1903 Springfield Rifle

I think I knocked him down or he broke I'm sorry Mr red plate well that's too bad we'll just shoot something else like this water melon right here oh and a 2 L right here oh I wonder if it'll knock this bowling pin off I believe it will since it's a 30 out6 yes Hickok 45 here finally bringing you the A3 Springfield that I've been uh caressing for a few weeks and enjoying I mean just look at that is that a beauty or what uh fresh out of the Year 1918 that's uh that's a jewel that's a jewel Springfield Armory uh just over a million and serial number and exactly what I was looking for and have been looking for four years I just uh really like this let's talk about a little bit and let's shoot it some more I really did knock down the red plate didn't I okay I I'll teach that red plate to to cause me to miss because I missed him on the first shot but you know what we've got a watermelon over there we might uh we might shoot too I do struggle with the site on it I I wanted this uh this Springfield Armory I wanted one made by Springfield Armory and I wanted an early one and with that you get these uh sights that are oh man even with the very very best eyesight there just a little microscopic V there and everything but and I even painted the front sight to try to help me out a little bit but I didn't get this to go deer hunting or elk hunting at 500 yards and that sort of thing I got this for the historical uh significance and just just all of that that well I mean it just oozes history doesn't it it's a it's a beautiful gun and it it it works you know nothing like a good old bolt gun is there pretty gun as you can see I like the coloring of it and uh it was rebarreled in 42 42 yeah and uh it's uh it's pretty much correct I think other than that there may been some stock work but you can see the 42 there Springfield Army barrel and a lot of them were refurbished then rebarreled because this thing by 1942 had been around a while you know since 1918 so but it's a it's a jewel and it's a 30 out 6 a really cool round so let's uh let's load it again before we get too Gabby and we'll uh take a few more shots out that okay because this shoots a really powerful round and I know you want to hear it and I want to feel it on my shoulder see if I can hit anything I'll even use the eclipse or is that a magazine let's see that's right that's a to magazine and this is the clip is that right not really is it okay load it via the clip five round clip and uh shoot something here like maybe a 2 L told you I couldn't see those PES let's try that bowling fin all that didn't I we'll try that red 2 L oh I'm going to have to move up on him or something okay let me get the sight in the v in the notch where's the notch there's the notch I think there we go oh no I hit one of my pigs back there with a 30 o 6 that's not good that is not good okay we're empty uh like I say I have a hard time getting the sight in that little bitty Notch and not being a little kind of moving around on me but uh that's okay I didn't get this this gun to pick off flies or fleas for that matter but we'll we'll get those guys one way or the other um so the A3 Springfield this uh this rifle was in service for a long time you know uh this rifle is really the results of some other rifles that came before it of course what we learned uh that we wanted uh to make the general rifle the the issue rifle the infantry rifle this this rifle was used in just about every Branch as I understand that was one of the reasons that we wanted a rifle like this so we could get away from the long musket type rifles and then having a carbine version of it and uh just as they did with the Mouser and and some I think even the the Swiss did that you know when they came out with the 1911 carbine they they eventually went to one rifle you know one rifle with smokeless powder and the the modern Innovations of bullets and pow and loads one rifle and about a 24-in barrel pretty much takes care of the needs of just about anybody in the military any branch you know so the deal was you know we went from the uh the uh trapo Springfield you know 4570 to the CAG in the 1890s and this was pretty cool having a bolt gun and having a magazine that would hold like five rounds with pointed bullets you know that kind of thing you could uh step it up a little bit and uh the only problem was let me grab one here was the loading method which I like it's pretty cool of course it doesn't really matter if you're just out doing Woods walks and you're hunting or you're just shooting on the Range does it put them in there and close them up pretty cool uh but in combat uh we discovered during the Spanish American war you know late 1890s that the clip fed guns seem to be easier and quicker more efficient to reload and even as cool as this is it it just uh you could fumble around and they they developed a clip for it but it didn't work as well as the Mouser clip so um it yeah just wanted to change and then also we wanted a hotter round than even the crack the crack was