doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Sporterized 03A3 ?

I recently acquired whatI think is a 1944 Sporterized Remington O3A3. Whomever did the sporterization did a very nice job. The metal is all nicely polished and blued and it has a very nice monte carlo style walnut stock. The stock is stamped IMPERIAL inside the barrel channel and it has plastic buttplates and pistol grip caps marked BISHOP. I'm in the process of stripping the stock and applying an alkanet oil finish. The stock has a black plastic forearm end cap and the white line spacer has either shrunk or the end cap has shrunk. My question is how does the end cap attach to the forearm? I didn't really want to just cut it off without knowing something about it. I would like to put something a little nicer on the forearm maybe a horn end cap. Also I would like to get rid of the plastic butt plate and pistol grip cap and install steel ones. I was thinking of something like a Winchester Model 70 checkered steel butt plate. The butt of the rifle is completely flat, did Winchester ever make a flat butt plate for their rifles? Or maybe a horn butt plate. I'm just kind of looking to spruce up a very nicely done sporterization. Just running ideas through my mind right now.Any help would be appreciated

there was a guy on ASSRA that was selling horn buttplate blanks. I wish I had bought one or two. If he is still selling, they might be perfect for what you want to do.

I hope that this link will give you an idea of how the forend tip might be attached, the link is to an ebay auction of a plastic forend tip

plastic forend tip on ebay

To my knowledge, Winchester only used steel and plastic buttplates.

I don't know if you will find this link helpful, but here is a discussion on working with horn

working with horn

I put an ebony fore end tip on a Bishop stock once, and merely cut the original plastic tip off with a chop saw. (An example of one is no guarantee though.) The gun became a pretty nice truck/loaner rifle after making a few cosmetic changes to it by removing about a half pound of ugliness with a rasp.

On the chance, that there might be a metal spline or bolt in there somewhere, I would cut it a bit long with a hacksaw first and then, assuming nothing metallic was encountered, I would cut it again on a table or chop saw

Flip the stock upside-down and lay just the forend tip itself on the anvil section of your bench vise (or another dead hard surface).
Hold the stock steady with one hand and with the other, take a few carefully aimed and placed wacks onto the plastic forend tip w/a decent sized hammer.

The elderly Bishop plastic product will crack and break into pieces for you.
Leaving you with what was used to attach it to the end of the forend wood.
Might be a single dowel in there,,metal,,wood who knows.
Pull it out from there.
Might be two or more 'pins' made from nothing more than common nails all glued together at assembly time.

It all depends on how the tip was constructed (solid, hollow, cast w/a threaded fitting, ect).

Save some time and over rated excersize hacksawing and just crack it and take it off.
Pull any fitment hardware, then proceed from there with your new tip.

You can use a Winchester M70 checkered steel butt plate. They are still avail at about $60+,,probably less if you hunt around at shows in the parts boxes.

I have found them in less than stellar shape for considerably less and used them for various projects.
One ended up as a smooth shotgun style plate on a '94
Slight arc can be straightened if you want by heating red and simple forging from the back side.

Or refit the rifles stock to fit the Winchester M70 butt plate.

Flea-Bay might always be a source I'd imagine for a cosmeticly challenged plate at a reduced price to work over.
..and then again sometimes not the way auctions go.
Those plates were used on everything from the M97 to the 71 to the M70. So there are quite a few around.

Good luck on your project. Have Fun!

Thank y'all very much for the help and advice I appreciate it.