Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Finally got the 03A3 from the dealer today --the ten day waiting period timed out.

Still think that it maybe unissued. Metal is perfect, wood near perfect. Just a few tiny nicks in the handguard. Very hard to do the wood justice with my camera.



















All the parts that I can see have either "R" or "RP"

10 day waiting period for long guns? I don't remember that from when I lived there long ago, but maybe it's new since then.

Fine looking 03A3. It may be unissued, but it has the "OG" on the stock which I think means it has been through Ogden Arsenal, Utah, for inspection/reconditioning/storage. Probably lots of weapons that looked unissued went through the process anyway and got the stamp. Ogden Arsenal was a centralized location for disposal of surplus ordnance equipment after WW2. Ogden Arsenal was located on property that is now Hill Air Force Base. Not to be confused with Ogden General Depot, later called Defense Depot Ogden, which was at a different location. Here's a link to some history of Ogden Arsenal:

http://www.hill.af.mil/library/factshee ... sp?id=5956

There is another major Army depot in Utah, Tooele Army Depot, which is still active. Tooele is somewhat infamous for nerve gas experiments that killed neighboring rancher's sheep. That is pronounced, "tow-ella".

One thing I've noticed about 03A3's over the years, and that is that the fittings (bands, trigger guard, etc) seem to come in different colors. Some are blued, and others are Parkerized. I wonder if a rifle having been rebuilt is the distinction as to these different finishes. We used to see all kinds of NOS surplus repair parts for sale at the gun shows, and when I think back, it seems like these fittings were all blued.

Sorry for the duplicate information about Ogden - I didn't see the "Part One" thread.

Re. the rectangle around the arsenal marks. The big, fat Springfield rifle book (I don't have a copy) has some details on the inspectors marks. There were Army Regulations about how these marks were to be applied and what they were to consist of. The Springfield rifle book states that all new production inspectors marks on Remington-made 03A3's have the "RA" without the rectangle (called an "enclosure") around them. Sometimes it will be observed that the "O" and the "G" aren't quite on the same line, one from the other. That makes it look like they were stamped with individual letter dies instead of one die consisting of the complete inspector's mark. The older Army regs specified an inspector's initials in addition to the arsenal ID; your OG and others I have seen like it, and another example being the AN (for Anniston) stamped on my M-1 rifle (made in 1952), have no individual inspector's initials.

It's only an educated guess on my part, but I think the non-enclosed, simple letters for rebuild arsenal ID only without inspector's initials are a later practice. As time goes on in bureacracies (like the Army), a certain practice that was once thought to be the "right way to do things" gets rethought. Someone comes along and decides that too much time is being spent on that practice, so they simplify it. I think that's what happened to the inspector's marks.

The Springfield rifle book also says that when the rifles went through an arsenal and were given the inspector's marks, at the same time a record was made of the rifle serial number, date of work, and inspector that passed it. If over time, the inspector's initials were dropped, so too may the paperwork have been simplified (or eliminated).

At one time, Elmer Keith worked at Ogden Arsenal as an inspector. His mark reads OGEK. By coincidence, there was another inspector at Ogden with the initials "EK" and that was Ed Klouser. To distinguish the two, Keith had an enclosure around his mark, and Klouser did not.

....thanks for the details Gary... ...the ones I have are almost identical to calfed's(both stock and metal finish)-except one is a Smith Corona....the Remington is a 5/43 barrel and 6/43 reciever, and the SC is an 11/42 barrel on a 1/43 reciever...and both have the OG mark-but in a box...







....thanx for providing a lil' more history

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....Naj puška govori!....
.............deplorable typical "bitter clinger"....

Now look at the metal colors on the pics that Mario has furnished. They are kind of opposite from the ones in the original post. 03A3 #1 (in OP) has a green receiver and a blued bolt. 03A3 #2 (Mario) has a green bolt with a dark receiver.

I've never met an 03A3 that I didn't like. These were a sleeper rifle for many years, well overshadowed by the M-1 Rifle. This model was issued out to US troops; in historic photographs, you may find signal corps and rear area troops carrying these. Of the several I have owned over the years, the most accurate one was an issued rifle that had seen lots of handling/use and had a 2 groove barrel).

For many years, you could go into a pawnshop and sometimes find 1903's and 03A3's that had been mildly sporterized and get them quite inexpensively. By mildly sporterized, I mean the forward end of the stock was cut off but the remainder of the rifle was unchanged. You could then take such a rifle home, and order the parts cheaply from Numrich and wind up with what looked like an original rifle.

nice pick up. fine looking weapon

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

Thanks for the all the feedback, guys.

I'm kinda new to milsurps and feel like I'm playing catch-up, tying to get some good ones before they are gone. Even though I didn't buy them at the time, I do remember, particularly when I was younger, the ready availability of surplus rifles and how cheap they were.

Story of my life...I always get interested in things after the "golden age" has passed.