Got a call from a friend about an '03A3 Springfield

[2ndovc]

My friend is a shooter but he's a couple decades younger and has very different tastes than I do, but he's a great kid. His great uncle is packing it up and heading to FL and wanted to sell some guns he's had for years. Most of it is typical Ohio farm stuff, muzzle loaders, a couple of old, unmarked doubles etc. but he had three that he thought I might be interested in. A Ruger Security Six Ohio State Patrol comm., a WWII PPK and a sporterized 03A3.
I told him to put the Ruger on gunbroker, he'd get more $ for it than I would want to spend. I'm just not into commemoratives. The Walther had been nickel plated at some time and later grips. It wasn't done well and it's basically just a shooter at this point so he's going to keep it. The one that caught my attention was the Springfield. His uncle had it made up in the early '70s for a varmint rifle. It's a .257 Roberts with a 26" heavy barrel, a Weaver V12 scope and a trigger you wouldn't believe. It might be 3lbs!
I gave the old boy what he wanted and another $100 for his dies, brass and ammo and everyone is happy.
I grew up in a house full of military rifles and quite a few that were sporterized. My first centerfire hunting rifle was my grandfather's Arisaka that he had made into a little .257 Roberts carbine.





I sent a picture to another friend that has a couple hundred acres to the south of me and he asked when I had time to go on woodchuck patrol.

jb

[3leggedturtle]

Wow, what a great rifle and cartridge, Hope you get to take out a few with it.

[AJMD429]

.

257 Roberts is a great cartridge.

[.45colt]

Wowsers..!!!!....................

[44shooter]

That stock looks a lot like the one on my sporterized Swedish Mauser. Fajen? My rifle oddly has a Douglas light sporter barrel but with that great big stock. Still shoots 6.5x55. I thought of trimming the stock down or selling it and getting a Boyd's or something

[Pitchy]

Very nice jb, i also have a 257 Roberts in a model 70 feather weight but don`t shoot it much.

[2ndovc]

That stock looks a lot like the one on my sporterized Swedish Mauser. Fajen? My rifle oddly has a Douglas light sporter barrel but with that great big stock. Still shoots 6.5x55. I thought of trimming the stock down or selling it and getting a Boyd's or something

My first thought was Bishop for the stock. The butt pad is a Pachmayr, but there aren't any names on the rifle at all. The only marking on the rest of the rifle is part of the serial number peaking out from under the Redfield mount. He said that he remembered that it was a Remington but the only way to know for sure would be to take the mount off and I don't want to disturb anything.

Hoping to get out to the range Friday morning. My friend said it's a tack driver and I don't doubt that.

jb