Mexico in 1916 was somewhat of a dress rehearsal for deployment, or so some historians tell us.
From what I read, the inefficiency continued right up to, and through, the end of the war.