There was a lot of press during WWI about the USA sending men to fight with a rifle not designed for the pressure of the modern 1906 cartridge. One of the New York papers did a big story about it and many articles were published in A&TM by famous folks telling how safe the rifles were. The problem was many recruits saw rifles blowup, actions and barrels turned into junk. These men wrote home about it and firestorm started. May I suggest you read “The Price of Carelessness” by S. Trask Arms and the Man May 4, 1918. “Down in the Small Arms Section, Engineering Bureau, the Ordnance Department in Washington there is a pile of worthless junk that was but lately nearly a score of finely finished, strongly built United States rifles.” “With receivers demolished, ruptured barrels, split stocks, and damaged bolts, they are eloquent evidence of the price the United States Government has to pay, in addition to all the other cost of waging modern war, because the soldiers to whom these rifles were issued were either careless or ignorant.”
Now if you think this is about the low-number 1903 you are mistaken, this is about the Model 1917.
