Show us your Guns!

[Renault]

I was able to get up to the ranch yesterday and take possession of that '95. Gotta run back to town today and take care of more bills. When I get back here to the place, I'll try to snap a worth photo for posting!

 

[tomtom42]

All dressed up

View attachment 22945

I remember these from my Bundesheer (= Austrian army) service - not fun to lug one aroung during combat school...
Even less fun to clean after firing a few belts of blanks, some parts were almost impossible to get clean enough for inspection.

Ours were called MG74, which in theory meant a post war built improved version in 7,62 nato (synthetic stock and improved action parts) but often was just a wartime MG42 rebarreled in 7,62 nato and restamped (nazi markings filed out to some degree - often still quite visible...)

Real nasty thing about the MG42 ones was the action, which fell apart as soon as it was removed from the receiver unless you knew exactly how to grip it...

br,
T°M

 

[plain old dave]

Maybe not the best pic, but there it is. The high water mark of American precision Service Rifles. M1903A1 Special Target. 1936 National Match rifle that spent a year shooting matches then was sold off the following year. Lyman 48 rear sight and a King Reflector front. The King Reflector was an Aim Point of sorts of the Golden Age, has a little mirror that reflects light onto the sight bead and illuminates it in low light conditions.

 

[Renault]

View attachment 23561

Maybe not the best pic, but there it is. The high water mark of American precision Service Rifles. M1903A1 Special Target. 1936 National Match rifle that spent a year shooting matches then was sold off the following year. Lyman 48 rear sight and a King Reflector front. The King Reflector was an Aim Point of sorts of the Golden Age, has a little mirror that reflects light onto the sight bead and illuminates it in low light conditions.

Now there's a rifle set up the way a rifle should be set up! Wood, blued steel and proper sights! What a classic!! Thanks for posting Dave!!!

 

[plain old dave]

Gets better. It is an SRS hit.

081439 REPLACEMENT FOR 598xxx

So, the most plausible story thus far is this was shot through the 1940 season and sold at the DCM shed at the 1940 National Matches, the last ones before WW2, as well as the last one where the M1 wasn't really competitive.

In 1953, the next National Matches, the 03 wasn't even a Service Rifle and the process that led to the M14 and eventually the M16 was underway.

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk

 

[Renault]

That is even better Dave! Wow!

I tried to take a snap of the new 95. Here's what I got. Dunno why it's not so clear.

 

[plain old dave]

Nice 95. My favorite 95 combo: Full length rifle in .30-40 Krag.

Learned some more over lunch:

The 1939 Matches were apparently 8/20/39-9/9/39, so this rifle couldn't reasonably be expected to have been assembled AND fitted AND shipped From Massachusetts to Ohio in a week. The 1940 Matches (8/18-9/7/1940), concluding a week before the 9/16/40 National Guard mobilization, were the last ones before WW2, as well as the last one where the M1 wasn't really competitive. So, this rifle was in all probability a National Match 1903 that was shot across the course the last time the 1903 was the king of the hill.

So, this "obsolete" rifle was fitted with the King Reflector sight and M2 stock she now wears and began a second career at some point either as an alternative to the Model 70 that was on back order after the war or that was unavailable due to the National Emergency at some point after September 1940.

Think of the history.. Late summer of 1940, the competitor heading back to the tent area (no hutments yet at the National Matches) in the evening and listening to Edward R. Murrow's "This.... is London." or Churchill. A National Guardsman or Reservist, pondering on going to war NEXT WEEK. A Veteran on a State or gun club team, remembering the Argonne or Belleau Wood and PRAYING his son won't ever have to go through that. I can't think of a set of circumstances that would make me either sell OR restore this relic of the Golden Age.

Something else: I was at Camp Perry in 1990, 50 years later.

 

[Renault]

Dave! My adopted grand pa was at Camp Perry in 1921! He was texas state service rifle champ that year I believe. Name was Marvin Kreuz

 

[Renault]

I have a full rifle Krag too! Mfg in 1904. I think it's on here elsewhere. But here it is again

 

[Joao Encarnado]

Lovely 95's!
I wish I could have one...

