Rare Remington 1903

[sakorick]

The story starts in the Summer of 1941. The War in Europe was raging and Great Britain  needed rifles ....lots of rifles. So the US and others stepped up to the plate. The War Department found out the old Rock Island 1903 tooling was sitting idle and contacted Remington Arms to see if they would be interested in making No1 Mk4 Enfields using the government owned tooling. Remington said yes and a contract was sign. By September the tooling arrived and Remington was setting up to build the first prototype when the Lend Lease Act was signed. Since Savage-Stevens and Long Branch were going to make 2 million rifles there was no longer a need for the Remington contract. Then a bright young man in the War Department asked why Remington couldn't go into 1903 production? So in early Sept 1941 the Enfield contract was torn up and the 1903 contract signed. Remington was given serial number block 3000001 to 3599999. Remington delivered 6 prototypes in October (all 6 were perfect) and the first 1,273 production rifles were delivered in November 1941. The initial order for 134,000 was increased to 308,000 and again raised to 508,000, with a target production rate of 2,000 rifles per day. This huge increase in demand coupled with production problems stemming from use of the nearly worn-out Rock Island machinery resulted in something of a dilemma for Remington if the ambitious production schedules were to be met. So the US was bombed in the Hawaiian Islands on 17 Dec and shorty thereafter notified the War Department that to meet these production goals that man hour intensive parts had to be modified. So by 1 Jan 43 The company was permitted to reduce the amount of metal polishing prior to finishing, reduce or eliminate unnecessary machining and to relax many non-critical tolerances. A gas escape hole was drilled into the left side of the receiver as had been done at Springfield Armory since 1936. the elimination of the “lightening cuts” on both sides of the rear sight base, the elimination of the small gas escape hole on the right side of the receiver and the drilling of the rear guard screw hole completely through the receiver tang. Authorization was also granted to eliminate the “grasping grooves” on the stock and other features to reduce production time for the stock and handguard. The use of some stamped components to replace costly and time-consuming milled parts was also instituted. The stamped parts included the lower barrel band (and band spring), butt swivel, magazine follower and, eventually, a one-piece trigger guard/magazine assembly. By the first quarter of 1942, the changes in the original specifications were sufficient to result in a rifle that was noticeably different from the early production Remington M1903s. The rifles with the changes were termed the “M1903 Modified” although, as stated, there is some indication that this term was in use as early as November 1941. In any event, the “M1903 Modified” designation has come into widespread use today to differentiate the Remingtons that incorporated the manufacturing modifications from the original, finely crafted ’03 rifles that were turned out during the first few months of production.

So if you can find one of the early rifles(7-40,000) mostly made in Dec 41 they are considered uncommon. A handful of these rifles were shipped to New Zealand. If you can find one of those they are rare as only 13 have ever been reported. Then 2 weeks ago, I found #14! It was on Guns International for $1700. I called the dealer and said sold (he obviously didn't know what he had). Don't feel sorry for him as he has 2500 rifles and pistols for sale some in the 6 figure range.

Here she is, Remington 1903 SN3032635, a time machine is all respects. “RLB” represented Col. Roy L. Bowlin, Chief of the Rochester Ordnance District who was replaced by FJA LTC Frank J Atwood whose cartouche replaced RLB in 4-42
 

[gitano]

VERY nice get, Rick! Congratulations!

Paul

[JaDub]

Good stuff Rick.  Interesting story and all.

[Paul Hoskins]

Really nice find, Rick & good history story behind it. I thought it was supposed to have finger grooves on the fore end wood. .......I always wondered what kind of idiot would put the gas escape hole on the left side of  the reciever. I know the extractor is on the right side but  ......geeze.   ......Paul H

[gitano]

I thought it was supposed to have finger grooves on the fore end wood.Paul H

Eliminating those grooves was one of the "streamlining" actions taken to hasten production.

Paul

[sakorick]

Really nice find, Rick & good history story behind it. I thought it was supposed to have finger grooves on the fore end wood. .......I always wondered what kind of idiot would put the gas escape hole on the left side of  the reciever. I know the extractor is on the right side but  ......geeze.   ......Paul H

The Remington Grasping Groove stock was phased out between S/N 3025000 and S/N 3030000, late Dec 1941.
The gas escape hole was drilled into the left side of the receiver as had been done at Springfield Armory since 1936.  Springfield Armory test report recommended the hole in 1936 after extensive testing showed that the small hole didn't function as designed(ineffective). It became known as the Hatcher Hole as it was General  Julian Hatcher who allegedly recommended it. That said nobody has ever found a shred of evidence that Hatcher recommended this. The larger Left hand side hole was applied to all 1903's in service including Marine rifles for safety reasons. Since the original Remington 1903's were built to original Rock Island specifications they were made with the small hole on the right side as well as the Hatcher Hole. The small hole was eliminated on all Remington 1903 rifles in Jan 1942. My rifle correctly has both holes.