Springfield sporter

[Cole]

I was south of the border yesterday, and was trolling for used guns and stuff at some pawn shops and I found a Smith&Corona 03 that had been put up as a sporter. Price was $259.99
I did not have my camera, and I feel badly for it because whoever did the work to this gun surely had some mad skills.
Beautiful walnut stock, and I'm talking wood that would literally give you wood, witha perfectly fitted piece of some swirly-curly reddish wood for the forend tip and grip cap, very nicely polished deep bluing on barrel and action, a Lyman peep sight on the rear and for sure a custom built front sight that looked just right with a substantial piece of metal and a serrated ramp under a gold bead, clean clean clean ! ! , and a very nice latigo sling.
Location? That's classified information because I'm going to see about getting it up here. If and when that happens, I'll post pics.

 

[Kevan]

Sounds great, no need to tell where it is but can you tell us what it was chambered in ?
I picked up one a few years ago that was built in Seattle in 257 Ackley Imp. and it is an excellent shooter.
You certainly can't fault the price of the one you saw ?

 

[Cole]

.30-06

 

[1899]

Springfield made many of those sporter rifles - at one point I believe they were called NFA Sporters. I believe that was between the two world wars, when the government felt there was a need for subsidized sporting bolt action rifles. IIRC many of them came with the Lyman sights. One of the Springfield's weaknesses is the two piece firing pin which, from what I have read, is prone to breaking. The tooling was sold/given to Remington after Springfield started manufacturing the Garand. Jack O'Connor's "The Rifle Book" has a section that goes into detail about theses sporters, along with serial numbers, heat treating, switch to "high nickle steel", flaws relative to the M98 Mauser and modifications performed by the old master gunsmiths like Bill Sukalle and Alvin Linden (stockmaker).