Hi, I hope everyone is doing well. Has anyone here ever converted their 1903 to shoot 22 lr reliable? I picked up a Winchester 1903 made in 1914 which had its barrel relined to 22 lr by Parker Hale, but it stovepipe and sometimes double feeds. I read all that has to be done is reline the bore, and modify the cartridge stop and cartridge guide. My question is can you replace these parts with model 63 parts? PS I know some nerd put on the front sight backward.
How can a winchester 1903 be converted to 22lr
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smoothshooter
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Why would you need barrel work done?
AJ
US Veteran
Sounds more like it either needs a real good cleaning or some action work.
Winchester developed the .22 Win Auto cartridge specifically for the '03 so they could control the ammunition and get a semi-automatic to function reliably. 22 LR ammo was inconsistent back then and some loads used black or semi-smokeless powder. The cartridge was intentionally designed to not interchange with .22 Short, Long or Long Rifle.
The base diameter of .22 Win Auto is .250"
The base diameter of .22 S, L & LR is .226".
The rim diameters are also different:
.22 Auto = .310"
.22 LR = .278"
I'm not surprised the OP is experiencing double feeds given the different rim sizes. If I owned a gun modified like that, I'd probably install an original unaltered 1903 barrel (check with Homestead Parts).
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A workable conversion needs the bbl relined (as your rifle already has).
The feed tube needs to be reduced in dia up at the cartridge stop so the cart stop itself will work with the smaller dia .22LR cartridge.
The bolt and recoil spring is OK as is. No need to do any hocus pocus worry over bolt & spring balance.
The cartridge being fed into the chamber will have a tendency to go nose up into the chamber and often strike the top of the chamber edge causing a jam.
To cure this a small cartridge guide of sorts needs to be built up at that point at the top edge of the chamber to aim the cart into the chamber.
Kind of the same idea as Marlin uses on their 39 and Model 80 series 22 rifles with a cart guide spring over the chamber.
A clearance notch in the top face of the bolt for the little guide ramp.
The ejector must be cut back a small amt to allow Unfired rounds to be ejected from the port. They are a bit longer than the .22WinAuto rds the gun was designed around.
Otherwise the ejector as-is works fine kicking out fired brass.
The one I did worked fine.
I give all the credit for the ideas for the conversion to John Tayor / Taylor Machine in Idaho.
He is still in business and has an FFL. I no longer am.
You can try contacting him and see if he will do a conversion.
Taylor Machine – Your source for custom machine work!
The feed tube needs to be reduced in dia up at the cartridge stop so the cart stop itself will work with the smaller dia .22LR cartridge.
The bolt and recoil spring is OK as is. No need to do any hocus pocus worry over bolt & spring balance.
The cartridge being fed into the chamber will have a tendency to go nose up into the chamber and often strike the top of the chamber edge causing a jam.
To cure this a small cartridge guide of sorts needs to be built up at that point at the top edge of the chamber to aim the cart into the chamber.
Kind of the same idea as Marlin uses on their 39 and Model 80 series 22 rifles with a cart guide spring over the chamber.
A clearance notch in the top face of the bolt for the little guide ramp.
The ejector must be cut back a small amt to allow Unfired rounds to be ejected from the port. They are a bit longer than the .22WinAuto rds the gun was designed around.
Otherwise the ejector as-is works fine kicking out fired brass.
The one I did worked fine.
I give all the credit for the ideas for the conversion to John Tayor / Taylor Machine in Idaho.
He is still in business and has an FFL. I no longer am.
You can try contacting him and see if he will do a conversion.
Taylor Machine – Your source for custom machine work!
444 Magnum
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The 63 carbines are rare and desirable. Will you post some pics of it?
Parts from a 63 generally won't fit right on to a 1903 to make the 1903 into a .22LR caliber.
The 1903 was designed specificly around the .22Win cartridge so the mag tube (inner and outer) are larger in dia. The connection port on the back end of the recv'r to accept that outer mag tube is necessarily larger in dia on the 03 so a 63 assembly won't slip right into place.
The bolts are a bit different aside from the bolt face. The latter point doesn't seem to make a difference in the conversion to LR even though the cartridge rim recess in the face of the 03 bolt is slightly larger.