considered a pretty nice little round in his day the 3040 crack but it was not anything as you know close to the 8 mm with the uh you know the the Mouser or the 30 out6 of course which wasn't around yet but uh we experimented the military experiment with some hotter rounds that were closer to those ballistically but the one lug bolt just wouldn't uh withstand it the the pressure they experimented for I think a year or two and they discovered that you know this bolt has one lug you see the lug there that's uh let me Point use just a little bullet as a pointer for those of you maybe don't know what a lug is period some of you new Shooters but that lug there that piece of metal uh on the side of the bolt is what when you push it forward you see that Groove up there you turn it it turns down into that and that's what holds it in place see makes sense that that locks it into place well that worked pretty well but when you step up the ballistics uh they discovered that wasn't enough and it was failing apparently whereas the Mouser has a lug on both sides of the front of the bolt okay and then one in the rear so you had a better lock in well this has a little lug too back there see it locks right there as well kind of a small but when you look at your receiver here this is a split and uh you know so it's pushing against side you wouldn't have quite as much support with that either it came right down to it so you got basically on the front of the bolt one lug and that limited how much you could step up this round the 3040 CAG ballistically nice gun but limited in that sense okay I really like it myself okay and then uh like I say these are the two guns that led us to the a 3 Springfield with the Mouser you notice in the bolt you've got a lug on both sides of the front see now you got your extractor there and one's inside that you got a lug there and lug there and when you push it forward and lock it down both of those lock into uh little recesses that are Mor styled in the receiver and then uh back here there's one as well see that lug right there when you push forward and there's a little recessed area that goes down into so you're locked up back here and in two places it's forward it's a very strong lock up got your non- rotating extractor you know it stays in place no matter what position the bolts in your extractor is right there okay it doesn't move the bolt does within it okay so it may be more knowledge more information than you wanted but uh that's bolt action 101 very popular design isn't it so we we we incorporated those things into the A3 uh so that we could increase the power of the cartridge and just have a better round okay so is no secret you know we copied the Mouser pretty much in a lot of ways and even supposedly paid them some some money for doing so all right so that's how that works and of course the clip feeding we like that's faster you noticed as I was loading the the A3 Springfield loaded pretty well so that that does work well and uh in a battle situation you've got some of those you pull them out and Skip in there whereas if you don't have the clip and I don't think the clip worked well I've never had one for the uh crack but uh you end jiggling those things around if you get one in there a little bit Cross or crooked or the the rear of the cartridge in ahead of the front you can have problems so that's not good people are shooting at you I wouldn't like that would you so so then we end up with the Springfield you see we've got a similar bolt you notice the lugs on both sides of the the bolt there the front and push forward locks down the same way now back here you you got the lug in a little bit uh different place but you got a nice big lug there that locks against the rear of the receiver there so in three different places you got that bolt locked in so it will withstand powerful cartridge ballistically like the 30 o 6 so pretty cool huh not bad at all so very much like the Mouser and you know size and everything you if you put them side by side you know they're it's kind of the American Mouser they're I I like the Mouser I like this I think more but uh they both work so beautiful gun beautiful gun now when it first came out it was in uh it was in 30 out3 and then later 30 out6 and we'll talk about that I don't have any 30 out3 ammunition sorry about that but I do have some 1950s vintage 30 out6 this ammo is pretty old it's old as I am let's see if it'll work actually it will cuz that's what I was shooting there a minute ago we also have some from 1942 uh right here man you imagine that and this has been in the clips since uh 1950 53 I think is a date on the cartridges so pretty interesting some of you ask how long ammo will last generally it lasts pretty well let's take a couple more shots see if I can get an eyeball on that site well enough to uh to hit something okay you notice I struggle sometimes when I'm loading via the clip on an SKS or something but it just works better and easier with this see if I can the sight that's better okay ah flower pot I'll