Sorry if this gets posted twice. Seem to have lost one somehow. Anyway, my first deer rifle was a 1903-A3 and I loved it. With nothing but a new $17 woood stock (yep this has been a year or two ago) epoxy bedded at the recoil lug only (I was only 14 at the time and didn't know any better, fortunately I accidently free floated it)it's groups at 100 yds averaged about 3/4" with the military peep sight. I was a big fan of 1903s and a lot of really nice looking and shooting rifles have been built on that action. Even though the earlier 1903 models were finished a lot better, as has been mentioned, the heat treating was lacking on the earlier ones. Also there were several folks manufacturing them to include Springfield,Remington, Smith-Corona....The later models (1903-A3) were stronger but much rougher looking because many were produced during WWII and pretty wasn't an issue. Regardless, if you put a good barrel on one, lapped the lugs, bedded the action, and free floated the barrel I would think you could shoot groups in the 1/2" range all day (assuming you can shoot), and probably several better. Even though a lot of beautiful and good shooting rifles used to be built on these actions the accessories are not nearly available today as they are for the Remington 700. For example, every magizine you picked up 30 years ago liste stocks for 03-A3s, but you hardly ever see any listed these days. Good luck.
