This article written by Ric Bowman, appeared in the March/April 2000, #144 issue of the Fouling Shot.
The US Rifle, Model 1903, popularly known as the Springfield, has passed its glory days. They are not seen on the firing line or in the field very often anymore. While the Springfield action can be made into as fine a sporting rifle as any commercial action made today, most hunters, as always, prefer to buy their rifles off the shelf. However, there still remains a loyal group of shooters who continue to use the Springfield for hunting as well as local and regional matches.
The Springfield match rifle can be created from the vast array of armory and commercial parts built since 1903. The end result is a piece that appears to have been created in the past but can shoots groups of size and consistency equal to today’s rifles.
Bolt action rifles are defined by their actions. The Springfield varies greatly in appearance of quality and minutely in serviceability. Those manufactured from 1920 through 1937 had the best finish and appearance of the “safe” versions, with the National Match and NRA Sporters receiving the highest level of care in manufacture. However, the double heat treated actions, including World War I production, are the smoothest actions, provided you can find one that has not been sandblasted
The US Rifle, Model 1903, popularly known as the Springfield, has passed its glory days. They are not seen on the firing line or in the field very often anymore. While the Springfield action can be made into as fine a sporting rifle as any commercial action made today, most hunters, as always, prefer to buy their rifles off the shelf. However, there still remains a loyal group of shooters who continue to use the Springfield for hunting as well as local and regional matches.
The Springfield match rifle can be created from the vast array of armory and commercial parts built since 1903. The end result is a piece that appears to have been created in the past but can shoots groups of size and consistency equal to today’s rifles.
Bolt action rifles are defined by their actions. The Springfield varies greatly in appearance of quality and minutely in serviceability. Those manufactured from 1920 through 1937 had the best finish and appearance of the “safe” versions, with the National Match and NRA Sporters receiving the highest level of care in manufacture. However, the double heat treated actions, including World War I production, are the smoothest actions, provided you can find one that has not been sandblasted
and then Parker Processed. The easiest check is the finish of the bolt way in the action. Actions were blued or Parkerized prior to the final reaming to size of the bolt way. If the bolt way is bright, it has not been refinished. The exceptions are the 1903 Modified, 1903 A3 and 1903 A4 models that were finished as components then assembled.
The nickel steel actions are much easier to machine, square and true than the case-hardened actions. Unless you are planning to shoot matches requiring a rapid fire stage, the slightly lower cycling smoothness of the nickel steel action is not a disadvantage. Also, the stretching of the action and deformation of the bolt locks of the nickel steel actions add a safety margin for those reloaders who create ammunition over the sane 48,000 CUP limit. The newest double heat treated Springfield action was made over 70 years ago, and the last “war emergency” nickel steel action was made in 1945.
Barrels are very controversial concerning their accuracy potential. The favored barrel for collectors is the “star gauged” model from the 1920’s and 1930’s. The bores and grooves were checked for finish and consistency for use on National Match and Sporter rifles. These barrels were not specially manufactured but rather normal service barrels that had been compared to a stan-dard and found to meet certain criteria. Today’s medium priced target barrel is made of better material and held to more rigid tolerances than the star gauged barrel of the pre-World War Two years. The choice of a modern production barrel, with a 1 in 12 inch twist, will allow you to use 180 grain boattails at normal speeds and maintain stabilization at 1000 yards. Groove diameters of .3085 and .309 are not “bad”. It has been reported since the early 1950’s that a smoothly finished barrel of .309 inch-es with a 1 in 12 inch twist gave excellent performance at the 1000 yard range even though it may not make the smallest groups at 100 yards from a bench rest. Cast bullet shooters have had very good performance with ‘03A3 two groove barrels due to the smooth bore finish and .309 or .310 diameter grooves that require less bullet sizing. The wide lands displace enough bullet metal for low gas cutting and support the nose of the bullet. Interior finish and consistency of land and groove dimension for the length of the barrel are of greater importance than an average groove dimension of exactly .308 inches.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, it is relatively com-mon to find new replacement Springfield barrels for the 03A3’s at gun shows and parts dealers. They are mostly two groove Remington, but I have also seen two and four groove Springfield Armory and a few six groove Smith Coronas (manufactured by Hi Standard). Most appear to be replacement barrels coming into the country from Asia, still in the preservative and waxed paper.
