Military Sporters

[2ndovc]

I know a lot of people get all upset about sporterized military firearms but having grown up in a house with a dozen different Springfields, Mausers and Arisakas I have a definite soft spot for ones that were nicely done.

I picked this '03 up a couple months ago for a cheap knock about. Not surprising that it's a super shooter too!
First time out and first three shots at 50 yds., shot from the bench with my elbows resting on the table top.
Load is a 160 gr. Sierra & IMR 4895




Looks like another keeper!

jb

[Pisgah]

I can get a bit worked up these days when I see someone sporterize a nice, complete original, but back in the day it was just a cheap way to get a good sporter. Hard to work up a grudge over what someone did 50 years ago to a what was a $15 rifle. I've got a 98 Mauser sporterized to a fare-the-well, no guilt and no plans to get rid of it!

[2ndovc]

Couldn't agree more. I hate to see someone start now with a good original with so many options out there. I do have a Remington 1903A3 that's nearly perfect from one of the batches my Dad and his brothers bought. I have the receipt too, $10.00 each plus $4 shipping! The rest were shaped into beautiful rifles in a family of woodworkers and machinists.

jb

[Stevie]

The only 'sporterized' military gun I own is a M1898 Krag somebody bobbed the barrel to 24" and cut the forearm off carbine style. It still had reminants of the original sights...but the front sight had been soldered on crooked and the Krag rear sight was suffering broken and missing parts. I re-shod it with a Lyman band front sight and a Remington ramp rear sight.

Shoots good with decent sights...though it's kind of beat-up from use and abuse. The guy I got it from had been a welder on the Alaskan pipeline...he told me it was his 'bear rifle'!

[.45colt]

Very Nice!...last year I found one of the Kimber / Mauser 6.5x55 sporter's new in the box with the paperwork . It came Home.

[2ndovc]

I always thought one of the Kimber 6.5s would be fun.

Sill looking for a nicely done Krag and a 1917. The guy I bought the '03 from had a nice '17 but I only had enough cash for one of them and the Springfield was a little nicer condition.

jb

[44shooter]

Nicely done sporter. I would never sporterize my almost 70 year old M48 that looks new, but so many rifles were modified in the middle of the last century. We might as well enjoy them and put them to use as we see fit.

My dad gave me a customized Swede. I may do a little work to it if it shoots well. Only thing original is the action and it has been tapped and the bolt is turned down. The collector damage to that 100 year old artifact was done long ago. I'm just keeping it useful.

[pdentrem]

I had years ago, a Lee-Enfield #1 Mk3 that Parker-Hale had sporterized. Beautiful high polish and new flame figured wood. It had Millet sights. The barrel was cut back to 24". A real beauty and shot really well. Sold it for same money I bought it for a few years later. I did not take any photos of it, which is too bad!

[Pete44ru]

.

As long as I've been playing with guns (since the late 1950's), sporterized Springfield's like yours (and various Mausers) have been as common on used gun racks as trees in a forest.

While many were sporterized via cutting down the issue military stock, the vast majority were sporterized with in-checkered Fajen or Bishop walnut stocks.

My all-time favorites were the .30-06 Springfield 1903 & O3-A3's.


.

[WoodrowC]

Everyone is busy de-sporterizing all the Enfield No. 4's that were cut down in Canada in the 50's and 60's. New wood and sling swivels etc, but if the bayonet lug was lopped off to shorten the barrel (often done), it can't be re-furbished. Unmolested examples are going now for up to $1,500.00

[walks with gun]

Those people who get all upset over sporterized guns most likely are young whippersnappers or too new to the gun life to remember how common these were years ago.

[M. M. Wright]

Really shoots good doesn't it? I bought a Springfield barreled action in 1960, put a Bishop stock and Lyman sights on it and shot it as my "go to" centerfire for 20 years. The barrel, which was pretty bad when I got it, finally wore so bad I replaced it with a 25-06 varmint weight and a Harry Lawson thumbhole stock. Congratulations on your acquisition. Very nice rifle.

[Ysabel Kid]

Jason, like you and others, it kills me to see a good military rifle sporterized, but now you realize these were all done eons ago. I can remember my first gun shows, seeing tables of surplus bolt-actions piled on top of one another for well under a c-note each. Now you can't touch an original '03 for almost 6 times a c-note, and that is just a "shooter"! I doubt anyone who knows anything about guns - and the internet has educated a lot of people who don't know squat (some correctly, others not), would chop an original Springfield, Mauser or many other military bolt actions. Let's hope not anyway!!!

[2ndovc]

It still happens, more than you might think. Take the last big influx of Russian rifles. For a time a decent 91/30 was going for less than $100. I've seen dozens sporterized lately and one was an 1891 Remington! I even had to talk my former father in law out of working over a decent 03A3 not that long ago. I bought him one that had already been customized and made him promise not to touch his original.

jb

[Bill in Oregon]

I have a soft spot for the old militaries as well -- especially when it was someone else who "did the deed." In fact, I bought a sportered 1903 Springfield Mark I (with the cutout in the left receiver wall for the Pedersen Device) a few months ago and friend and gunsmith Tom Jackson is turning it into a .400 Whelen for me. It already had a Redfield aperture rear on it, so Tom fitted a Douglas barrel, chambered with a Manson reamer to Michael Petrov's specs, phosphated the metal and dropped it into a Boyd's laminated stock. This is just meant to be a practical hunting rifle. Will post when I get my hands on it.

[FWiedner]

Back in the 80's I picked up an old '03A3 that a guy at the local pawn-shop was using for a door stop (literally). Cost me $25. It was covered with dust and crud and the stock had been shortened. I thought It would be a good project gun.

Without so much as a cleaning and trip to the range to put round through it, I bought one of the semi-inlet Bishop stocks and made my first attempt at in-letting and bedding that action and barrel. I cut the barrel short and re-crowned it with my Dremel tool, drilled some holes in the receiver to attach a Weaver rail, and then took a shot at re-bluing the metal. I kept the two-stage trigger. After about a pound of Acra-Glass and a couple bottles of Tru-Oil, I piled a Tasco 3x9 on top.

The truth is that it wasn't pretty. At all. The stock looked like it had been inlet with wild swings using a dull machete, and the metal was a really unique shade of gray.

But man... did that little rifle shoot straight. I've currently got a got a couple of '06s that will print golf-ball sized groups at 200yds all day long. I'd put that Springfield up against them any day of the week. Honest.

I ended up gifting that ugly little shooter to my brother because he didn't own a rifle, and it's my personal opinion that every man should.

I'd like to get that one back.

[Griff]

I've never owned a sporterized military rifle. I'd never owned a military pattern rifle until I bought an AR. Whether sporterized or in original form, I've always thought military rifles were ugly. And that ugly with a capital U - G - L - Y! At gun shows, I glance at a table and if it contained military rifles, I'd walk right on by. Never looked at them. One of my very good friends, and we almost always attended shows together would stop at EVERY single table that had 'em...' ew & 'ahh over every one! Now that I want a 1903A3, they're scarcer hen's teeth in these parts!

[piller]

I am not really interested in the military rifles. Sporterized or not. Not my cup of tea. I do have an AR 15, and am building one in a not common caliber. I guess the AR is a military style sporter. I see it as more of a Lego set. For my minimal skill, it is easy to put the parts together and make them work. The best thing about the AR is that it is so butt ugly to begin with, that my poor skills cant make it any uglier. I don't like them, but they are fun to mix and match parts with.