Dan brought this rifle to my attention and both of us were
surprised at the final price. We wondered if we were missing something. What are your thoughts on this rifle?

Custom 1903 target rifle on gunbroker

I think the bidders must have called to ask the name of the owner. Maybe he turned out to be someone of repute. The Hoffman bolt peep is a great feature.

How many schuetzen bolt rifles do you see? Not many. It is a dfferent sort of rifle, that's certain. Sort of crazy to shoot that game with a .30-06 though.

I do not believe it would be a legally competitive rifle in today's schuetzen.

So many neat "doo-dads" on that rifle. I bid to $910...I was going to bid more until I went back to the page and saw it was, at that time, just shy of $2k.

Really quite surprised it went THAT high!

No arguement from me, but that was my thought when you mentioned your club runs 'schuetzen' matches useing 45-70 and 45-90's? There's no schuetzen butt plate or stock, maybe it's just someone's version of an off hand rifle?

So true, but one shoots what one has when starting out in Schuetzen. I would not make a purpose-built Schuetzen rifle in .45-100 or .30-06, and that is a purpose built schuetzen.

That is a schuetzen buttplate sitting there.

If anything I think that rifle was a bargain its meant for free / Olympic shooting not a schuetzen rifle.

Is this a Winchester Sniper Rifle? Prior to the model 54, Winchester built bolt rifles on Springfield actions. The 54 came out in ‘25 so if this is a ‘24 rifle that would be an option. The final bid would not be out of line for a Winchester sniper rifle.

At first look, I thought it may have been a Pope barrel because it’s so long, but clearly marked Winchester.

Interesting cover over the 48 cutout, 30” barrel, and integral scope mounts. Very cool rifle.

No, its a just winchester barrel, Remington, Pope, Neidner, Hoffman etc sold these "Style T" style barrels commercially for people building free rifles. The devoplement of these rifles is covered pretty in depth in brophys book.

I too was interested until it got out of hand, maybe the 2 bidders thought it was one of the Springfield made '03s which used Winch, Rem and Pope barrels. But it is the wrong serial range for those, the DST triggers are not what Springfield used as they never used an enlarged TG bow. It has an NRA sporter stock which was remodeled but the receiver isn't a sporter.
I do have a 22 Springfield with the same DST trigger set up and the same checkering pattern and brass BP that was made by Ross King but it has his typical little roller on the sear which this gun does not have. The DST is from a Mauser and the longer TG bow was welded together with the front of a Springfield TG and it has the holes for the same palm rest base as the subject rifle. That was why I was bidding until iot got out of hand.

Ok, I started this thread after e-mails with Dan. Now I am even more curious. From what I understand, rifles were made up especially for the 1920 Olympics and maybe the 1924 as well at Springfield Armory. But if I understand things correctly, this wasn't one of them. If it had some provenance to a particular shooter at the Olympics, I agree that it might be worth a lot more. Some of these Olympic shooters were real American heroes like this guy

Admiral Willis Augustus Lee

But if it wasn't used by one of these Olympic shooters, how much value should it have?

Well, pretty clearly, it has a value of $4725. The market has spoken and left little doubt. That it is worth a lot less to most of us, tells us only about the individuals reading the thread, not the market.

Years ago, things like Unertl scopes were pretty cheap around here. The market was relatively low for them. But ebay came along and the prices really jumps as the coasties drove the prices up. We midwesterners said no way they are worth that much but the market proved otherwise.

There may not be too many people willing to hold up a market that high for this particular type of rifle, but there aren't many of those rifles either. I suspect you could wait a lifetime and never see another. So, it is what it is.

Well, no, that is a single data point open to interpretation.

But then all data points are open to interpretation. You will not get a second datum. So, your best prior is exactly what you have. Furthermore, you know there is someone out there that is willing to pay one bid less than that, so call it $4700.

I believe many firearms are impulse buys. This rifle may be much more likely to be resold at significantly less, that appreciate.

I wouldn't call it a true schuetzen rifle, or even a dedicated offhand rifle. The addition of a bolt on adjustable palm rest setup doesn't qualify it in my opinion. If you simply removed the palm rest, nothing says schuetzen to me.