Custom A3-03 project

[jmckinley]

  I finally found an 03 that is in outstanding shape w/o hocking the house to get it. This action and barrel are as clean as wistle. It has a Williams reciever sighrt 24" tube in a military/sporter stock. Well they tried to sporterize the stock. My plans are a Timney trigger, sporter stock,  recoil pad and new front blade and hunt with the reciever sight. The place i like to hunt elk the shots will no more than125-150 and many in the 40 yards or less. This rilfe and 180 gr Rem Cor-lokt Ultra should do nicely at this task. Where would you get a stock for this rifle and what are your thoughts on the reciever site for the intended purpose? This should make a great hunting rig when its finished.  Jess

[Mikey]

Jess - you are starting with an excellent platform.  They way you describe your intended goal is exactly what a good sporterized 03A3 is for.  If she shoots as good as the bore looks then youcan stretch your range until you can't see the critter anymore.  If your eyes are good enough for a 150 yd shot with a Williams Receiver Sight then you are just about all set.  Another trigger option to consider is the Bold Trigger - I can't tell the difference between my Bold Triggers and my Timney triggers.

As for stocks - when you open up the Graybeard home page you will see an advertisement for a stock maker - I would use a Graybeard suppporter first, it just makes great sense. 

The 30-06 with a 180 gn bullet will suffice for the range of critters you specified.  One of our other posters and his son hunted Elk at some pretty signifcant ranges with the ol 06 and ti brought them down every time.  HTH.  Mikey.

[Fast Ed]

Here's my 03-A3 that I just finished not too long ago.  I found the stock on some internet list as a one-of-a-kind, but I jsut saw one on 24hourcampfire for sale by Dirtybob1 that looks nice if you want wood.  If synthetic or laminated is your choice, they are easy to find.  I had a Bell & Carlson that was a nice stock for the money.  This rifle has a Timney trigger, stainless Douglas barrel and a safety by Ed Lapour that is pure metal artistry.

Fast Ed

[Barstooler]

Be certain when you get your Timney trigger that you get one with a "high" sear.  They tend to list only a single trigger in places like Midway, but there are two models.  You get the wrong one and the sear is not high enough to engace the firing pin.

Some dumb ass gunsmiths will replace the firing pin with a 1903 version made for the 1903 rimfire.  That will result in your trigger being able to engage the sear, but that firing pin is too short to project through the bolt face.

I had two 03s (one a 1903 and the other a 1903/A4) where the original gunsmith went with changing out the firing pins, and my second gunsmith had a hell of a time figuring out the problem and getting parts from Timney to fix the trigger.

The alternative was to grind away the bottom part of the rear end of the receivers to get the trigger sears so they would engage.  I elected to not take that route, but waited forever for the parts to be shipped by Timney.

Barstooler

[Mikey]

FAst Ed:  Nice looking 03-A3.  I like the stock work.  I can't get a good visual on the safety though - is it possible to post another picture?  Mikey.

[Rangr44]

Here's an inexpensive stock:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=null-cat20811&id=0012875221839a&navCount=0&podId=0012875&parentId=cat20811&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IH&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat20811&cmCat=netcon&cm_ven=netcon&cm_cat=Google&cm_pla=rifle%20stocks&cm_ite=netcon&hasJS=true