Marine Corps Scout/Sniper : World War II And Korea Recommended Books about USMC Sniper Rifles Sale of surplus USMC 03 rifles (Marine Corps only) began Fall 1954, mostly to Marine officers. 1047 Team Rifles were available at Philadelphia for conversion to sniper.Scope marked USMC SNIPER and serialized from low 1,000 to high 2,775.7.8 x 1-1/4" objective, 24", Unertl Target scope with 1/4 or 1/2 minute clicks and anodized Duraluminum mount.Scope blocks lettered on bottom, 0 - rear and E - front.Later bolt extractors marked CV (chrome vanadium).Later bolts, for factory receivers with Hatcher Hole, have two gas holes in bottom.Early Hatcher Hole modified bolts have a single gas hole modified to larger hole.Most NS for nickel steel, last production marked D1. Bolts marked on top of root where it joins body for type of steel.World War II replacement hand guards with single straight cut for windage knob.Standard 1905 rear sight with pre-World War I notch.
HOW TO IDENTIFY A UNERTL SCOPE SERIAL NUMBERS
Barrel punch mark at 6 o’clock, directly under the front bloc.Bare metal usually visible with bloc installed. Top of receiver was ground to bare metal where sight bloc holes are drilled.
Centered rear Unertl scope block and butted against the rear sight.Rails on almost all rifles were polished (NM).Rifles predating 1936 exhibit the second gas port as recommended by General Hatcher (believed USMC modification).The USMC Model 1941 Sniper Rifle characteristics cited are: This section compiled by Larry Reynolds as presented in USMC publication, "History of the M1903A1 Rifle" by Dieter Stenger, Curator of Ordnance. USMC Model 1941 Sniper Rifle Characteristics Marine armorer, the rifle earned the right to be called a "Model 1941 Sniper Rifle." Some Marine Corps armorers adopted signature methods that included chalking or pencil-marking initials and rifle serial numbers inside the hand guards and stamping their initials on the stock. Once a M1903A1/Unertl rifle had undergone the prescribed modifications by a The hand guards were modified to fit the small front scope block. Bright NM bolts have been observed on M1903A1 sniper rifles. There is no conclusive evidence that suggests that all bolts were blued. There was no correlation between serial numbers and barrel dates.īolts were carefully fitted and electro-pen engraved with the rifle serial number, then blued. These included parts received from the Springfield Armory that were then reworked by Marine armorers. After Unertl scope blocks were installed, trigger pulls were adjusted and the latest pattern components installed. Most had star-gauged barrels but ordinary barrels were used if they performed well. Marine Corps selection of M1903A1 NM rifles for sniper use was made after test-firing. Selection of M1903A1 NM Rifles for the Marine Corps In 1942, the Marine Corps chose the military version 8X Unertl telescopic target sight for use on the Springfield M1903A1 NM rifle, creating the "USMC Model 1941 Sniper Rifle." The rifle was issued to Marine Snipers on Bougainville and was used extensively and successfully by the Marines in the Pacific Theater of World War II as well as in Korea. The origin of the USMC Model 1941 Sniper Rifle was in 1929, when the Springfield National Match rifle was modified with a Type-C stock in place of the non-pistol grip Type-S "straight stock." In this new form, the NM rifle was designated as the M1903A1 National Match.