Smith Corona 03A3 is nearly finished after three long years.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

coolhandluke

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Jul 27, 2010
Messages
2,862
Reaction score
3,866
Location
OKC, OK
I received the SC 1903A3 in the photos below in trade from a fellow CMP forum member approximately 3 years ago. It was in pristine condition, but had a replacement Keystone scant stock installed with milled upper and lower bands, rear sling swivel, as well as a milled trigger guard and follower. I'm not sure how the rifle found itself in this configuration, but it shows no signs of being a recovered drill rifle. Below is a photo of the rifle as taken by the previous owner.

i.imgur.com_LLTZDxEh.jpg




At the time that I traded for the rifle, another CMP member (Bob Visscher aka springfield3) was able to supply me with a most of the needed stamped SC parts...a bayonet band, stacking swivel band, lower band, rear sling swivel, and safety. The correct stamped trigger guard, follower, and buttplate were located on eBay, but an SC stock had eluded me until recently. I was fortunate enough that Bob had a very nice stock (with grease still packed in all the nooks and crannies) that he was willing to part with. After a thorough cleaning, staining with RIT dark brown dye, and a couple coats of Real Milk Paint dark PTO the stock looks absolutely gorgeous. The boxed FJA, sub-inspector, and proof P cartouches are all present, but the ordnance wheel seems to be MIA. I'm assuming that it was lightly struck and was likely sanded away at one point. At this point I'm just lacking a Gotham front sight cover (currently waiting on a NOS one to arrive in the mail) and a correct band spring (Remington currently installed). I believe that she's now a correct rifle otherwise. The best part is that all the blued and parkerized parts that I have accumulated still retain their original finish and match in color 100%.

Here are a few photos of the rifle after installing the SC straight stock...

i.imgur.com_YbRDuJmh.jpg


i.imgur.com_JBoK643h.jpg


i.imgur.com_FLjJIjEh.jpg


i.imgur.com_QMQSlQah.jpg


i.imgur.com_DbEA21dh.jpg


i.imgur.com_Tz62N4Ih.jpg




The scant stock has since been moved to my Remington 1903 which previously had a new production C stock installed...Bob also helped me out with finding the appropriate buttplate and rear sling swivel for this rifle as well. It is correct aside from the stock set which would have originally consisted of an RLB cartouched straight stock without grasping grooves and a high hump RA handguard.


i.imgur.com_DUxZMbqh.jpg


i.imgur.com_35L1sdZh.jpg


i.imgur.com_qq06Dg7h.jpg
 
Last edited:

coolhandluke

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Jul 27, 2010
Messages
2,862
Reaction score
3,866
Location
OKC, OK
Thanks for the kind words guys. :)

I also found that the trigger is not a Smith Corona piece, but I'm not planning on replacing it with the correct part. It's the nicest trigger that I have in any of my rifles so I'm not going to screw with it. On another note, I also found that the Gotham Cover that I ordered is not correct either. Several authors and websites list the Gotham covers (Delta G logo on right side, and drawing number on left) as the correct cover for Smith Corona A3's. According to 1903 guru John Beard, the Gotham covers were a replacement part and Seaville Mfg Co. was the main supplier to Smith Corona. The Seaville covers are marked with an encircled S logo and are almost always incorrectly referred to as a Sedgley manufactured part. Just putting this info out there so that someone doesn't make my same mistake. There's still a lot of published misinformation floating around out there. At least in this instance it was a part that cost less than $15 that I'll still end up using anyway so no harm done...
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom