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M1903A4: America's WW2 Sniper Rifle (ad-free)
🕑 Added 2023-06-14 12:00:05 +0000 UTCThe United States Army entered World War Two with neither sniper rifles nor a sniper training program. As troops began to see combat, requests began to come back to the War Department that both were urgently needed. The newly-adopted dM1 Garand rifle was going to be a bit tricky to mount optics on, so while that program began a contract was made with Remington to product a scoped version of the M1903A3 Springfield rifles. This was designated the M1903A4, and it would serve as the US Army's standard (and essentially only) sniper rifle during the war.
The 03A4 used a Weaver 330C commercial scope (given the military designation M73B1) on Redfield Junior mounts. The scope offered just 2.5x magnification, and used a simple crosshair reticle. It was reasonably effective, but not hardened for military service. The rifles did not have any other particular special work done to them, like bedding or improved triggers. A total of 28,365 were delivered, all made by Remington. They are found in the following serial number ranges:
3,407,088 - 3,427,087
4,000,001 - 4,015,000 (only about 3,000 in this block were used. Some duplicated 03A3 numbers; these were given an addition "Z" prefix)
4,992,001 - 5,784,000 (only about 6,300 were used of this block)
Comments
Dana Arbeit
Good video. The only thing not mentioned was due to the scope mount, the normal charger loading of a 5-round clip could not be used. The 'Snipter' had to take cartridges one at a time out of a clip and load them in the magazine. Entered
Thomas Batha
A couple of comments: The stock is probably an original maybe not to that rifle though. FJA is Frank J Atwood who was the ordnance acceptance officer for the Rochester Ordnance District during WWII. His initials appear on all the new Remington, Rem Rand, Postal Meter carbines, etc. (millions of firearms) The other mark is an Augusta Arsenal rebuilt stamp. Don't know who HO is. A "tell" on 03A4s is the area where the front sight was (not). If it's Parkerized, it's original configuration. If it is bare metal it probably came off a regular (and common) 03A3. I have always been surprised that they used the stamped trigger guards on the sniper rifles. As you know, bedding affects accuracy and the action screws can be drawn more tightly and uniformly on a milled steel floor plate assembly. Remington had thousands of these milled floorplates on hand from the M1903 production. I know this because the DCM was selling new Remington mfg floor plates into the `1980s. One final comment of 03A4's is the barrels they used. Apparently whatever was current 03A3 production was used, even 2 groove, no star gaging. I think you hit it on the head with your categorization of it really being a "designated marksman rifle" rather than a true sniper rifle. Thanks for another great show.
Guido Schriewer
wow. a 03 as giveaway?! nice price! they would have been better off buying some civi hunting rifles to actually use them though, I guess. from those ww2 sniper rifles... the no4T. at least that look the coolest to me.
