Demil'ing a 1903A3 Drill Rifle

[dstoenner]

On a table were 2 1903A3 drill rifle actions, chromed. The guy wanted $30 a piece so I bought the oldest by serial number. These were not demil'ed the normal way of welding the barrel and the bolt stop. the barrel is welded but the bolt stop moves freely. The bolt however wiggles but will not turn. You cannot pull the recocking knob back. So my guess is that they pulled the barrel. With the bolt in the action and decocked they welded the firing pin to the front of the bolt. Then they put the barrel back on and welded it.

The question I have is if this were assumption is correct or am I missing something. I figured I would try to break the welds and get the barrel off but if they did something more to the action to ruin it I would build it back to a drill rifle and wall hanger.

Anybody have any ideas before I jump into the deep end of the pool???

Thanks in advance

David

 

[ballisticxlr]

I re-milled a parade model 1895 Steyr. They'd cut a hole over the chamber and filled the bore with something hard ahead of the cut, then they welded the firing pin hole in the front of the bolt face closed and broke the firing pin in half. For me it was easy enough to replace the barrel and bolt head and firing pin. Hopefully your mileage will be about the same. If there's replacement parts to be had...

 

[dstoenner]

I actually have 2 extra bolt bodies and extra firing pin assembly. So that is not an issue issue. Just trying to gauge how much work Work vs reward ratio

thanks

 

[ballisticxlr]

I doubt it'll be much work other than breaking the welds and doing whatever metal work is required to repair the damage that the welds did. Without pics it's hard to say but I literally spent about 3 hours messing with my Steyr before it was fully functional again.

 

[akajun]

At that price you should have bought them all

 

[JSH]

^^^^^
That much $ in wood and hardware.

 

[Ggmac]

Buy all of them ,Ill double your money plus shipping
Gary

 

[Ggmac]

Can you stick a rod down the barrel ? Or is that where its welded ? Im doubt they would pull the barrel , weld the bolt and reinstall. Of the 5-6 Ive done , Ivve not seen what you surmise. I have seen parade rifles bolts that wouldnt open due to rust . Alot of these were ceremonial rifles and used black powder blanks , and were rarely cleaned , hence the rusted shut , rusted firing pins and springs , and even a fired cartridge in one . Id remove the trigger guard or the floorplate and look in the feed ramp area . If you see weld youre in for a hard time . Send me some pics .

 

[dstoenner]

^^^^^
That much $ in wood and hardware.

It is only the barreled action. Nothing else

 

[dstoenner]

Can you stick a rod down the barrel ? Or is that where its welded ? Im doubt they would pull the barrel , weld the bolt and reinstall. Of the 5-6 Ive done , Ivve not seen what you surmise. I have seen parade rifles bolts that wouldnt open due to rust . Alot of these were ceremonial rifles and used black powder blanks , and were rarely cleaned , hence the rusted shut , rusted firing pins and springs , and even a fired cartridge in one . Id remove the trigger guard or the floorplate and look in the feed ramp area . If you see weld youre in for a hard time . Send me some pics .

It is just the barreled action. I have removed the bolt stop and the trigger/sear and see no evidence of any hidden welds. I got out the bolt of my good 1903A3 and took a look at it. if it is decocked it needs to take the whole firing pin assembly rearward by the caming action built into the bolt body. Also you cannot put a decocked bolt into the action. When I jiggle the bolt, the block on the firing pin that engages the sear is just rocking back and forth in the slot. I would think that if it were rusted ( and it may be) that when I took a 3 lb hammer to the bolt handle while the action was tightened in my vise, the handle would start moving a little more be it maybe ever so slowly. But no, it goes to the stop in the channel and stops, period.

I will try the rod and see what that shows. I am going to start working on the tack welds on the barrel to receiver.

More later

 

[dstoenner]

Well i have the barrel off and sure enough the bolt is welded and i bet with the firing pit tip at the bottom of this mess.



i took my dremel with a grinding stone bit an ground down what I thought was below the weld. Then took a hacksaw to cut a curf next to the receiver face in the good steel of the barrel and worked the curf through the weld area for both welds. In the picture you can see at 11 o’clock a little bit of weld but basically the face is perfect.

now i will grind down the center of the firing pin front and see if I can free the firing pin. I don’t want to break the bolt body to save parts. I tried drilling through the gas relief hole through the firing pin and was successful but it isn’t weakened enough. Oh well

i am done for the day. It is getting too hot in the garage.

oh and the barrel is full of cosmoline. I’ll get that out and clean it up to see how worn it is. It may be perfectly fine barrel.

i think i really scored with this buy

thanks for all the help

david

 

[akajun]

If you have a lathe make a drill pilot that threads into the action

 

[hoz53]

On a table were 2 1903A3 drill rifle actions, chromed. The guy wanted $30 a piece so I bought the oldest by serial number. These were not demil'ed the normal way of welding the barrel and the bolt stop. the barrel is welded but the bolt stop moves freely. The bolt however wiggles but will not turn. You cannot pull the recocking knob back. So my guess is that they pulled the barrel. With the bolt in the action and decocked they welded the firing pin to the front of the bolt. Then they put the barrel back on and welded it.

