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Thread: Parts/project gun problems

  1. Default Parts/project gun problems

    About a month ago I bought a battered/crusty Rock Island 1903 out of my retired gunsmith buddy's 'clunkers gun rack'.

    Aside from abuse and neglect the Rock's biggest problem is what appears to be a .30 caliber bullet lodged just in front of the chamber!! Besides the bullet..there was also better than 20 inches of wooden dowel-rod wedged in from the front and pounded flush with the muzzle.....DOH!!

    My pal swears he didn't do that...but that a fellow had brought the gun in for repair back in the 1990's and balked at the suggestion of a new $50 surplus barrel and install fee. left the poorly treated '03 to cover the inspection bill...

    I was attracted to it because it has a S type finger-groove stock that's not totally unfortunate(I think it's a Springfield stock). The hand guard appears to be a near-new WWII 'low-hump. The action is in the double-heat/NS serial range for RI and has a milled mag-box still. The rest of the parts are a mix of this and that..the barrel a Remington(that I can't read the date on). The bolt is an A3 with a mix of Remington and Smith-Corona internals.

    Fankly..I bought it to rob the stock off of and put on my much-much nicer Rock Island 1903 which is wearing an A3 buttstock. Then spin the dud barrel off the action and have a rusty 1903 action laying around for a future project, plus a bunch of 1903 spare parts.

    The problem is that my son and I managed to extricate the wood dowel-rod... soaked the bore in 'Marvel Mystery Oil' overnight. then I took my Trapdoor rifle's cleaning-rod and 'bounced' the rod down the bore three or four times with force and the bullet fell out!

    The bore ain't too bad..some rust pits and frost but has rifling from breech to muzzle and passes the 'bullet test' at the muzzle. Now I'm torn between parting the battered Rock out or nursing it back to health.

    It's a minor conundrum!

  2. Default

    Shoot it and find out if it warrants further attention...

  3. Default

    That's probably what I should do. I have the thing in pieces now..and the bore needs a healthy cleaning from the looks of the patches I pushed through.

    One funny/odd detail...the action appears to be lightly cleaned with a wire-wheeled and probably cold-blued...however the barrel and rear sight sleeve screwed to the front of the action is parked....Looks to me like the action was off the barrel when it got wire-wheeled. Some of the small parts appear to be cleaned by wire wheel and cold blued too

  4. #4
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    Default

    I would clean it, shoot it, decide on the fate of the barrel, then disassemble and repark. You will end up with a representative, shootable Springfield. Regards, Clark

  5. #5

    Default

    if you do have it redone, I suggest chuckindenver, ive had him work on numerous rifles, and they turned out much better than expected.

  6. Default

    I've been gone on vacation for better than a week....left the Rock Island in pieces on the bench. Finished cleaning it up and inspecting the action and barrel.

    Put it together and son and I fired it a bunch yesterday....and it didn't blow-up!...Burned-up Taiwan ball stripped from Garand clips, Greek ball, and Remington 15gr. soft points.
    Just plinking and taking turns blasting a 50yd target off-hand, I thought it shot great! My son thought it shot somewhat high but good.

    I'm beginning to think of it as a rifle now...and not just a stock I want to stick on another rifle.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    North Carolina
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    Default

    The heart of an 03 is the barrel condition. I would second the recommendation of Chuck to restore.

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