The small guide in the roof of the 03 frame for the 22Win Auto cart isn't sufficient to guide the slightly smaller .22LR into the chamber, so the need to make a small extra 'ramp' up there off of the bbl itself.
If you started subbing 63 parts into the 03, you'd have to do some alterations to make them fit and those that could would need some further work to make them function.
Best to go with the 03 as it is,,do the bbl lining to get the proper chamber and bore dimentions. Add the small bullet guide up top of the bbl face and the reduced diameter mag tube dia right at the cartridge stop to make the orig cart stop work with the smaller .22LR round.
Otherwise,,just go get a Model 63!
Those 20" carbine Model 63's are not often seen.
When I was still engravinggunsmithing fulltime I was sent a Winchester Model 63 that came out of the Winchester New Haven Factory R&D Dept.
That place was stripped of a lot of stuff along with the Custom Shop when the Factory was shuttered.
This particular Mod 63 had been converted by the R&D Dept to cal .22SHORT.
It functioned perfectly (of course I had to check it out at the range!)
The Bolt was lightened all along it's 'rails' with through cut milling slots.
The Recoil Spring was a slightly lighter weight version than was fitted to my own Mod 63's.
I don't recall if the bolt head itself had any weight reduction cuts in it.
Hammer spring was orig I think.
The Cartridge Stop was a One-Of fabricated afair looking pretty much the same as the standard .22LR part, but with a slightly different shaped 'hook' to the stop and a whaat looked like a hand wound torsion spring.
As I understand it there were 3 such .22short cal M63 conversions there.
The 1903 was designed specificly around the .22Win cartridge so the mag tube (inner and outer) are larger in dia. The connection port on the back end of the recv'r to accept that outer mag tube is necessarily larger in dia on the 03 so a 63 assembly won't slip right into place.
The bolts are a bit different aside from the bolt face. The latter point doesn't seem to make a difference in the conversion to LR even though the cartridge rim recess in the face of the 03 bolt is slightly larger.
The small guide in the roof of the 03 frame for the 22Win Auto cart isn't sufficient to guide the slightly smaller .22LR into the chamber, so the need to make a small extra 'ramp' up there off of the bbl itself.
If you started subbing 63 parts into the 03, you'd have to do some alterations to make them fit and those that could would need some further work to make them function.
Best to go with the 03 as it is,,do the bbl lining to get the proper chamber and bore dimentions. Add the small bullet guide up top of the bbl face and the reduced diameter mag tube dia right at the cartridge stop to make the orig cart stop work with the smaller .22LR round.
Otherwise,,just go get a Model 63!
Those 20" carbine Model 63's are not often seen.
When I was still engravinggunsmithing fulltime I was sent a Winchester Model 63 that came out of the Winchester New Haven Factory R&D Dept.
That place was stripped of a lot of stuff along with the Custom Shop when the Factory was shuttered.
This particular Mod 63 had been converted by the R&D Dept to cal .22SHORT.
It functioned perfectly (of course I had to check it out at the range!)
The Bolt was lightened all along it's 'rails' with through cut milling slots.
The Recoil Spring was a slightly lighter weight version than was fitted to my own Mod 63's.
I don't recall if the bolt head itself had any weight reduction cuts in it.
Hammer spring was orig I think.
The Cartridge Stop was a One-Of fabricated afair looking pretty much the same as the standard .22LR part, but with a slightly different shaped 'hook' to the stop and a whaat looked like a hand wound torsion spring.
As I understand it there were 3 such .22short cal M63 conversions there.
I am doing a conversion using a 1022 Ruger barrel.. The basic gun does not have matching numbers nor is it great condition so don't worry I am not destroying a classic. On the magazine tube I am reducing the bore diameter so the cartridge stop will work. I plan on milling a ramp in the Ruger barrel similar to what the Ruger 22 pistol has. Each step is quite labor intensive with a lot of hand filing. I plan on using a Benz reamer in the barrel. My plan is to only take off just enough metal off the end on the barrel to leave a ramp. The 1022 barrel looks like a good fit but of course it will need to be threaded. Hope to post up some pics as the work progresses.
