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Repurposed 1903 Springfield

Low serial (jacked up heat treat) Springfield 1903. Bolt is a loose M2 from a Springfield M22. To make it work, a custom insert is machined to fit in the magazine well and fit the mag catch. The barrel is a 16 twist Douglas chambered with a match reamer. Stock is a Minelli with a custom made top side, milspec hardware. Inlet was cleaned up and barreled action was bedded. All the hard parts except the bolt are parkerized. Trigger was replaced with a Timney 209. Earle Unertl based added. Once assembled the mag insert and catch are hand fit and worked over to make the mags feed, catch/release and get the firing mechanism consistant.

It's a ton of work, but saves some history and I think makes one cool ass rimfire without tearing apart an M22.

Scopes are borrowed for the time being, but it'll wear a 16 or 20x 1.5" Unertl with calibrated head.

My buddy, who built this and most of my other rifles, spent the better part of a year acquiring all the parts and then a couple weeks on the fitting, stock work and tuning. I can't thank him enough. He's only making seven, split between single shot and repeaters. I badgered him into building it. Took a couple years for him to forget how much he hates building these.

20180418_184947-800x234.jpg 20180328_184824-600x1800.jpg
 
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I like it!!!! I have rebarreled several 03's and added Unertl's to them. One of the coolest was a 243. That steel buttplate didn't hurt as bad as the real Marine sniper....but, the result was that I shot the throat right out if it. Just too much fun. Used to be able to get a good C-stock from Boyd's but I think they quit.
I've been looking for a nice one to make into a 22-250...I have one 1.5 16X Unertl left. My father was an Army bullet catcher in WWII. He said they didn't have the springs on them back then, the Marine snipers on Okinawa used to tie pieces of bicycle inner tubes on them to return the scope to battery.
 
I like it!!!! I have rebarreled several 03's and added Unertl's to them. One of the coolest was a 243. That steel buttplate didn't hurt as bad as the real Marine sniper....but, the result was that I shot the throat right out if it. Just too much fun. Used to be able to get a good C-stock from Boyd's but I think they quit.
I've been looking for a nice one to make into a 22-250...I have one 1.5 16X Unertl left. My father was an Army bullet catcher in WWII. He said they didn't have the springs on them back then, the Marine snipers on Okinawa used to tie pieces of bicycle inner tubes on them to return the scope to battery.


I have seen pics of the Marines with the springs removed, black mounts. Never though use something to aid in pulling it back if/when it slips forward. The spring works good for 22lr. Rifle doesn't move enough to disturb the scope.

Eventually, I want one of these in something like 6.5x284, 284Win, etc. Tim built himself a beautiful M1 Garand in 243Win. Such a nice rifle...
 
I have seen pics of the Marines with the springs removed, black mounts. Never though use something to aid in pulling it back if/when it slips forward. The spring works good for 22lr. Rifle doesn't move enough to disturb the scope.

Eventually, I want one of these in something like 6.5x284, 284Win, etc. Tim built himself a beautiful M1 Garand in 243Win. Such a nice rifle...

Yeah, it's not that the spring was "removed".....it's that at that point in time it hadn't been used yet. The first of the "return to battery" type scopes had the rifle just kind of sliding out from under it at recoil. If you forgot to pull the scope back to it's position in the mounts you would likely miss, let alone not have a good sight picture if it went far enough. Yes, the mounts were black and although they are rare there were black mounts on many of the target "civilian" scopes too. The WWII and Korea era Marine Corps scopes were 8 power. The ones used in Vietnam were whatever they bought, most being 10X.
 
There is a company making he black mounts again, but they don't have "clicks".

The late Mr. Dean Herron was the first shooter I ever saw free recoiling a scope. He had 2" Unertls on his 30-338 40Xs and you could tell by watching him shoot, pulling the scope back was as much a part of shooting as loading a round. Very fluid, and he put up some great scores with those fire breathing beasts.
 
What was the reason to allow the rifle to recoil and the scope to remain stationary. Something to do with reducing the wear and tear on the scope internals during recoil?
 
What was the reason to allow the rifle to recoil and the scope to remain stationary. Something to do with reducing the wear and tear on the scope internals during recoil?

The proven designed target scopes of that period evolved from Stevens, Winchester, Lischert, Malcolm, before it, primarily because of their consistancy since this was before any reliable target grade internal adjustment scopes were developed.
Less moving parts.
 
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The proven designed target scopes of that period evolved from Stevens, Winchester, Lischert, Malcolm before it, primarily because of their consistancy since this was before any reliable target grade internal adjustment scopes were developed.
Less moving parts.
Interesting. It looks like there are some reference lines down by the objective end, but they could be for something else, not sure they mean that there is something adjustable. I wonder if the scopes had pretty short eye relief then maybe it could have something to do with avoiding scope eye. No idea, just trying to figure out why they mounted them like that.
 
I think those scopes have a pretty short eye relief too. Recoil might just tattoo you pretty good if the scope didn't slide.

The sliding external adjustment system on these scopes went all the way back to the first scopes that were put on the 45-70s in the 1800's. In the 1940s it was the same, just newer, and not really a lot of innovation yet. In the case of the old school BPCR rigs the scope can't be tight in the rings if the tube has to move to provide the elevation, otherwise you'd bend the tube. It takes in the range of 200MOA±25 or so depending on bullet design to get from a 100 yard zero to 1000 yards with a 535gr pea in a 45-70. :eek:

Chris, I'll bet the reason that the mounts you mention don't have clicks is that clicks are not legal for BPCR shooting.

BTW, really cool project, I like it a lot.
 
That's the parallax adjustment. The scopes with the lines are calibrated heads.

Wade,

it's a black powder guy who makes the black mounts so that makes sense.
 
Unertl type scopes do have short eye relief and the scope sliding forward under recoil keeps the eyepiece from becoming part of your eye when using centerfire rifles. Micrometers have been around a long time and it was a proven method for making exact changes to the scope, whereas internally adjusted scopes even as late as the 60's were unreliable as to adjustment and holding zero and were suitable only for hunting. Black mounts were an option when ordering from Unertl. My 2" 20X target has black mounts from the factory and was never military property.
 
Unertl type scopes do have short eye relief and the scope sliding forward under recoil keeps the eyepiece from becoming part of your eye when using centerfire rifles. Micrometers have been around a long time and it was a proven method for making exact changes to the scope, whereas internally adjusted scopes even as late as the 60's were unreliable as to adjustment and holding zero and were suitable only for hunting. Black mounts were an option when ordering from Unertl. My 2" 20X target has black mounts from the factory and was never military property.

Black was a factory option for the mounts

David
 

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