be darn nice nice nice oh here's a close fly pot that's more my speed with that little bitty sight see if I can hit it what do you want to bet yeah I think a 30 outd 6 will take care of that pretty well oh we have one more round well let's go ahead and take it at the watermelon it'll probably take me about 30 rounds to hit that now I'm going to take a few shots at it if we uh struggle too much I may have to walk over there and stab it or something where I went um so like I said the uh this is the best of both worlds it has a nice smooth Bowl kind of maybe not as smooth as a crack but we tried to borrow from the crack and then especially from the Mouser and uh in 1900 I think they they came up with the first prototypes of it and then in 1903 went into production it was in the 30 out3 cartridge but it was in 1903 and that's that's where you hits the name odd three Springfield and there's some confusion there you know people I don't get that it's a 30 out 6 and it's y three and when did it come out I thought it was adopted in ' 05 or 06 and and and so you know it's a little bit confusing to people that uh but anyway the cartridge was was improved and I think 1905 and 1906 when they they improved it and went to the oix so they named the cartridge to 30 OD 6 so what it turned out to be finally when we officially adopted the rifle in I think' 05 and then we we changed the cartridge from the 03 beefed It Up made it more powerful more like the Mouser round uh uh it was in in '06 1906 so that's where that name comes from 30 6 some cartridges like the 457 are based on the caliber 45 and then 70 was 70 grains of powder you know so I know it gets crazy when you look back through all the different cartridges and their names and some of them are based on the length of the cartridge the second number some are based on how much powder they held and then the 306 is based on the six means 1906 so this is the gun I guess you could say made the 30 o6 famous or started it on that route and then of course the grand later right and other Firearms but uh 30 out6 is what this gun is known as and so you can forget everything I said about the 303 a lot of people probably even know that I wasn't even sure of that myself but uh 306 and a great bolt action rifle a beautiful beautiful gun of course it was used in World War I World War II we didn't have enough ganss the Gan came around in 1937 but we didn't have enough of them and uh so this was used as I understand in the Pacific a lot especially by the Marines and and then of course as a sniper rifle we lots of talk about sniper rifles don't we on the internet but it was used as a scoped you know sniper rifle and uh well I guess in World War I to but in World War II especially and then uh Korea and even early days of Vietnam okay so and in other places around the world so let's think about it a bolt action I mean you go to a sporting good store today and you will find quality bolt action rifles people buying them all the time it's a very popular design it just works so this gun uh how could it ever really become obsolete we're still buying guns just like this based on the same action the great Mouser action you know the a three action and then a lot of these have been sporterized you know for hunting that kind of thing there's just not a lot you can do to it to make it better you know more uh Stronger Just you really couldn't now you could add a better site like I said I wanted this version the A3 that I think it came along more later towards World War II in the' 40s has a an aperture site on the rear which makes it a little bit more like U an M1A or you know a M1 grand you name it AR-15 you got your aperture your ghost ring sight and boy I love those my eye loves those too because you can just pull those up and you just find a front sight and put it on the target bang you know so if I were really wanting to hunt or just shoot a great deal or go to Camp Perry and see if I could even place you know it wouldn't be with this gun obviously I'd want that AP your sight but I wanted an older one you know I've got lots of boat guns lots of guns with great sights and I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep if I you know actually miss a two L here because I can't really you know get my eyeball in that little sight that's okay I can sleep with that I can live with that and still sleep something like that so it's just a beautiful piece of Hardware let's load it up another time here now you know with the the now the the bayonet that uh that's my Gan bayonet but it works on this because it was the same bayonet basically just longer uh I think a 1905 model or whatever same bandet but just longer mainly and uh it fits on here so I've got my bayonet for deer hunting you know just anything I want to do with this baby all right and again as I said uh this this link Barrel replaced all the other variant really uh so basically the the military rifle was a 24in barrel the he replaced all variants of the Craig uh you know the the Lee model 1895 the the 1885 Remington