The nickel steel actions are much easier to machine, square and true than the case-hardened actions. Unless you are planning to shoot matches requiring a rapid fire stage, the slightly lower cycling smoothness of the nickel steel action is not a disadvantage. Also, the stretching of the action and deformation of the bolt locks of the nickel steel actions add a safety margin for those reloaders who create ammunition over the sane 48,000 CUP limit. The newest double heat treated Springfield action was made over 70 years ago, and the last “war emergency” nickel steel action was made in 1945.
Barrels are very controversial concerning their accuracy potential. The favored barrel for collectors is the “star gauged” model from the 1920’s and 1930’s. The bores and grooves were checked for finish and consistency for use on National Match and Sporter rifles. These barrels were not specially manufactured but rather normal service barrels that had been compared to a stan-dard and found to meet certain criteria. Today’s medium priced target barrel is made of better material and held to more rigid tolerances than the star gauged barrel of the pre-World War Two years. The choice of a modern production barrel, with a 1 in 12 inch twist, will allow you to use 180 grain boattails at normal speeds and maintain stabilization at 1000 yards. Groove diameters of .3085 and .309 are not “bad”. It has been reported since the early 1950’s that a smoothly finished barrel of .309 inch-es with a 1 in 12 inch twist gave excellent performance at the 1000 yard range even though it may not make the smallest groups at 100 yards from a bench rest. Cast bullet shooters have had very good performance with ‘03A3 two groove barrels due to the smooth bore finish and .309 or .310 diameter grooves that require less bullet sizing. The wide lands displace enough bullet metal for low gas cutting and support the nose of the bullet. Interior finish and consistency of land and groove dimension for the length of the barrel are of greater importance than an average groove dimension of exactly .308 inches.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, it is relatively com-mon to find new replacement Springfield barrels for the 03A3’s at gun shows and parts dealers. They are mostly two groove Remington, but I have also seen two and four groove Springfield Armory and a few six groove Smith Coronas (manufactured by Hi Standard). Most appear to be replacement barrels coming into the country from Asia, still in the preservative and waxed paper.
The criteria for workmanship in rebarreling have changed somewhat. Gunsmiths have more than 90 years of experience to draw upon with the Springfield. There are two issues that must be dealt with. One is that replacement barrels are NOT headspaced. They were made to have a final headspacing done once they are screwed into the action. Springfield barrels are held into the receiver by compression of the rear barrel flat being compressed onto the front of the receiver. This stretch-es the rear of the barrel uniquely to that barrel and action combination. Therefore, final headspacing is required. Secondly, if you are redoing a 1903 you have to address the rear sight sleeve.
The easiest is to center the barrel in a lathe and turn it down using the old barrel as a pattern. Now you can reinstall the sight sleeve after making the cut for the locking pin.
Head spacing to minimum dimensions does not lead to greater accuracy. Some of these reports may be due to the increased velocity and wind bucking ability that these dimensions allow. This increased velocity is created by increased pressure upon firing. This head spacing question was investigated by the Springfield Armory in the 1920’s. What does have the greatest effect is the care and workmanship of the chambering operation. The careful workman who makes a chamber of consistent diameter and taper that is concentric with the bore and places the leade of the chamber in the proper relationship for the bullet will always shoot tighter groups. The short head spaced chamber only helps by forcing the case to self-center in an excessively large chamber or out of round chamber. In combination with a tight throat, the cartridge is supported by the neck of the case and the base of the case against the bolt face. This does not make for consistency and accuracy in a rifle.
If you are making a production class rifle, such as within The Cast Bullet Association rules, you need an arsenal barrel, action and sights. Unless you have very, very good and young eyes, I recommend the 03A3 action and rear sights. Most 1903’s have the #6 sight aperture and some as small as #4. The aperture is a long way from your eye and that makes the front sight very fuzzy even in bright light. I can not see the bull on most targets through that little hole. General Julian Hatcher has some interesting comments in his note-book on aperture sizes. The large 03A3’s sight is not as much of a disadvantage as some people seem to think.
There are two areas that keep the Springfield from being a “modern” rifle; trigger and lock speed. The trigger is two staged and I know of no safe way to make it a single stage. The original trigger can be tuned for a two pound first stage and an additional one and one half pound second stage. This is light enough and can be made crisp enough for everything but the most ardent benchrest shooter with familiarization. I have used three brands of aftermarket triggers that are of the falling sear construction. They work well and are the “de-rigor” item for those who don’t want to learn the military trigger. The “speed lock” stronger firing pin springs will speed up lock time, but it is still slow. It greatly increases bolt lift force from about 22 pounds to over 30 pounds. The biggest draw back to the two stage trigger is in the offhand position. It forces you to use good trigger control and follow through.
