Springfield 1903 sporter rebuild

PatMcD

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So I was at cabelas a month or so ago and they had a sporterized Remington 03-A3 on the rack with a lyman junior target spot 10x for $549. It'd been re-barreled to 22-250, which I have no interest in. Decent price, but what am I going to do with it.
Couple of weeks later, my young neighbor has just turned 18 and wants to buy my sporterized Mauser in 35 Whelen. He saw the deer I shot with it and now has to have a 35. I told him it don't matter what you shoot them with. He didn't listen and I sold it to him. The minute he walked out with it, I regretted it.
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So, now I have to have another 35 Whelen. Another buddy has a sporterized '03 that I always thought was pretty classy, so that is the direction I'm headed.
Went back down to Cabela's, and I'm surprised the sporterized 03-A3 is still there. I talked them down to $499 and walked out the door with it. I knew I could unload the scope and recoup part of my purchase price.
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P.S. Cabela's now boxes up all rifles so's you can walk out the door by yourself like a big boy or girl, and not have to be "escorted".


I yanked off the scope and put it on ebay. Got $700 for it! Take away fees and I probably see $650. So Cabela's paid me $150 to take their rifle, is how I look at it.

The plan: rebarrel this to 35 Whelen, of course.
First thing, that Dayton-Traister trigger is nice, but the speed-lock cocking piece has to go; just doesn't look right.
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Easy fix; dig an original 03 cocking piece out of the parts box, dremel a new notch to accommodate the speed lock, and now it looks like it should.
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Next, the stock looks like it was done up by a French whore. Red-line spacers? Seriously? I stopped it down and went with Tru-oil. Not as glossy anymore and I got rid of the red. I might get a new grip cap and butt pad in the future.
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Next: get a .35 cal barrel blank and get it on there. Need to wait for my buddy with the lathe to get back from his ship. Should be interesting as there is an extractor cut that needs to be done in the proper place.

STAY TUNED…..
 
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O.k., a quick update.
Yanked the old barrel off, so now we have something to work with.
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Ordered the new barrel from Brownells. Shilen. .358 1/14 twist.

Little buddy Jim Cook is home off the ship so he is getting ready to thread the barrel. Square cut, shallow threads are not exactly normal. Friggin' Springfields. I had him test cut some threads on a blank first.
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Where we're at:
Got the shank cut and threaded.
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Next step was the chambering. I rented a 35 Whelen reamer and headspace gauges from Elk something or other. They were quick and easy to deal with. I don't have any pictures of the chambering operation because he did it while I was at work.
After that, that pesky extractor cut had to be milled into the face (which on Springfields is dished out). And then finished off with a file.
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Cut the length to 26" and recess crowned it. No bluing tank so we browned it. Did some minor stock fitting and put her back together.
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The next step, which is to mill the receiver to accept some scope mounts, but that will have to wait a few months. My gunsmith is heading to McMurdo Station on his ship.
 
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