you know the Navy I think used those and so this became the officially adopted rifle for all those uh forces and uh I think it was officially adopted like June the 21st 1905 but like anything there's there's some in the field they're making them they're experimenting with them and all that kind of thing and I believe there around 800,000 of made before World War I started and a little note on that along those lines uh one reason I had a little trouble finding one I wanted I found a few gun shows different places but I look you always want to check the serial number if you plan to shoot it you you really probably want one that is has a higher serial number than 800,000 they had some Metallurgy issues before 800,000 there weren't that many failures they were pretty RAR as I understand and a lot of people will tell you I don't worry about been shooting those things you I don't know uh but that's pretty much an established fact that's not uh internet myth or anything after 800,000 you're okay so I knew that and uh so I was looking for something kind of in this range this is just over a million great great number for me I wanted one as old as I could find in good shape that was over 800,000 and I have it and I love it it is a wonderful rifle uh I don't what we have here oh let's take a few more shots at that uh at watermelon before I have to go over there and kick it okay I don't if I'll ever do anything with the sights a firearm like this I just really hate to to change it I might break down and oh boy I hate to paint those rear sights pink or anything I've already put some white paint on the front it's so bad isn't it I like that that clip feeding works so well you know you see me I struggle every time I try that with the SKS I mean I just I cut my finger everything else it's really cool that it works so well on the this rifle uh same with the Mouser just it just works okay I'm not sure where I'm holding incorrectly but oh let's at least scary him find that Notch that look left in it okay find the notch yeah that look left too okay think I got a piece of it or the barrel one the other just can't see it try another shot whoa I'm not sure if that was a piece off the barrel or or what but uh this uh this is a beauty and again uh let me go over a couple things with the gun the uh the uh bolt here operates much like the Mouser it's easy to take the bolt out you just uh just little lever down the middle comes out how's that and push it right back in how it pretty pretty nice smooth operation now you notice I had this lever up and that is a magazine well no that's in regular operation so uh I can just load it shoot it like I've been doing now if you put this down you have a magazine cut off so you can you can put a round in and just load one at a time and it won't take one out of the magazine again as I've explained I think with craiger one of the rifles earlier in video that you uh you might want to if you're in a situation where you just want to load one at a time and keep five in the magazine you can do that and then if you need to attack or if you are attacked you have your magazine in reserve if you're behind I guess I I know nothing about military strategy really but but if you're behind the wall you know and you're you're just clinking and you're not needing to load in reload in a hurry you can just put one in a time uh fearing that you might need those five quickly or something I don't know the situation might be but that's that's a nice feature to have right there that's pretty cool pretty cool okay and uh again we've got our bayonet we wanted to demonstrate and we have 1950s ammo that is pretty neat let me show you yeah 1952 I if you can see that but thato has been in that clip since 1952 and it's been in the the pouch these these pouches is what it came in uh all that time and a couple of them were a little bit corroded on the ends but uh we took it out for the first time most of it I laid one aside here that was a little bit looked a little bit yeah there we go yeah looks like a little little cro I'm not going to try to shoot that maybe dirty chamber will clean it up but it's pretty cool that that ammo has been around that long and that this has been around since the' 40s we fired some of this and we about one out of six or seven uh was a dud interesting but some of these had the date on the on the head yeah it's hard to see but I think that's a that's one of them 43 I think I don't know I can't see it very well I don't know but uh a lot of them had 42 or 43 on them that that may not be one of them there's some others mixed in here too that have some other strange markings but most of it was 42 and we were getting some Duds and it was interesting we didn't see any uh variation in the power of the round seemed shoot fine when it shot but some of them the primer was primers were dead on them okay uh let's see did I hit that watermelon at all John I don't think I touch him did I get him once maybe let's just let him him lie there I'm not going to waste any more 30 out6 ammo on