The questions of how and where to bed the metal to the wood has been solved. The quality of wood and lack of skilled stock makers has ended the idea of carving out perfect bedding. The two-part epoxy resin with a strengthening material gives a better fit and a stronger stock. You can even take the rifle apart to clean the action and not have your sight settings change.
There are several points to address in preparation for the use of bedding compounds. The wood must be dry and free of linseed oil and tung oil. While these are good finishes, they are not promoters of tight adher-ing of epoxy to wood. The bedding compound may pull away from the wood during firing or removal of the barreled action from the stock. Other finishes need to be of rough texture and if you are unsure, remove all finishes to the bare wood. Stock bolts and other metal fittings should be bedded permanently into the wood. You can not create the best bedding in one pour. All bedding compounds shrink with curing. Light sanding between pours creates a snug fit and stability.
The best method is to bed the areas around the front action screw, the recoil abutments, and the action areas ahead of the magazine well first to provide stability. Then snugly bed the rear, or tang, screw. Original armory stocks are semi-pillar bedded with a metal piece surrounding the rear screw to prevent strong armed privates from crushing the stock. Seat the recoil lug screw firmly and draw the tang screw up just snug. The idea is to allow the recoil lug to square the action. The tang screw should just stop the action from being bent downward upon screw tightening. There are several areas that require clearance after the bedding. The front action screw needs at least 0.010 clearance all the way around. This means you will have to go back and under cut around the threaded shank on the recoil lug. At the rear, I like to put the metal spacer in permanently and let the screw float inside. Also the bottom of the recoil lug must have clearance to prevent binding.
Up pressure pads at the tip are, or at least seem to be, a matter of individual rifle preference. Most full stocked rifles appear to group better with the tip having four to seven pounds of upwards pressure on the barrel. This pressure pad should fit the bottom contour of the barrel and be an arc of between 90 and 120 degrees centered on the vertical axis. One inch length of pad is enough. Due to barrel contour, any longer pad increases pressure as the barrel lengthens with heating. NRA-type sporter stocks and aftermarket stocks appear to shoot as well with or without pads. Original NRA Sporters are tightly clamped into the forend with the sling swivel band. The contour of the Springfield barrel is much heavier at the midpoint than modern styles and this may have an affect on tip pressure requirements.
The action should be fully supported. The magazine box is also used for recoil absorption and must be carefully bedded if the rifle is to be a repeater. Small pads poured under the trigger guard assembly screw holes will prevent the trigger guard from sinking into the stock. The top of the magazine box should have a slight clearance from the bottom of the action. This provides some compressibility between action and trigger guard. Stability is greatly increased if you create a single shot without a magazine cut out and the lower surface of the action is fully bedded into the stock. Single shots require a feed ramp for the case head to slip under the extractor hook as the bolt is closed.
Head spacing to minimum dimensions does not lead to greater accuracy. Some of these reports may be due to the increased velocity and wind bucking ability that these dimensions allow. This increased velocity is created by increased pressure upon firing. This head spacing question was investigated by the Springfield Armory in the 1920’s. What does have the greatest effect is the care and workmanship of the chambering operation. The careful workman who makes a chamber of consistent diameter and taper that is concentric with the bore and places the leade of the chamber in the proper relationship for the bullet will always shoot tighter groups. The short head spaced chamber only helps by forcing the case to self-center in an excessively large chamber or out of round chamber. In combination with a tight throat, the cartridge is supported by the neck of the case and the base of the case against the bolt face. This does not make for consistency and accuracy in a rifle.
If you are making a production class rifle, such as within The Cast Bullet Association rules, you need an arsenal barrel, action and sights. Unless you have very, very good and young eyes, I recommend the 03A3 action and rear sights. Most 1903’s have the #6 sight aperture and some as small as #4. The aperture is a long way from your eye and that makes the front sight very fuzzy even in bright light. I can not see the bull on most targets through that little hole. General Julian Hatcher has some interesting comments in his note-book on aperture sizes. The large 03A3’s sight is not as much of a disadvantage as some people seem to think.
There are two areas that keep the Springfield from being a “modern” rifle; trigger and lock speed. The trigger is two staged and I know of no safe way to make it a single stage. The original trigger can be tuned for a two pound first stage and an additional one and one half pound second stage. This is light enough and can be made crisp enough for everything but the most ardent benchrest shooter with familiarization. I have used three brands of aftermarket triggers that are of the falling sear construction. They work well and are the “de-rigor” item for those who don’t want to learn the military trigger. The “speed lock” stronger firing pin springs will speed up lock time, but it is still slow. It greatly increases bolt lift force from about 22 pounds to over 30 pounds. The biggest draw back to the two stage trigger is in the offhand position. It forces you to use good trigger control and follow through.
