Springfield 1903 A3

[italiansport]

I recently acquired a Springfield 1903 A3 this is built on a Santa Fe receiver. As I sure many of you know; there were tons of surplus 1903 parts after WW II. Firms like Golden State Arms in CA capitalized on this by buying up these parts and building complete rifles using new cast receivers by Santa Fe. My question is what is your opinion as to the safe shootability of these rifles. I am finding opinions all over the place. However; I tend to trust the opinions of members of this forum to a greater extent then others. So lets hear your thoughts!
Additionally I'd be interested in swags as to the current value of this rifle which is in very good condition!
Jim

 

[k22fan]

While it's been along time I used a couple of Golden State Arms/Santa Fe "Springfield" sporters for casual target shooting. They were considered to be plenty safe for SAAMI commercial cartridges. Mine were as accurate as the genuine 03's I owned. My memory is that their reproductions of GI issue 03's were less common than the ones they sold "sporterized" for hunters. Despite that, their value is unrelated to collector grade genuine Springfields. They are what they are, reproductions.

While considering a purchase the only thing I'd be wary of is amateur bedding. Lots of guys thought they could improve the accuracy of their bolt actions by rebedding them. A few owners actually could. The only military bolt actions that gave me accuracy problems had to have the amateur bedding redone.

03's are less safe than other military rifles that were based on the Mauser 98s for firing very old cartridges and higher than standard pressure cartridges. The reason is not receiver strength but where the escaping gas goes if a case head blows out. You best be wearing safety glasses if that happens with your 03. That does not condemn the design. The prestigious pre-64 Winchester Model 70s had the same short coming. You ought to be wearing safety glasses all the time while shooting anyway.

 

[Faulkner]

A M1903A3 built on a Santa Fe receiver has no collector value. The value can probably be best assessed by the amount of USGI parts used to put it together. For example, a couple of years ago I bought a M1 carbine that was built up using USGI parts on a "Alpine" commercial receiver. I bought it for $400, disassembled the gun and sold off the USGI parts for $750, I still have the Alpine receiver somewhere around here in a box of junk parts.

That does not mean your Santa Fe is not a nice gun or even a great shooter, but the commercially made cast receiver negatively impacts it's value as a whole.

 

[kip595]

Agree with both folks above. The nice thing about a Santa Fe, particularly if you're just using it for target/fun shooting, is that you get the feel of an '03 without the worry of using a genuinely original services issued rifle. I've never heard of any issues with them, aside from as mentioned the case head/gas issue, which although rare, is a hefty recommendation to always wear those shooting glasses.

If you ever tire of'er, let this fellow Arizonian know!

Happy shooting everybody!