doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com 1903 Springfield Sporter ID help

I recently acquired this Springfield, Ser # 910xxx and 7-18 on the barrel with the original front sight. There are no makers marks anywhere on the rifle. The inletting is tight around the barrel and action and too tight at the tang, which has resulted in several chips at the wrist. The maple fore end is a nice touch. Not shown very well in my photos, the rear sight barrel spline has been neatly filled in and polished over. The front of the action is slightly rounded/contoured. The tang has not been shaped.

The inletting, not shown in these photos, may have been done by machine and touched up by hand. There are chisel marks but the majority of the inletting appears to be machine cut to my eye, which makes me wonder if this might have started as a Stoeger stock? I have never seen one so I don't know. FWIW, the maple fore end piece looks to have been inletted at the same time as the barrel channel in the stock.

I am interested in any and all thoughts on this rifle! It fits wonderfully. If another photo something would help, let me know.

-Tom

Hopefully these links work!

Unknown #3

[img]https://www.flickr.com/photos/30024657@N06/sets/72157649885937360/[/img]

Nice looking profile. Can't really see the details. (White doesn't make the best background as it tends to overexpose the pics.)
I'll bet it's a fine rifle...

Nice looking rifle. The maple forend tip really looks strange on what otherwise is a nice looking classic springfield. Original or not, if it were mine I would have a very hard time not replacing it with a horn tip. Is that a crack, or a scratch that runs back along the right side of the grip to just under the comb nose?

Nice find!

John

The maple fore end is a bit different, but it looks better in person. The crack you refer to was the result of the rifle being fired and the thin brass shims behind the recoil lug had either shifted or had not been reinstalled after someone had the action out of the stock. I found these out of place when I removed the action.

I will try for better photos, I was a bit rushed when I took the ones I posted. I will change the background as suggested and may play with the exposure time a bit. It's hard to see in these photos, but the left side of the stock has very nice grain and is almost quarter sawn.

Are there any details that someone would like to see?

If you have an exposer adjustment in your photo process program (photoshop, etc.) you can adjust the exposure. Otherwise a light colored background will prevent he light meter from keying on the white. Black or dark blue even works well.
I'll bet it's a fine rifle.

Steve, thanks for the feedback. I tried again today with a different background, it made a big difference! Still improvements to made though! I added another flickr album, it shows the crack at the tang better:

Unknown Sporter Part 2

[img:left]http://DSC_0065 by thom_davis, on Flickr[/img]