Just brilliant! The custom M1903A1 Sniper Rifle
“To my mind the finest rifle I have ever produced…” Dave said about this rifle and well, well as far as what we can see it looks very nice! Learn more about the project and get behind this custom rifle out of the DCA smithy.
HISTORY
The United States Marine Corps at the beginning of the 20th Century was not the well funded military organisation it is today, instead, it relied heavily on older kit handed down from the Army. Because of these the USMC retained the M1903A1 versions when the Army had moved on to newer models.
The Marine Corps has also always been famous for taking Marksmanship seriously, to this end, the complex long range ladder sights of the M1903A1 were advantagous to later simplified sighting systems. At this stage in optics design it was found that recoil would often break the relatively delicate internal parts of the optics of the day.
The Unertl 8x scope overcame this problem by externalising windage and elevation adjustements and letting the scope jump to the rear when the rifle was fired, this protected the internal pats but meant snipers had to manually push the scope forward after each shot.
To create this rifle we first took a picture of an S&T Spring Powered M1903A3 and compiled a list of parts that required changing or modifying externally, these external modification include:
- Fitting a Real Walnut C-Shaped Stock (Required Heavy Modification to fit airsoft internals)
- Fitting a Real Walnut Upper Handguard (Required Heavy Modification to fit airsoft internals. Also required accurate cutting and shaping to allow for the scope mount to protrude neatly, we also modified the shape to better match that of the M1903A1 USMC Sniper)
- Fitting a Real Chequered Butt pad
- Fitting a Real M1903A1 Rear Sight Assembly & Sight (Cut in half, Cut out ample space for the hop adjustment to be accessed easily)
- Fitting a Real 8X Hi-Lux Scope (Unertl Replica, we removed the recoil spring assembly)
- Fitting Real Unertl Scope Mounts (Required Drilling and tapping the receiver and barrel)
- The Stock has been finished with Mahogony Leather Dye & then oiled with Mineral Spirits and Natural Tung Oil (Wire wool used between coats for a flat finish)
- Cerakoted all Metal Parts in a 50ml/20ml Midnight Blue & Armour Black
