this was and still is one of the most iconic rifles the u.s military has ever
how's it going guys welcome back to the pilot patriot channel today we're going to be talking
about the us magazine rifle caliber 30 model of 1903 or as you might know it the 1903 springfield
this is the rifle that brought the us army into the 20th century and led us through the first
great war the o3 springfield is the rifle that preceded the m1 garand if you haven't seen our
video on the m1 grant i will put a link to that at the top of the screen and in the description
below so make sure you check that out in this video we're not only going to talk about the 1903
springfield itself and all of its features but we're also going to be talking about the history
of it so if you haven't done it yet guys make sure you hit that subscribe button down below hit that
notification bell and please give us a thumbs up we really appreciate that the m1903 was produced
from 1903 to 1927 and then again from 1942 to 1945 during world war ii it is a bolt action rifle
and it fires the 30 out 6 cartridge from a 5 round stripper clip it's made of steel and a beautiful
black walnut stock it has a 24 inch barrel and it weighs in right around eight pounds and in
its day this rifle was known as the rifleman's rifle because of its unparalleled efficiency
and accuracy now during the spanish-american war the american soldiers quickly realized
that their trapdoor springfields and their craig jorgensen's were vastly inferior to the spanish
mauser that was carried by their enemy now even though we won that war it was obvious to the army
that it's time for us to develop a better rifle and that's what led us to the 1903 springfield
so in the years following the springfield armory set out to develop a new rifle
modeled after that mauser action that was first developed in germany now the action
of this rifle is so similar to the mauser in fact that we actually had to pay royalties
to the germans at least up until the start of world war one now guys this is just a beautiful
rifle the way it feels in your hand it shoots like a dream and it's just oozing with history
but the 1903 springfield didn't start out as the rifle that we know and love today originally the
m1903 was chambered for the 30 alt 3 cartridge which was a 220 grain round nose bullet it also
had an integrated sliding rod bayonet similar to the m1888 springfield rifle but that didn't
last long the president at the time theodore roosevelt strongly objected to that rod bayonet
so in 1905 at his direction that rod bayonet was replaced by the 16 inch blade style bayonet
the m1905 the one i have here isn't original it was made by springfield with a date of 1906.
now around that same time there was also a change to the sights but those weren't the only changes
that this rifle would go through a new type of bullet was quickly being adopted around the world
it was a lighter faster spear point bullet and it had a lot of advantages over that round nose
bullet that we were using originally so in 1906 the ordinance department developed a
new 30 caliber cartridge that would eventually become known as the 30 alt 6. the 30.6 would be
adopted for all future m1903s and all the 1903's that had already been produced would be converted
over for that new chambered cartridge it was then after these few changes that the 1903 springfield
would take the form that we all know today and it would pretty much stay this way until 1942 the
m1903 was originally produced by two manufacturers the springfield armory and rock island arsenal
then during world war ii two other manufacturers would produce the rifle and those were remington
arms and smith corona now even though these other three companies did produce then m1903 it has been
commonly known as the 1903 springfield because springfield was the original manufacturer and the
largest manufacturer the one i have in front of me today was manufactured by the rock island arsenal
in 1919. now the o3 springfield has one of the longest service histories of any other military
rifle in u.s history it was used in several wars and military actions from mexico in 1916 to
most famously in world war one and of course the 03 springfield was still in use when the u.s found
itself in the second world war in fact most of the soldiers who launched the first assault in
guadalajara canal japan were carrying the 1903 springfield now although it would eventually
be replaced by the m1 garand as the standard service rifle it would still continue service
as the preferred sniper rifle and go on to be used in the korean war and even some in the vietnam war
now there were several variations of the 1903 throughout its life span the first and the most
rare is the one we've already talked about was the original rod bayonet rifles now nearly all of
those were converted to the new specifications so finding an original rod bayonet 1903 is extremely
rare and would be very very valuable to collectors the next would be the o3 as it's seen here
which is also highly desirable and that would include any that were made between 1907 and 1927.
