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In another post on this forum, I mentioned cobbled-up parts gun M-1's and spin-offs. There was also a minor industry at one time in the 1960's and 70's to manufacture M1903 and M1903A3 rifles from parts. Sometimes, you will see these with "National Ordnance" and "Santa Fe" on the receivers. Others, were made up from previously condemned early M1903 receivers and they say "Springfield" as originally stamped, but were assembled by companies in California, like Fed Ord. I had one of these early M1903's from Fed Ord that I got very inexpensively. It had a nice military Parkerized finish, assembled from mostly new parts (1944 barrel date), but had two holes tapped in the receiver that had been there from before Fed Ord rebuilt the rifle. Evidently, it had been sporterized at some time in the past, and was in a batch of beater home-job sporters that Fed Ord had bought just to get receivers and other parts.
The National Ordnance and Santa Fe marked M1903A3's are another story. Apparently, the receivers were often castings that were made up to go with the huge inventory of all the other parts that were left over as spares from WW2. Here is some information about this that I scabbed from another site online:
From "Your American Backyard Forum"
"At one time in my life I did business with National Ordnance and used their products. There were two businesses, same location, two buildings. Federal Ordnance and National Ordnance, the first was the parts and ammo dept. and the second was complete firearms and receivers. Fed and Nat. Ordnance was owned by a man by the name of John Arnold, I knew him slightly, just enough to say hello when I went to his businesses, At the time I was doing business with Nat Ord,,, I remember being told the receiver casting was being done by ‘River Casting’ here in US. Many years later, Lee Emerson told me that Karl Mauntz told him, that Rimer Casting of Waterville, OH, had made the Nat.Ord. M1903A3s and in fact made all of Nat.Ord’s receiver castings. I saw a posting on another board, where an individual stated his father (tool & die man) had made from a DCM A3 the pilot/model that was supplied to Rimer in order to make the mould. Rimer Casting is still in busness, in same location, but now known as Rimer Enterprises Inc. The only person I know of who could give the full story of Nat.Ord/Fed Ord is a man by the name of Wyant Lamont Jr., if he is still alive. He was the plant manager/foreman type person for Nat/Fed Ord. This Federal Ordnance is not the business with the same name that opened up a few years later and made M14 type receivers, I do not think he even had to buy the name.
Supposelly H.P. White gave a glowing report of the Nat. Ord M1903A3s but I have never been able to find it. I have looked thru the ARs from 1960 to 1970, and found nothing, It may have been published in ‘Guns & Ammo’, in their Ordnance Department section. For those of you who do not know, H.P.White Lab was an independent, recognized, Ballistic Lab (maybe still is) and if they said a firearms was safe, it was. That is not to say that all the rest of that factory’s production was safe, but if they said a firearm they tested was safe,,, it was.
I can not say these receivers are so unsafe as to preclude firing. I also, have people who tell me they ‘blew-up’ their Nat.Ord.A3,, and of course, always with factory loads. But none of these people could supply any remnants of the offending case. No documentation except “they said/he said”. I fired many rounds out of these rifles with no safety issues, functioning problems, now that is another story
I was assembling Nat. Ord. A3s,(total ended up being 2 or 3 hundred). using new (mostly) parts, early 60s to mid-60s. I did not own the receivers or parts, but did the work for others; I usually drove over to LA and pick up the receivers with other stuff. My experiences with Nat.Ord. A3 receivers, is very similar to Jim Keenan’s. Machining errors were common, guard screws holes were especially a problem, I chased the threads that could be saved, with a metric 6.35mm x 1 tap. For those I couldn’t, I re-tapped with a 7mm x 1 tap. I also made a tap for the barrel threads. But the most interesting problem was those where the center line of the bore did not come close to the receiver’s bolt hole center line.
A warning for those of you who buy a National Ordnance M1903A3 for the parts. Some, may have been altered to get the rifle to function (‘cocking piece’/sear) but the biggest problem is the barrel, when tightened, it would turn up almost anywhere. Usually I turned the barrel’s shoulders back, until front sight was straight up when tighten. This of course will present problems if this altered barrel is installed on a GI receiver. Most needed finish reaming.
If you can buy an assembled, functioning, Nat.Ord.A3 for around $200 it would a great shooter, but check it close."
Added later by same poster:
"During the 60s and 70s I was involved in several ‘projects’ to rebuild/assemble 03 type rifles.
Some I did from start to finish, on some,, I trained others to do most of the assembly, I fitted all barrels, made sure headspace was correct, did a function test a final inspection, and no, I did not stamp them with anything. Most were ‘made for’ US Gov. M1903, A3 and a few 4s, but some were assembled using the commercial cast receiver.
All rifles were test fired with five rounds, out of curiosity I fired several of the cast receive A3s using a rest. I found that most grouped surprisingly well.
Most of these projects used new M1903A3 stocks, although some people supplied used stocks, At least one gentleman had a nice supply of new C stocks that were used on M1903s only. Most likely post 1940 production, but I do not remember, (most likely I did not know difference at the time). All most all stocks were given a raw linseed oil treatment ranging from 24 hrs soak in warm oil to slop some on with a brush, (I did no stock work other than adjustments to bedding). One business used diesel oil on the stocks!!! This business also made handgun holsters and they also used diesel to oil the leather.
Most of these M1903s went to local hardware, and sporting good stores, Western Auto also received a fair number of these rifles. Even Sears and Macgomery Ward sold surplus rifles. At least one group of 03A3s were exported to the Mexican Government. If I remember correctly these,, 03A3s for Mexico,, used the cast receivers. With these 03A3 went a supply of US Gov printed FM 23-10s in Spanish, wish I had kept one."
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