The question I have is if this were assumption is correct or am I missing something. I figured I would try to break the welds and get the barrel off but if they did something more to the action to ruin it I would build it back to a drill rifle and wall hanger.

Anybody have any ideas before I jump into the deep end of the pool???

Thanks in advance

David

i like that you are doing this- turning this demill into a shooter— if i get the chance sometime i will try it. i hope it works out

 

[dstoenner]

If you have a lathe make a drill pilot that threads into the action

Good idea but alas no lathe or access to one.

 

[dstoenner]

I now have it apart. It appears that for this action they did 3 steps:

1) Remove barrel,
2) decock firing pin and weld the tip of the firing pin to the bolt face.
3) Take the slot out of the breech end of the barrel and put barrel back in and put 1 or 2 tack welds on the barrel to the receiver.

This morning I ground down the front of the bolt with my Dremel with a smaller grinding stone. Used id point down like it was a drill press. Then I would take my center punch and keep at the exact center. When I had it far enough,, I thought, I put the receiver in my vice and took a ball peen hammer to the bolt handle. After 2 blows I saw that the bolt was starting to rotate. Sure enough after about 10 blows it was open. Here is what the bolt face looked like



The bolt body is competely ruined but I still might be able to get the rest apart. They did grind down the firing pin removal button which is going to complicate things.

So here is a picture of it all that I paid $30 for. Took maybe 3 hours tops, probably less. I wasn't keeping track. At least now I have a good receiver with some extra goodies.



Next step is polishing it up and making a rifle.

Hope everybody enjoyed the path. Maybe you can stumble on one yourself.

David

 

[ballisticxlr]

Now that you've got it apart, re-milling is just parts replacement. A shiny 03 is a pretty cool thing to have hanging around. Keep the progress notes coming. Interested to see how this progresses.

 

[dstoenner]

Thought I would wrap up all that I have found out about the this demil'ed rifle as I have torn it apart.

I think what they did is that they performed all of the demilling operations and then had the barrel and action chrome plated. Because they have to clean it and use a bath of salts to chrome plate it, the areas no on the surface got those chemicals and they stayed and did wash out. So over the years they just ate away at everything.

The receiver faired the best but the bolt was one rusted mess once I could get it apart. And the rusting was far worse than would have been just normal storage or use. They didn't even clean the grease up on the inside of the bolt.

So the only small parts salvageable was the trigger, sear, bolt stop and the ejector.

So then I tried my spare bolt body. Well the chrome plating made an interference fit with the bolt on the raceways. I have some 240 grit carbide grease and used that over the span of a couple of days cycling the bolt till it was smooth. I used the chrome body to take most of it down since it was totaled. Then used my spare bolt. Now it is serviceable.

The jury is still out on the barrel itself. It is completely full of cosmoline. It is a RA 3/43 barrel so my guess it is original to this action. I noticed on the cocking surface of the firing pin that there was a lot of wear on the firing pin follower. This gun has been shot a lot. I have to get a 1/4 inch dowel to drive the cosmoline out so I can even look at it. The chamber is greasy so I thing the cosmoline saved that end. However, the front few inches of the barrel are REALLY rusted. So if anything, I would be cutting the barrel down and recrowning it. Not sure it is worth all that effort at all.

I have to say in the end, I had a lot of fun with this for $30 and I have a 1903A3 receiver that is unregistered. Like that matters, but...

David

 

[Ggmac]

If the barrel is good , besides the last few inches , I would counter bore the front end so you can still use the sights and possibly an original stock if you want . I think Ive got , well put it this way , I used a bunch of cut off sporter Springfield and mauser barrels as rebar when pouring a sidewalk . So ive still got some good Springfield cut barrels around , somewhere.
Easiest way to remove the cosmoline is to place it in a bucket ( if you want to save the stuff ) and place it in the sun . If its not warm and you want it done now , start your car and stick it in the tail pipe , a few inches is all you need .

 

[Ggmac]

I was thinking of past projects Ive done and remembered the conversion to 22 lr . Its easy to do and definitely will not stress your receiver .
its another use for your barrel if its bad .

 

[dstoenner]

I was thinking of past projects Ive done and remembered the conversion to 22 lr . Its easy to do and definitely will not stress your receiver .
its another use for your barrel if its bad .

Ok I'll bite. How do you convert the barrel. Use a sleeve and glue it in? But then how do you convert the bolt from centerfire to rimfire?

David