The questions of how and where to bed the metal to the wood has been solved. The quality of wood and lack of skilled stock makers has ended the idea of carving out perfect bedding. The two-part epoxy resin with a strengthening material gives a better fit and a stronger stock. You can even take the rifle apart to clean the action and not have your sight settings change.
There are several points to address in preparation for the use of bedding compounds. The wood must be dry and free of linseed oil and tung oil. While these are good finishes, they are not promoters of tight adher-ing of epoxy to wood. The bedding compound may pull away from the wood during firing or removal of the barreled action from the stock. Other finishes need to be of rough texture and if you are unsure, remove all finishes to the bare wood. Stock bolts and other metal fittings should be bedded permanently into the wood. You can not create the best bedding in one pour. All bedding compounds shrink with curing. Light sanding between pours creates a snug fit and stability.
The best method is to bed the areas around the front action screw, the recoil abutments, and the action areas ahead of the magazine well first to provide stability. Then snugly bed the rear, or tang, screw. Original armory stocks are semi-pillar bedded with a metal piece surrounding the rear screw to prevent strong armed privates from crushing the stock. Seat the recoil lug screw firmly and draw the tang screw up just snug. The idea is to allow the recoil lug to square the action. The tang screw should just stop the action from being bent downward upon screw tightening. There are several areas that require clearance after the bedding. The front action screw needs at least 0.010 clearance all the way around. This means you will have to go back and under cut around the threaded shank on the recoil lug. At the rear, I like to put the metal spacer in permanently and let the screw float inside. Also the bottom of the recoil lug must have clearance to prevent binding.
Up pressure pads at the tip are, or at least seem to be, a matter of individual rifle preference. Most full stocked rifles appear to group better with the tip having four to seven pounds of upwards pressure on the barrel. This pressure pad should fit the bottom contour of the barrel and be an arc of between 90 and 120 degrees centered on the vertical axis. One inch length of pad is enough. Due to barrel contour, any longer pad increases pressure as the barrel lengthens with heating. NRA-type sporter stocks and aftermarket stocks appear to shoot as well with or without pads. Original NRA Sporters are tightly clamped into the forend with the sling swivel band. The contour of the Springfield barrel is much heavier at the midpoint than modern styles and this may have an affect on tip pressure requirements.
The action should be fully supported. The magazine box is also used for recoil absorption and must be carefully bedded if the rifle is to be a repeater. Small pads poured under the trigger guard assembly screw holes will prevent the trigger guard from sinking into the stock. The top of the magazine box should have a slight clearance from the bottom of the action. This provides some compressibility between action and trigger guard. Stability is greatly increased if you create a single shot without a magazine cut out and the lower surface of the action is fully bedded into the stock. Single shots require a feed ramp for the case head to slip under the extractor hook as the bolt is closed.
Stock styles and sizes seem to be the most individualistic of all components. There are several elements that should be considered. The shooter that competes in rapid fire stages should have as short of pull as possible without having to move the head to operate the bolt. The firing pin hitting the nose or cheek slows the bolt manipulation operation and the tearing eyes make the front sight blur. The average shooter of the 1920’s was 5 feet 8 inches tall and shot a rifle with a 13 1/4 to 13 1/2 inch pull. But that includes a stock with more drop than is normally used today.
A rifle used for prone slow fire needs to be straighter than a rapid fire rifle and length of pull is not as important. Prone, the key is consistent eye placement, consistent firing hand placement and keeping the vertical plane of the line of bore and line of sight perpendicular to the earth.
The choice between the classic straight comb and the Monte Carlo comb is relatively complex. I feel that it has a lot to do with the relationship between eye, cheek and shoulder pocket, with their various distances, angles and relationships. The Monte Carlo allows the shooter to have more drop at the heel with higher cheek support. This could be helpful in matches with off hand, sitting and kneeling stages. The key is to insure that the face support, the top line of the comb, is exactly parallel to the bore line. A forward sloping comb makes it impos-sible to have consistent eye to sight alignment. The fore end shape also had an effect upon rifle handling. A broad flat fore end with a front to rear taper, or semi-beavertail shape, assists in maintaining vertical align-ment so important in 600 and 1000 yard shots. A pear or double elliptical shape fore end allows a slight leverage advantage to cant the rifle to the right for added speed in sitting and kneeling rapid fire. This tactic also assists in the reloading phase with a reasonably tight sling.