 

[Willybob]

A little old and a little new

 

[Willybob]

 

[Kirk H.]

View attachment 23591

Nice Iron there Willybob.

 

[Kirk H.]

That is even better Dave! Wow!

I tried to take a snap of the new 95. Here's what I got. Dunno why it's not so clear.

That is a sweet looking rifle Bob!!

Dave, that 1903 is beautiful and all of that history that you have on it.

Kirk

 

[Renault]

Thanks Joao and Kirk!!!!

Willybob! Dang nice iron there!

 

[Joao Encarnado]

Nice Iron there Willybob.

+1

 

[plain old dave]

That is a sweet looking rifle Bob!!

Dave, that 1903 is beautiful and all of that history that you have on it.

Kirk

Thank you. Learned more today, too. 8/14/39 was the Monday before the National Matches went hot. Not a stretch to infer a cash-strapped competitor arrived on Monday to trade his low number 03 in and have a few days to work up zeroes for a brand new National Match 1903. And it might JUST be that the other serial number is a 1915 NM 03. And 1939 was the last full year for Camp Perry before WW2; 1940 saw the National Guard staring down the barrel of mobilization so I would expect a lot of Guard teams wouldn't go in 1940. And the pending emergency was cause for M1 Ball to be issued to shooters instead of National Match ammo. Just like I came back from a match to find out Saddam invaded Kuwait, the 1939 competitor would have come back in after the matches on September 2 to hear that France and England had declared war on Germany, then come in the next day to find out Canada and Australia joined in.

Golden Age history drips off this rifle, and I am sending off for the letter from the Springfield Research Service.

 

[Kirk H.]

Thank you. Learned more today, too. 8/14/39 was the Monday before the National Matches went hot. Not a stretch to infer a cash-strapped competitor arrived on Monday to trade his low number 03 in and have a few days to work up zeroes for a brand new National Match 1903. And it might JUST be that the other serial number is a 1915 NM 03. And 1939 was the last full year for Camp Perry before WW2; 1940 saw the National Guard staring down the barrel of mobilization so I would expect a lot of Guard teams wouldn't go in 1940. And the pending emergency was cause for M1 Ball to be issued to shooters instead of National Match ammo. Just like I came back from a match to find out Saddam invaded Kuwait, the 1939 competitor would have come back in after the matches on September 2 to hear that France and England had declared war on Germany, then come in the next day to find out Canada and Australia joined in.

Golden Age history drips off this rifle, and I am sending off for the letter from the Springfield Research Service.

Dave, if only that rifle could talk the stories it could tell. I would be interested to hear what you find out from the letter. Thanks for sharing.

Kirk

 

[DeaconKC]

Fine looking collection! Got the rest of the AR stuff in and finished this one off. new one is to the rear.

 

[plain old dave]

Dave, if only that rifle could talk the stories it could tell. I would be interested to hear what you find out from the letter. Thanks for sharing.

Kirk

More Jazz Age stuff with the piece that was turned in... The 1915 National Matches were the last full-on Matches before the US got involved in WW1. While we were not in the fight in 1916, a considerable amount of the Regular Army was down along the Mexican border, chasing Pancho Villa. And by August 1917, we were at war. The next National Matches fired with the 03 were in 1919; the 1918 Matches were fired, but with the M1917 "Enfield." The Roaring 20s at the National Trophy Matches were a time of innovation. Mobilubricant, "Tin Can" ammo, and all the rest. The era saw the .30-06 transform from a military round known for sharp recoil and report and almost insidious jacket fouling into the standard sporting caliber of North America. By 1939, the 1915 rifle would have been long in the tooth, and our unknown marksman may well have had the DCM armorer fit a double heat treat bolt to his/her new rifle to alleviate the stickiness the Nickel Steel receiver was known for to some degree.