Hello, I'm new to the forum. I have been holding on to a (semi) sporterized 1903a3. I have decided to try and make something a little bit different out of it. There was a brief attempt in the 1920s by a Cavalry commander in the West to design a 1903 carbine. I believe two were built and recently sold at auction. I am going to try and see if I can gather the parts to make a 1903a3 based clone of that idea, though I may very well just end up putting together a 1903a3 based fantasy cavalry carbine as the original guns appear to have been built off of an earlier 1903 model.

The first problem I've determined is to be the front sight base. The gun came to me cut down by an inch and change. I have to cut it down further and then have it recrowned, a friend has said he can do that for me. However, I was wondering if anyone could come up with a way to instal an early model or later model 1903 type front sight base on a 1903a3 barrel that doesn't have the "cut out" area?