The military carefully documented a large number of failures. Many were associated with WW1-manufactured military ammunition, particularly that made by (IIRC) National Lead Company and subsidiaries. I believe the stuff had an "H" or two in the headstamps, plus a 2-digit year code (17, 18 or 19). The military supposedly took all that stuff out to sea for deep-water disposal, but that did not happen. (A couple of years back, some showed up at our "open to the public" range.)
Another source of failure was the use of German 7.92 military ammo in Springfields. Failures attributed to German military ammo were not limited to low-number 03s. Winchester 95 rifles in 30-06 also failed. That is one of the reasons that Winchester dropped that caliber in the 95.
If someone spent considerable cash or effort turning a military 03 into a nice sporter, that implies (at least to me) that the guy did not need to resort to military surplus ammo. There was much written in the sporting press of those days about the desirability of using "fresh" ammunition.
