In just a little over a year's time, from around December 1942 to February 1944, Remington Arms cranked out just shy of 900,000 rifles of the 1903/A3 design. Most were purposed for rear echelon and support troops in theater, Navy and Coast Guard aboard ship, or reserve and home guard duties stateside.
Post-war, the largest share of 03-A3 rifles (Smith Corona and 03-A4 Snipers included) were turned in for rebuild at several arsenal depots across the country. Some were completely stripped, reparkerized, fitted with new and/or reparkerized small parts, and set into new stocks with the rebuild arsenal cartouche stamped into the wood.. Others were in such great shape, they may have only received a cursory inspection, or had just a small part or two replaced before being stamped as rebuilt and going back into storage.
Beginning in the late 1950's, the DCM began releasing the rifles for public sale. And collector nerds like us just love it when nice ones show up. I picked up a mid-production example from the Poulin's auction last month. Looks like it had a striker replaced in the bolt with a parkerized part, an OG (Ogden Arsenal) stamp on the left buttstock, and just some extremely gentle handling ever since. It looks brand new.
I'll post a few more pics later. Enjoy, and thanks for looking.
Post-war, the largest share of 03-A3 rifles (Smith Corona and 03-A4 Snipers included) were turned in for rebuild at several arsenal depots across the country. Some were completely stripped, reparkerized, fitted with new and/or reparkerized small parts, and set into new stocks with the rebuild arsenal cartouche stamped into the wood.. Others were in such great shape, they may have only received a cursory inspection, or had just a small part or two replaced before being stamped as rebuilt and going back into storage.
Beginning in the late 1950's, the DCM began releasing the rifles for public sale. And collector nerds like us just love it when nice ones show up. I picked up a mid-production example from the Poulin's auction last month. Looks like it had a striker replaced in the bolt with a parkerized part, an OG (Ogden Arsenal) stamp on the left buttstock, and just some extremely gentle handling ever since. It looks brand new.
I'll post a few more pics later. Enjoy, and thanks for looking.
