Customer Reviews

The Model 1903 Springfield Rifle and its Variations. 3rd Revised Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Author Joe Poyer leaves no detail overlooked. His work, in my experience, outshines all others and could be called "definitive" on the subject upon which he has written. I highly recommend The Model 1903 Springfield Rifle and Its Varitiions as an invaluable addition to the library of the firearms enthusiast.

This book is perfect for any collectors or fans of the 1903 sprinfield. Very easy to under stand!!! Great line drawings!!! I highly recommend this book!!!!

If you want to collect 1903 rifles. I would highly recommend this book. The author explains in the various types of 1903 rifles. He goes into detail on the various parts of a 1903 rifle including original finishes and markings. His section on the 1905 bayonet and its variations is very informative and entertaining. Most of the questions I had about the 1903 rifle and its variations including the 1903A3 were answered by this book. The book is easy to read with excellent illustrations. A must read for anyone interested in American military firearms and their history.

This book has a massive amount of information about the many versions of the 1903 rifle. Poyer lists all the parts with lots of pictures so you can identify the manufacturer and when it was manufactured. I have his Garand book and find it very useful for determining the parts in my rifle are correct. This is a great book for a collector or someone who has a historical interest in these rifles.

I found Mr. Poyer's guide very easy to use. The many Appendices, tables and illustrations are an invaluable resource; while it is small enough to carry to shows and auctions.

This is a great book if you want to know everything about 1903 rifles. It isn't a book you'd read from cover to cover, rather it is a book to use for research to see what parts would be on a rifle from a certain time period. Very detailed, uses mostly line drawings.

What a resource! This book has it all. If you want to find out more about your old M1903, this is a must have. I love it!

Joe Poyer has written several books for North Cape Publications and if memory serves me, writes for a magazine or two, as well. When he brought out a 1903 Springfield in his "For Collectors Only" series in late 2001, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, the book was riddled with errors, some even obvious to beginners and others more obvious to those with more experience collecting '03s.

A few years ago, probably in an attempt to correct some of the errors, North Cape Published a revised edition of Mr. Poyer's book and I had hoped that many of the mistakes might have been corrected.

First, the positives - the book is in a handy format and attempts a part-by-part analysis of the 1903. He has many tables and much of his history on the '03 is readable and accurate. The drawings, although not up to those used by Clark Campbell or Jesse Harrison in their M1903 books, are adequate and well-explained.

Unfortunately, although some of the errors in the first edition were corrected (the "one off" production tables that, for example, listed 1919 serial numbers under a 1920 date - probably the result of poor editing/proofreading), there were several other errors either newly committed or left uncorrected.

Picking an area in which I have some expertise, the section on the Remington 1903, he stated that about 3,000 Remingtons were made in 1941. I accepted this as a matter of interpretation - the commonly accepted total is slightly under 6,000.

However, Mr. Poyer really gets off the beaten track when he states that a "few thousand" Remington 1903s were equipped with C stocks. No idea where this idea came from. Any Type C stock on a Remington was a replacement, not original.

He continues the dubious idea that there were two Remington 1903s - one a simple "Remington 1903" and the other a Remington 1903 Modified". Although he isn't the only person to believe this, he states that 133,444 Remington 1903s and 214,641 Modifieds were made. Even proponents of the "two Remington theory" have not come up with an EXACT cutoff between the two. Anyone who has made a detailed study of this rifle knows there was no cutoff between the two - Remington 1903s tended to "blend" from one change to the other - with plenty of exceptions to turn any firearms historian's hair gray!

There were numerous other mistakes noted:

1) On his Remington 1903A3 production tables 373, he incorrectly has serial numbers of rifles up to the 5,005,000 range. Although numbers allocated did include 5,000,000+, there were no rifles actually produced in this range. Nothing is said about this. I see some National Ordnance 03A3 owners claiming that their rifles are "military" because "Poyer says so"!

2) He states that Springfield receiver production went to the 1,592,000 range and in the table to 1,548,000, when most experts state that any serial numbers over the 1,536,000 range are fakes, errors or misstamps. Poyer states that "...as many as 60,000 spare receivers" may have been manufactured as spare parts as late as 1944 - in error. The last receiver made was in 1941.

3) Other smaller errors- CC is still stated as "Chrysler Corp." and CCT as Commercial Controls; the fictitious END stamp is still stated as being correct for early Remington 1903s.

I would not recommend this book for a 1903 "newbie" - there is too much chance for he/she to get the wrong information. Yes, it does have some positives. However, you must wade through a fair amount of misinformation to use it. Much of his data is taken from old or outdated sources. Virtually no serious M1903 collector recommends this book.

There is a real need for an inexpensive book on the 1903. Unfortunately, this is not it. The book buyer would be wise to save another $30-40 and buy either Bruce Canfield's M1903 book or Clark Campbell's latest edition.

If you own a Model 1903 Springfield or are interested in the history of the rifle in minute detail, you need this book in your library. End of story!

The term For Collectors Only describes the whole book in detailed and specific form. Nothing else is needed
to estimate this extraordinary fine item.