trey78942

I have been told that the 03A3 in 30-06 caliber was used by the U.S. military snipers in WWII. Is this true and if it is how would it compare in accuracy to your average rifle of today like a remington bdl. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

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Nomercy

Yes, the 03A3 was used, but by WWII a lot of armories had switched over to the M-1C or M-1D, which was an accurized version of the M-1A, with the C and D being exactly similar except for how the scope was mounted. All three of these rifles, the 03A3, M-1C, and M-1D were extremely accurate, and would pretty much whip the pants off of any factory rifle of today, including the BDL at 100yrds, not to mention 800yrds!!! They were very accurized for their time, and I'd venture to say that even still, they'd be incredibly accurate compared to MOST rifles, even accurized benchrest rifles. The 03A3 was noticeably more accurate than the semiauto M-1's, and I've watched an M-1D throw 3" groups at 600yrds, .5MOA!!!

So...where ya getting the 03A3???

Screw the 10 ring, keep them in the zero!!!

trey78942

nomercy,

I have one that my dad got from someone he worked with about 30 years ago. The man was either in the army or knew someone who served during WWII because he managed to get one that was never used, surplus I guess. The man shot it once when he got it, then when my dad bought it from him (15 dollars) he shot it once, and I shot it once about 3 years ago. My dad finally had a better stock put on it about 6 months ago and had a scope base put on it.

One other thing, this is a remington and I thought that Springfield made the 03A3, but it says on the barrel right in front of the action, Remington model 03A3. It also has an insignia near the end of the barrel with the words RA (remington arms?) and the numbers 2-43(month & year of make?). This is all the info except serial number on the gun. Is this still the right 03A3 sniper rifle or what.

From what yall say I might have been wiser to put the Leupold vari-xII I got for christmas on this gun instead of the my remington adl .270

03a3

remington, smith corona, and 1 or 2 other makers of the 03a3. Remington started in late 42, which I have one, #'s matching from 12/42. One item of note is that very few 03a3 were ever used as sniper rifles due to the 2 grove rifling. The 03a4 was produced sticktly as the snipe version which was issued with a 4 grove rifled barrel. Took my first buck this year with mine, love that rifle.

Briman

The 03A4 was the designated bolt action sniper rifle. The 03A3 was an improved version of the '03 used in WWI and intervening years until the Garand was adopted. You don't need to worry about 03A3's coming apart when fired as the bugs were ironed out of them long before these rifles were produced during WWII. The only ones that I'm aware of that have had improper heat treatment were the earlier 03's preoduced at the Rock Island arsenal with serial numbers below somewhere around 186,000.

The 03A3 had a receiver aperture sight, and several stamped metal parts and 2 groove rifling, while the 03 had its rear sight on the barrel, had 4 groove rifling, and used milled steel parts. These changes made the 03A3 a more accurate shooter and cheaper to produce. The army tested the 2 groove rifling extensively and found it to be no less accurate than 4 groove rifling.
The only real difference between an 03A4 and an 03A3 is the 03A4 has a scope mount and lacks a front sight.

Here's a sight with some more in depth history of the 03 series of rifles. http://164.109.174.105/publications/tar/general.asp

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms... who's bringing the chips?

trey78942

great link briman. lot of info in that aritcle. thanks