The basic shape of the 1927 National Match stock, or the Type "C", is excellent for the all around rifle that must work for every position. From Springfield Armory, they were made very full in the pistol grip and cheek contact areas. Individual adjustments can make the basic design very usable for almost any shooter. The Winchester Model 70 Match Rifle's "marksman" stock of the early 1950’s is an excellent example of the refine-ments possible to the Type “C” stock.
Placement of the front sling swivel also varies with the use of the rifle. If the sling is to carry the piece, i.e. hunting, it must be placed forward enough to reduce the height of the barrel when walking. Flexible shooters who can assume a very low prone or sitting position, require the sling to be farther forward than older shooters. The sling swivel can be used as a hand stop if you use a heavy shooting glove. The current “inline” prone position used by self-loading rifle shooters is not practical for bolt manipulation. The elbow hits the knee and the shooter must shift their weight and center of gravity to the supporting hand side to keep from hitting the ground with their nose. Therefore, assume a natural (at least to us older folks) and comfortable prone position and then mark and install the front sling swivel to use as a hand stop.
There are three choices for butt plates. The mil-itary plate works well for most people, but is not very secure unless you can find a National Match coarsely checkered plate, or a finely checkered 1903 plate and sharpen the checkering. If you are building a new stock, consider the NRA Sporter butt plate that is still available from The Gun Parts Corporation. It works well but dictates the shape and size of the stock. Lastly, you can use a rubber butt plate and reshape to your heart’s content.
Springfield rifles are a wonderful piece of Americana. They can make excellent target, hunting and plinking guns. While they may not be on the front line at Camp Perry or the national benchrest matches, they can be very competitive at the local level. It appears that no one is willing to spend the thousands of dollars needed to make a really competitive rifle because it is “just a Springfield.”
The choice between the classic straight comb and the Monte Carlo comb is relatively complex. I feel that it has a lot to do with the relationship between eye, cheek and shoulder pocket, with their various distances, angles and relationships. The Monte Carlo allows the shooter to have more drop at the heel with higher cheek support. This could be helpful in matches with off hand, sitting and kneeling stages. The key is to insure that the face support, the top line of the comb, is exactly parallel to the bore line. A forward sloping comb makes it impos-sible to have consistent eye to sight alignment. The fore end shape also had an effect upon rifle handling. A broad flat fore end with a front to rear taper, or semi-beavertail shape, assists in maintaining vertical align-ment so important in 600 and 1000 yard shots. A pear or double elliptical shape fore end allows a slight leverage advantage to cant the rifle to the right for added speed in sitting and kneeling rapid fire. This tactic also assists in the reloading phase with a reasonably tight sling.
The basic shape of the 1927 National Match stock, or the Type "C", is excellent for the all around rifle that must work for every position. From Springfield Armory, they were made very full in the pistol grip and cheek contact areas. Individual adjustments can make the basic design very usable for almost any shooter. The Winchester Model 70 Match Rifle's "marksman" stock of the early 1950’s is an excellent example of the refine-ments possible to the Type “C” stock.
Placement of the front sling swivel also varies with the use of the rifle. If the sling is to carry the piece, i.e. hunting, it must be placed forward enough to reduce the height of the barrel when walking. Flexible shooters who can assume a very low prone or sitting position, require the sling to be farther forward than older shooters. The sling swivel can be used as a hand stop if you use a heavy shooting glove. The current “inline” prone position used by self-loading rifle shooters is not practical for bolt manipulation. The elbow hits the knee and the shooter must shift their weight and center of gravity to the supporting hand side to keep from hitting the ground with their nose. Therefore, assume a natural (at least to us older folks) and comfortable prone position and then mark and install the front sling swivel to use as a hand stop.
There are three choices for butt plates. The mil-itary plate works well for most people, but is not very secure unless you can find a National Match coarsely checkered plate, or a finely checkered 1903 plate and sharpen the checkering. If you are building a new stock, consider the NRA Sporter butt plate that is still available from The Gun Parts Corporation. It works well but dictates the shape and size of the stock. Lastly, you can use a rubber butt plate and reshape to your heart’s content.
Springfield rifles are a wonderful piece of Americana. They can make excellent target, hunting and plinking guns. While they may not be on the front line at Camp Perry or the national benchrest matches, they can be very competitive at the local level. It appears that no one is willing to spend the thousands of dollars needed to make a really competitive rifle because it is “just a Springfield.”