The 1903A4 -- An OK Rifle Today Instead of the Perfect Rifle Tomorrow

The recently acquired crown jewel of my US weapons collection was in fact a fairly mediocre sniper rifle when in service. But that's OK because it is part of the history of the exigencies of war, and it is still a pretty excellent example I'm stoked to have! All documents are thanks to the great work of Andrew Stolinski of the Archival Research Group, and are used with permission. Make sure to check ARG out!

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Following sniping success during the First World War, the US Army allowed its peacetime sniper program to atrophy into non-existence. Only the Marine Corps fielded any real number of scoped rifles, and they chose to use a nearly 2 foot long 8-power target style scope. After the US entry into the war, the Army determined that there was a need for a scoped rifle for use by snipers and other marksman, and they embarked upon a series of tests to determine what form that weapon system should take.

​Small excerpts from that test report, completed in late 1942, accompany this post and detail the major recommendations of the Test Section to the Infantry Board. They determined that the rifle to be scoped should be the m1903 or M1 (as opposed to a commercial design). Furthermore, the scope should be of a "hunting type", it should feature medium thickness crosshairs, and it should be mounted tight on the side of the rifle to allow the use of the iron sights and chargers for loading.

The first concession to ultimately be made when actually making the new sniper rifle was the substitution of the m1903A3 for the m1903 as the bolt action sniper platform. While a fundamentally similar rifle, the m1903A3 was a production expedient to increase production during the war and generally wasn't quite as finely fitted and finished as peacetime production m1903s.

Also, despite the recommendations that rifles be hand-selected for accuracy, have their actions hand finished, and be carefully fitted with specially selected stocks, there is no indication that any of this was done due to the need for rapid production. Additionally, while the earliest m1903A4s were fitted with the full pistol grip "C" stocks, the majority were (like my example) placed in the "scant" semi-pistol grip stocks -- themselves an interesting story of government frugality and compromise.

Probably the most obvious departure was the location of the scope itself. Despite the Test Section stating that a side mounting was "necessary" because "it is imperative that the metallic sights be immediately available for use...", and that clip loading was desired, the decision was ultimately made to mount the scope in a low "scope over bore" configuration. While this did present less chance of damage when compared to the high mount, the testers note that this precludes use of either the iron sights and clip loading. In fact, on the 1903A4, the Army decided to omit iron sights entirely -- leading to the rifle becoming useless if the comparatively fragile scope became damaged by rough handling or environmental conditions. One other interesting side effect of the scope position is that it interferes with the safety operation -- while you can kind of wedge the safety into a 3/4 vertical position, it if far from secure or ideal.

The scope itself generally followed the specifications dictated, with the final optic being a militarized variant of the Weaver 330C, named the M73B1 (although some standard 330Cs were fitted to the earliest rifles). Having a relatively low fixed 2.5x magnification and a narrow 3/4 inch diameter, it is completely archaic by today's standards but suitable for use in the era. It did prove to be somewhat fragile in field conditions, prone to moisture seepage, and difficult to use in low light situations.

This rifle was produced in 1943, with a barrel dated from August of that year. It shows a mix of parkerized and blued parts, as well as the more common scant stock that provides a semi-pistol grip. It has a number of clear cartouches, including RA - Remington Arms, FJA - Frank J. Atwood (the inspector), an ordnance wheel, and SA in a 3-sided box. The final cartouche indicates that it was inspected / overhauled at Springfield Armory post-war, although it doesn't look like too much refurbishment was done.
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Was the m1903A4 the perfect sniper rifle? No, absolutely not. But I'd suggest it was a suitable response by an Army that needed to put functional scoped rifles into the hands of Soldiers rapidly and in great numbers. Having this imperfect rifle in the field during the bulk of US combat operations was undoubtedly better than fielding the ultimate sniper system in August 1945. Even though the A4 was technically supplanted by the M1-C during WW2, and the M1-D post-Korea, they continued to see service through the Vietnam War.