remington 03a3 help!

[jimsgunshop]

:ar15:
just picked a several firerms out of an estate and i got a remington 03a3 a few questions how can one tell if the rifle is totally orignal this one just looks toooo good wood and metal are all perfect cartouches are perfect as well the former owner was a WWII amorer and im thinking this may have just walked home with him after the war. if any can give me some clues to look for to determine origianlity that would be great thanks jimsgunshop@aol.com

[surbat6]

For one thing, if the stock looks really well-finished, like a sporting rifle with hand-rubbed oil-finished wood, either it's been redone, or your armorer did it himself so his "duffle bag" rifle would look pretty. Most collectors look for that rough-and-ready finish the military uses, where the stocks are shaped, sanded, stamped and dunked in linseed oil. The metal of a WWII US rifle should be parkerized, not blued. Other than those two considerations, sounds like you have a real honey!

[gaweidert]

This site http://m1903.com/sn/usmildates.htm will give you the date the receiver was made. On the end of the barrel is a date it was made. If they are close, there is a ogod chance they are original to each other. There is a good chance that it has be rebuilt in the arsenal as that is the fate of most military rifles. As to shiney stocks, it ws not uncommmon for soldiers to do this themselves. Mostly form boredom. My father-in-law did that to his. After Pearl Harbor (he was there during the attack) they took their bayonets and scraped their stocks to remove the shine. Didn't want reflective surfaces to give them away in combat.