doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Custom 1903 Springfield Mannlicher Engraved ID

There is one thing that I would like to bring up about rifles with engraved receivers and I would like other people's comments. This is from a Clyde Baker's book "Modern Gunsmithing"

He writes

"THE DANGER FROM ENGRAVING: Before you decide to have your high power rifle engraved, remember that the receiver must be annealed before the engraver can cut it. Be sure that your engraver is reliable, understands his his business, and has the facilities for properly hardening and heat-treating the parts after engraving. I have seen Springfield and Mauser receivers come into the shop to be blued and finished and delivered to the unsuspecting purchaser with no pretense at heat-treatment or even case-hardening. Every gun crank knows what that means, with modern high pressures."

With the question of who/how it was engraved, possibly Japanese, and the question PhysDoc raised about the heat treatment of engraved receivers plus the possible old bolt I am becoming less inclined to shoot this one and just use it for a wall hanger. Too cold to go shooting right now anyhow, temps in the single digits with a "stiff breeze"

Well, whenever I encounter a problem, I back off and try to think about things. On this forum, you have some of the best people that I've never met, LRF, Der Ami and many others. Don't take my advice until others have added their opinions, but you should be able to tell
hardened steel from unhardened steel fairly easily, just remove the action from the stock and find a spot on the receiver that will not normally see the light of day and try a file against it. If the file doesn't cut it, the steel has been hardened. How well, well that is another question.

Read PhysDoc's advice...It would be a very good first start. If you are thinking you might not be able to tell even with a file, ask a machinist friend or gunsmith to help you. Remember contrary to popular lies and as proven by MythBusters, men ask for directions and help before women!

Thank you guys - I will see what I can find out about the receiver. Going back to Kutter's first post, he said that Nickel Steel actions cut pretty well without annealing to get rid of the hardening. I do think mine is a nickel steel action based upon the "NS" stamp on the base, which would match the moved serial number. It also still has the original dark black parkerizing below the stock line. I kind of wonder if the gun was built pre-war, with a low number receiver/straight bolt, then the receiver was later swapped to a high number, after which the engraving done to the whole rifle and it was re-blued. Matching the relief cut in the stock for the old straight handle bolt would explain why they could have reused an old bolt. So I still need to check headspace.

I do need to find a good gunsmith - they are few and far between around here.

Also remember that the military ball ammo for an early 1903 BA has different characteristics than the sporting .30-06 ammo of today. I would have a good riflesmith check the headspace , the chamber cuts, the bore and the bolt and extractor first- My guess is, and none of my BA rifles- two pre-1950 Model 70's and a 1903 high number G&H sporter-have any engraving. Like the late "Cactus Jack" O'Connor once said:" I'd rather have good blue on metal and high grade walnut well checkered and perfectly fit to the steel, than any engraving"- or something along those lines. The engraving has an "Oriental look", at least to my eyes-- Hope you can use it, after having it checked out--nice lines in the stock indeed.

Thanks for the comments. I don't shoot factory ammo in my old '06's. I reload fairly moderate loads for them in deference to their age.

My two favorite loads are:

46 grains of IMR 4895 with Sierra 168 gr HPBT's with velocities ranging from the mid 2500's in a 1903 Sporter up to mid 2600's in my M1917 Remington.

51 grains of H414 with Hornady 165 gr BTSP's with velocities running from the low 2600's in 24" Springfield barrels up to 2700 fps in the M1917.

Neither of these loads exhibit pressure signs in any of my '06's and are both very accurate. I have not had much luck with 150 grain bullets as far as accuracy goes, I am guessing it has something to do with the twist rate of the rifling.

On a related note, I have a copy of the Speer #14 Reloading Manual and the Hornady 7th edition, both of which I refer to when working up a load, among other sources. In 2013 I wanted to shoot up some 130 gr Hornady spitzers that I had left over in an '06.

I loaded 10 with 51 grains of IMR 4064 and 10 with 49 grains of IMR 3031 in some once fired LC brass and headed to the range. These were the recommended start charges in the Speer book.

After firing 5 of each in my M1917 Remington, I had 2 cases split open, with several others near failure. Velocity was +/- 3000 fps. It finally sunk in on the second case failure that something was wrong, it wasn't just the brass which I initially suspected.

Looking at the Hornady book after the fact, I found that the Speer start charges were very close to the Hornady maximum charges. Thank God I do not start with the max or something in the middle and work my way up! I have never found that big of a bust between the two sources before or since, including other '06 bullet weights, but the Speer book tends to put their start charge around the middle of the Hornady charge range with the maximum charge usually being quite similar. Anyhow that was when I began to make a habit of consulting multiple sources before starting any new project.

I do need to get around to having a competent gunsmith look at the Mannlicher '03. Not many of those around here, need to find one within reasonable travel distances.