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Looking forward to the next post
I think I've looked at the drill rifles on dupages website at least a dozen times since you've started this thread, along with searching for the other parts needed.
That's some next level cool imo. The scope thing wouldn't be a concern at all if it were me (but I'm a little below novice haha). Welds showing= If you have someone in mind to pass this rifle down to? it would probably mean a lot to'em if you left the welds showing? I know it would me. my2 . A 1903 has been on my list since shortly after joining the site but I keep buying tacticool , just in case the sky falls. Looking forward to the day when I can focus on MilSurp. Awesome Posts , I've done a lot of technical/tedious welding over the years and always enjoyed the challenge . Thank you and please continue Sir.Update on the 1903A4 build. The draw between the reference marks on the receiver and barrel was pretty wide - almost a 1/2" from hand tight. I just wasn't getting the leverage I needed to be able to close that gap, so I had to break out the big guns. Vee blocks and a 12 ton press. Fortunately my friend had them.
After anti-seize and several cycles of loosening/tightening, I was able to get it right where I needed to be. I was just about to give up too, thinking that the barrel shoulder would have to be turned to get it into position. Barrel positioning is important on these as you need to make sure that the extractor cut is lined up correctly.
Mainly because I'm lazy and impatient, I did refinish the base and barreled action in MolyResin. Unfortunately, their Dark-Gray Moly-Resin isn't dark enough and I didn't add enough black to get the color right. When mixed sufficiently and baked at a higher temp for longer duration, the Moly-Resin gets a really nice green tint to it, as is seen on a lot of these older surplus guns that were parkerized. Unfortunately I didn't add enough black to the MolyResin, so everything looks Gray-Green instead of closer to the "really dark" gray-green that I was going for. Fortunately I sourced a set of the right rings and they should be here in the next day or so. Since actual rings were parkerized, I'll beadblast and refinish those - so I might as well wait until I have everything on hand before I break out the airbrush again. I did get everything else though, so once I get the parts MolyResin'd again, it'll be ready to put together.
I finished up another Covid projust this weekend as well. This one is also a recovered 1903 drill rifle that I built up as a USMC WW1 (and to a very limited extent, WW2) 1903-A5 sniper rifle. The serial number of the receiver has it being built in 1918 and is just barely high number - close enough to threshold that it may or may not be "safe" for those of you that worry about stuff like that (I don't) and the bolt code matches the receiver timeframe. The barrel is a Criterion. I had it around and thought that it would make for finishing out the rifle nicely. While the mag cutoff area of this rifle cleaned up nicely, there were weld marks that were clearly visible that didn't take the parkerization that was on it, so I had it refinished in Midnight Blue Cerakote. Everything on this rifle would have been rust blued and I figured the Midnight Blue would approximate it well while covering up the weld spots. It's also a hell of a lot cheaper to have something Cerakoted versus rust blued these days. Of course I put everything together and realized I forgot to get a dang front sight. So I've got to get one of those now before it's officially "done".
The scope is a correct Winchester A5 scope and has the Mann-Neidner adjustments and mounts. While there's no way to verify if this is an actual USMC scope from WW1, given the limited amount of Mann-Neidner adjustments produced - there's a good chance that it is.
That's some next level cool imo. The scope thing wouldn't be a concern at all if it were me (but I'm a little below novice haha). Welds showing= If you have someone in mind to pass this rifle down to? it would probably mean a lot to'em if you left the welds showing? I know it would me. my2 . A 1903 has been on my list since shortly after joining the site but I keep buying tacticool , just in case the sky falls. Looking forward to the day when I can focus on MilSurp. Awesome Posts , I've done a lot of technical/tedious welding over the years and always enjoyed the challenge . Thank you and please continue Sir.