Were Surplus O3 Springfields Purchased By Foreign Countries And Re-barreled?

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Last Post 09 March 2021

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mashburn posted this 07 March 2021

To the best of my knowledge, surplus O3's were purchased by foreign countries and re-barreled to their standard military cartridges. My knowledge comes from what I have read and my books pertaining to such information are limited. If this is true, what countries purchased these rifles and performed such conversions and to what calibers and how would these rifles be marked?

I would appreciate any information pertaining to this. I cannot say for sure that this is true but I have read that it did from at least one author.

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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Wineman posted this 07 March 2021

David,

I have not read that information. Usually when the US gave military aid, they sent the rifles and ammunition, so no reason to rebarrel. Some South American countries and Israel did rebarrel Mausers to 7.62 Nato, some successfully and some not so (93's with barrel sleeves). My experience with a K98k in 7.62 Nato was mixed, the shorter round was pretty picky about OAL. M1 Garands had barrels added by foreign users (VAR, Breda etc.) but they were in 30-06 caliber. Some M1 Garands were sleved and then rebarreled to 7.62 Nato here in the US.FN-49's were offered in different calibers 7x57, 8x57, 30-06, and one I am forgetting (7.62 NATO?)

I would be interested to see a M1903 information if someone has it on rebarreling to different calibers.

Dave

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RicinYakima posted this 07 March 2021

I'm with Wineman. The US never sold '03's to other countries, they gave them or loaned them. the two largest were the Nationalist Chinese and the Greeks, both having civil wars after 1945. In order to keep Remington in business, US bought space parts for '03's for a year after production of actions or rifles stopped. When I was restoring '03's, I was buying new barrels from Taiwan in 10 each boxes.

Both Brophy's The Springfield Rifles and Campbell's The '03 Era have good sections on what happened to them. Another reference is Canfield's '03 Springfield Service Rifle.

In my fifty years of study of the '03's, I have never heard of any government rebarreling to any other caliber.

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Bud Hyett posted this 07 March 2021

Bannerman in New York state did some crazy stuff including rebarreling 1917 actions with 1903 bolts. His offerings in the old ads make me cringe.

Perhaps this could be the source of our modern "gun writers" knowledge.

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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mashburn posted this 08 March 2021

I didn't write what I meant to say in my original post. The only knowledge that I have on the subject came from reading such, a few days ago. The book that this came from was published about 50 years ago. I will not give the author, he is usually Johnny on the spot with his writings, but this one made me really wonder. Like you people who have so far responded, I had never heard of it.

Mashburn

David a. Cogburn

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