him until I decide what I'm going to do with these sights but you know what you got a watermelon right here I can't let him uh Escape he is close enough I think I can hit him I really do I don't I don't think I'll have any problems I won't be able to use the sight as an excuse so why don't we do this I don't we cut him you know what though let's put him just for kicks let's let's try a core loock you know that's one of the advantages in this I almost forgot I brought it out here for that reason you can fire it's a 30 out six you may have different point of impact these are 180 grain bullets the standard military rounds 147 150 basically 150 grain bullet going around 2,800 ft per second maybe 2900 ft per second that's pretty fast for a bullet of that size you know so uh that's just kind of the the classic they experimented with some other I think uh bullets from time to time and different ballistic or ballistics you know involved in the 30 out6 but they landed I think they came back to that around 150 grain bullet going about that speed now these are 180 grain and these are soft tip but again because it's not a tubular magazine or something you can you can do different things and experiment a little bit so these are 180 grain I can tell those are really heavy now uh soft tip let's put a couple of those in this might be a round you would use uh hunting I don't know cor loock that's a that's a famous round uh by the way these were uh Dan's ammo I'll put a link up they sent us all this ammo about a thousand rounds of various things uh we really appreciated that we've had it for a good while just haven't shot a lot of it uh some of it we have Let's uh put a couple of these in and just try them out I think I don't know you know with that soft tip it might not Pierce that watermelon what do you think uh should I put two or three or four or five yeah I'll tell you what let's do yeah let's put about three of them in there and uh we might want to hit that bowling pin before we shoot the watermelon but you know what I'm going to put the safety on that's a safety up okay I'm going to take those out John wonders if I've lost my mind because I'm going to put the bayonet on and I just have a problem with putting a bandet on when the gun's loaded I know that uh in the trenches you wouldn't worry too much about that but I'm not in the trenches so I want to unload it now let's put those back in there is that a pretty uh rig or not safety on how'd you like to uh climb into a deer stand with something like that isn't that nice you got a 30 out6 a nice bolt action rifle you know a nice banet you are prepared all right uh I don't guess I'll shoot my bayonet let me put one on that bowling pin there I can't uhoh that's all right I'm going to shoot the bowling pin see if I can hit him I did didn't I and we got one round left let's just take out I'll tell you what let's stab this guy I think he deserves it he's got a face on him you think you know what I'm going to do don't you you think I ought to oh man the things I do for you people look at that look at that my beautiful Springfield a 3 antique cherished firearm filled with watermelon juice I'll tell you oh well thanks to ballistol little cleaning rager too we'll get him cleaned up beautifully you notice I didn't do that first we just couldn't resist oh look at that b watermelon juice all over it oh man the real deal is that cute or what you know and that's the neat thing about these uh you they're antiques they're old historical you think about the people that carried these and you know how it's the reason we're able to own these things isn't it ironic we're able to own these guns and shoot them uh on our own ranges or on other ranges because people carry these into battle you know to keep us free and you just can't help but think about all that stuff when you got one of these in your hand wonder where it's been who's carried it you know the real deal a real bayonet this stuff none of this is replica you know if it were that'd be cool too but this is the real stuff it was it was used and the dates are on it the serial numbers are there and uh to be able to bring it out on a range and just show it shoot enjoy it even if I can't see the SS very well it uh you F that are gun nuts you probably are if you're watching this your gun shooting enthusiasts I should say right uh you know what I'm talking about you know exactly what I'm talking about uh I wish more people who haven't gotten into shooting yet we're still working on uh knew that and could appreciate that and I think a lot of them will if we keep working on them right so anyway just a beautiful rifle the uh Springfield on three it will be prettier when I get it cleaned up but uh nice gun life is good [Music] [Music] [Music] s m

Channel: hickok45

Views: 1,133,463

Keywords: Springfield, '03, 1903, .30-06, 30-06, 03, bolt, gun, action, military, rifle, WWI, WWII, Korea, Korean, War, Vietnam, Sniper

Id: 9mbaO7qLzS8

Length: 29min 3sec (1743 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 06 2012