Somewhere at my Mother's house we have a dummy 1903 Springfield. It was there at the house when I was a kid. It has a wood stock and steel barrel and other hardware. No parts, including the stock will interchange with the real guns. It looks a little like a Hollywood prop gun but cheaper looking/not detailed much.
I think it is a 03 rifle but it would pass for any rifle as far as training goes.
I believe it was intended to look fake enough to not be confused with a real rifle. You couldn't take this gun into a bank and expect to rob it unless the bank clerk was very dumb, blind, or just wanted to be robbed.
Last edited by Allen; 05-20-2023 at 09:24.
I haven't seen it in decades. I remember neither me nor my brother played with it. It wouldn't fire live rounds, blanks, BB's, nor caps and you couldn't toss lit firecrackers down the barrel so what good was it to us?
I saw a nice S&W Model 1950 military (civilian version of the M1917) in a pawn shop the other day. I had to enlighten the pawn broker on the actual caliber and the need for half moon or moon clips to make it extract properly. It was a 5 screw without an ejector rod shroud and if it hadn't been for a couple of spots where it had been exposed to moisture that caused some light pitting in two small spots would probably have had 90% of the original finish. Really nice gun but at $1,400.00 a fair price but not cheap.
Last edited by Art; 06-16-2023 at 06:41. Reason: Accuracy
I bought a Colt M1917 for about $10 around 1960 and gave it to a girlfriend who used to go riding in the woods alone. She eventually passed it on to her youngest son, who never fired it. When I found out about that last year, I loaded up 500 rounds of .45 Auto Rim for him.