Remington 1903 appears complete

I have a Remington 1903 s/n 3,190,xxx and I'm wondering if its complete or not. I picked it up from a dealer that had several other 1903s that were 2 if not 2 1/2 times more money. Best I can tell my gun seems right though so maybe I got a steal on it?

It has an R stamped on everything I can find, front sight, front sight base, rear sight both the flip up piece and base piece, the bolt, safety, bolt release, bolt handle, everything. The only thing I don't see an R on is the trigger and trigger guard which don't have any visible markings. The barrel is stamped RA with the bomb stamp and dates 3-42. I think the gun s/n dates it to July 1942 according to a few pages.

The stock has the following markings; circles, triangles and squares all with numbers in them in front of the magazine well (two circles with 14, circle with 21, circle with 22, triangles with 18 and 49, and a square with 50), circle P behind the trigger, left side has RA and JA (looks like faded "F" in front of the JA) and a shield symbol, right side has a "1", the butt has an OG and by the buttplate what looks like an SS. It also came with a yellow plastic cleaning kit (fluid still in it) in the buttstock. I'll try to link to some pics.
http://www.turbojr74.com/smokn03/Truck%20stuff/Remington%201903% 20collector%20(3).jpg http://www.turbojr74.com/smokn03/Truck%20stuff/Remington%201903% 20collector%20(5).jpg http://www.turbojr74.com/smokn03/Truck%20stuff/Remington%201903% 20collector%20(6).jpg http://www.turbojr74.com/smokn03/Truck%20stuff/Remington%201903% 20collector%20(7).jpg http://www.turbojr74.com/smokn03/Truck%20stuff/Remington%201903% 20collector%20(8).jpg http://www.turbojr74.com/smokn03/Truck%20stuff/ Remington%201903%20pair.jpg

The other 1903 in the last picture is a shooter I picked up real cheap. It's another complete matching Remington but someone drilled right through the Remington on the receiver to mount a scope and cut the bolt handle to clear it.

Thanks for any info.

are you sure it's an 03 and not an 03A3 it sounds like an o3a3 from the barrel date but it could be a 03 with a ww2 barrel installed ,,a big difference is the triggerguard ,,the o3 had a milled triggerguard and the o3a3 had a stamped guard ,,also the o3 had a rear battel site and the o3a3 had a receiver mounted peep site simular to an m1 carbine rebuild site,,if it has a remington stock it should be stamped R under in the cutout under the bolt cutoff lever on the left side .the FJA mark is a inspector proof that stands for Frank J. Atwood,,he inspected 1903a3 rifles during ww2,,i found this while searching the RA mark and it sounds like what you have pretty exact,,http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp? Item=135993575,,this is a pretty hig priced example and i don't see these going for this price too often,,the trigger will be marked under the wood if you would like to see if it's R marked also and i beleive remington marked the tg's on the underside not visable with the rifle assesembled..

,,Also the price seems more like 03a3 if the other ones you looked at were more expencive ,,typical ww1 03's will sell in the 600-800 range for a fairly correct model..03a3's on the other hand will usually sell in the 450-600 range for a fairly correct example,,your serial; number seems too high for an 03 but thats something i'd have to research more ,,try posting a pic here by useing the add an image button below ,,try to keep you pics sized at around 640x480 and you should be able to upload them ok..i can't seem to open your links ..sounds like you got a keeper any way ya look at it if it's as nice as you say it is ..

bigcurt

Not sure if I can add more than one picture but this one shows that it's an 03 and the cleaning kit that it came with. Maybe the lower portion of the stock is an 03A3 stock? Does a 1903 stock have those two big black screws/pins whatever they are like my picture shows (below the front and rear of the bolt)? My other Rem 1903 that was drilled for a scope has a stock with all the stampings too but it does NOT have those two assembly points on it.

A closer look at the left side.

very nice and yes i beleive you got a steal depending on what you ended up paying for yours,,hows the bore ? heres a site i don't know if ya checked yet but has alot of info on 1903 parts and dates http://home.att.net/%7Evishooter/m1903.html ,,from what i've read it looks pretty correct..it appeares to be an early 1903 proably around the time the us entered the war,,springfield reasearch center could give you a history on your rifle for a fee and you'd proably get some good information about when and possibly where it was issued..i have a friend of mine whos serving in the army right now that no's proably more about the 1903 and variants than god,,() he owned 40+ 1903's and it was scary how informed he was on them..he could look at one and tell you without doing any research if it was correct,,

..in any event ,,i'd say yours is worth easily around 650-750 just from what i can see ,,your stock is proably correct for the year manufactured ,,the pins were added after ww1 to strenghten the stocks in aera were they commonly cracked ,,the oiler is a correct ww2 issue oiler,,the cmp sold alot of these in the past 10 years and theres a chance it may have came from one of there lots ,,some were very clean and some looked like they fought in every battle of ww1+ww2,, yours is definatly a keeper

..if you would like some great reading and a invaluable parts id book on the 1903s look for a book written by Joe Poyer on the 1903's and varients ,,do a search on Joe Poyer ,,theres alot of sites with new and used copys.. Beleive me it's the best 23 bucks you'll ever spend and when your done with it you'll know more about your rifle and the correctness than you can imagine,,again a very nice example of a ww2 issued 03!!
bigcurt