especially those produced during world war one now a lot of people will tell you that
it's not safe to fire a springfield rifle with a serial number less than 800 000 or a rock island
less than 278 000 and that was because those first rifles only had a single heat treatment
on the receiver after those serial numbers they went to a double heat treatment on those receivers
because of that a lot of people will tell you that rifles with serial numbers below those are
not safe to shoot now i'm not sure that i 100 agree with that there have been a lot of people
that have shot those occasionally and had no issues but just be aware that any rifles under
those serial numbers do have the potential for that receiver to fracture under heavy use
now there were a lot of other variations including the 1903 a1 the national match rifles some 22s
and even rifles that were adapted for use with the pedersen device which was
a detachable 40 round magazine but the most common of the other variations would be the 1903
a3 which was manufactured during world war ii now that rifle did have some differences
including some minor changes to the stock but the most significant change
would have been the addition of an aperture style rear sight then there were the 1903
a4s which were specifically designed as sniper rifles now most of these would still be stamped
1903 a3 because if they failed the accuracy test for sniper rifles they would just be used as
1903 a3s but the a4s would have been outfitted with a telescopic sight they would also have
a c-style stock that would have a little bit more of a pistol grip here on the stock and those would
have gone through a process to be hand selected as very accurate shooters one other change of
that rifle would be a change to the shape of that bolt handle so that it didn't interfere with the
scope now no matter which variation of the 1903 springfield you have you can bet that it has
a lot of history behind it this was and still is one of the most iconic rifles the us military has
ever seen and it played a very important role in the history of our country now that we know
the history of this rifle let's get in here and take a closer look at the features of it
all right guys now you can see this beautiful black walnut stock on here this particular
stock is actually a remington stock that was replaced at some point during world war ii
at the back end of the stock here you can see that it does have a compartment
for a cleaning kit and i do have a world war one correct cleaning kit in here
you can see this rifle has sling swivels at the butt stock and here on the fore end the
other swivel that it has up front is actually going to be a stacking swivel so you can stack
multiple rifles together you can see here that the hand guards are held on with a barrel band
and they have this little spring clip that releases that for taking down the rifle now
there are some pretty unique features back here on the receiver this on off switch here is actually
a magazine cut off switch throughout u.s military history it seems that the u.s military had a lot
of concern about soldiers wasting ammo that's why they held on to the single shot rifles for so long
and this magazine cutoff switch is reminiscent of that because what it does it basically makes this
a single shot rifle so it stops the follower here from pushing the next round up so you could hold
several rounds in the magazine here in reserve while firing one at a time and if you felt the
need to switch over and fire the entire magazine all you'd have to do you would just flip this
switch up and that would allow the bolt to go far enough back so that the follower will push around
up out of the magazine and you can cycle the rounds out of the magazine now that's a pretty
unique feature that you don't see in a lot of other rifles next here is the safety lever you
can see here that you have ready that means you're ready to fire and if you flip that over to safe
it makes it inoperable back behind there is the cocking knobs we mentioned that the rifle was
fired from a five round stripper clip and i'll just demonstrate real quick the way that works
now the way that's going to work is you're just going to open your bolt you slide the stripper
clip down into this designated spot on the back of the receiver and then you're just going to
push the rounds out of the stripper clip into that internal magazine and then discard the clip
and then you're ready to fire
you can see here that this particular rifle has a beautiful receiver you can see here on
the receiver it reads us rock island arsenal model 1903 and then the serial number like i said this
is a late production for rock island this receiver was manufactured in 1919 shortly after world war
one the rear sight here is a ladder style rear sight there are several ways to use this site
most typically you'd use this notch here aligned with your bladed front sight you can also lift
that ladder up where you can see all your yardage readings it also has a u-notch here in the bottom
and one here so it's a fairly complicated sight which is one reason why they switched over to that
aperture site in world war ii the front sight here is just a bladed front sight and right under that
you have your bayonet lug and the way that works is that loop there on the bayonet is just going
to fit over the barrel and there's a spot here on the back of the bayonet that feeds right into that
bayonet lug and then it just locks in place like that to release the bayonet you just have
a release button here you just press that and it lifts right off as i mentioned before this is an
original bayonet manufactured by springfield in 1906. now the 1903 did actually have a very
nice trigger pull as you can see this rifle is unloaded now just to demonstrate that trigger pull
it's just a very little bit of take up there and then it doesn't take much effort at all
for that break and i will weigh that with my lyman scale so you can see
exactly what that trigger pull weighs all right guys now we have just barely scratched the surface
of the 1903 springfield rifle so if you are interested in learning more about it
i am going to put some links in the description below for some great reference books that'll tell
you everything you need to know about this rifle so in closing guys the m1903 springfield is a
must-have for surplus gun collectors and military collectors its service to our country through two
world wars and beyond is just undeniable now i hope you enjoyed this video guys if you have
any questions or comments please leave them in the comment section below if you haven't done it
yet guys make sure you hit that subscribe button down below hit that notification bell and give
us a thumbs up we really appreciate that and if you want to help support the channel if you want
to see more videos like this you can follow us on patreon you can also visit pilotpatriotapparel.com
thanks for watching guys please like share and subscribe and we'll see you next time