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View Full Version : Review James River Armory 03A3



cyberintel
12-11-11, 19:34
I didn't own any older or historical firearms but a buddy of mine got me interested in WW2 firearms. After checking out the M1 Garand he bought from James River Armory, I decided to try them for a Remington 03A3. I selected the fully restored one with the new stock and new Criterion barrel. The rifle is advertised here:

http://www.jamesriverarmory.com/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_new.tpl&product_id=124&category_id=31

and here is mine:

http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr78/deutschr/IMG_3524.jpg

http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr78/deutschr/IMG_3532.jpg

The wood seems very nice and has a number of historical looking proof and factory marks that frankly - not really being knowledgable about 03A3s - I ma not qualified to comment on. The metal has a nice parkerizing that I really can't find any flaws on. On receiving the rifle I had two concerns:

1) The magazine cutoff would not move at all, no matter how much I cursed at it. I called James River and talked to Mark Hartman there. He sent me a new mag cutoff that arrived two days later. Reinstalling it was easy.

2) The crown on the Criterion looked slightly irregular, in that the end of one land on the four groove barrel looked as if it had been finished slightly differently. Yes, I tend to be very picky and anal-retentive on things like muzzle crowns on my firearms. But hey, I work hard for my money and want things to be right.

This was also my first time reloading 30-06. Grafs had Prvi cases on sale for $27/100, and I happened to have some Sierra 175 BTHP, Fed GM Match primers, and Reloader 19 laying around. My first 30 rounds for test were this combination: 56.4gr powder, 55.5 gr powder, and 54.6 powder. Off to the range I went for a quick first test.

Shooting impressions: Most of my shooting is pistol shooting, AR15, and 12 gauge autoloader. I was a bit surprised by the stout recoil on this lightweight 30-06 with steel buttplate. To make it a bit easier to concentrate on accuracy, I used a sandbag between me and the rifle. I wound up producing the following ten shot group at 100 yards.

http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr78/deutschr/IMG_3523.jpg

Total group size with the flyer is 2.2". Mean radius from the center of the group is .8". One thing about the 03A3 is that the front sight blade is very narrow. It seemed to me like that would be good for distance shooting, but it's almost hard to see, All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this accuracy. Ordinarily I really dislike when people make excuses and say "The rifle is accurate when I do my part". In this case though, I would think between my bad trigger control, unfamiliarity with the rifle, inconsistency with how I placed the sandbag, and cheap Chinese rest, I probably wasn't shooting it to its potential.

Unfortunately my chronograph crapped out. I got one reading at the max charge of RE19 I used, 56.4, of 2581 fps. That's very much within the safe range in the Sierra manual, and I had n apparent signs of too much pressure. I think my load development for this gun is more or less done, although I might try some lighter weight bullets after I finish the 500 175s I have.

There you have it, for someone looking for a (so far) trouble free and proper functioning older military rifle James River looks like a good source.

rojocorsa
12-12-11, 16:16
That's very nice, thanks for sharing.


Really liked the pattern on that stock; it's lovely. I must say, you did pretty well for shooting an older type rifle as well.


Glad you're enjoying it.

AFAIK, the CMP still sells surplus 30/06 ball as well, if you're interested.