Springfield Conversion

[2nd Bat]

I will have at least one additional series of photos showing the finish workand completed rifle along with a grouping of other variants that are already finished. Hopefully it will be done by next week. Barring unforseen issues.

[2nd Bat]

I spent virtually the whole weekend on the receiver group sculpting and scope mount arrangement. The trigger assembly if you'll recall had to be modified considerably to accomodate the VSR trigger (Groove widened and lengthened and trigger ring slightly reshaped and reattached.) Once assembled the groove wasn't quite wide enough and the trigger occassionally stuck. AAAAARG!!!! I had to dissasemble it all and redo the groove and then reassemble and test it. It now works fine. That was four hours I'll never get back.

The scope set up should function fine and look pretty close to the actual arrangement. Once mounted and tested I'll do final fling and sanding, tape it all off and do the parkerization and final finish work for the receiver group and metal. Do the final finsh on the stock. Allow it all to dry. Reassemble it all. Do my final testing, take tons of pictures and ship it off.

This is the hardest gun I've ever done and I will leave it's replication to others in the future. At $750.00 after the cost of materials I think I made about $2.00 an hour.

[KRaddatz]

God Bless Ya' 2nd Bat, i hope to see these fine pieces of crafstmanship

[101steasykid]

Attend the New York Event and you will, haha.

[KRaddatz]

as much as i would love to hop from dday to the bulge i dont think i can..

[2nd Bat]

Here are some pictures of an A3 version recently completed.











This version features the Straight stock without finger grooves using the A3 longer upper handguard and a rear peep site where the A3 has the shorter upper hand guard and a ladder type sight well in front of the bolt. The gun requires some additional detail work but is fundamentally finished.

Note a side by side comparison of the A1 and A3 variants.



This is my sixth completed Springfield with a seventh close to completion as well. It will be the A4 variant with scope and I will post pictures of it in the next few days. These are proving to be very sweet guns and while a lot of work have been fun to make and are even more fun to shoot. I have worked on these latest variants for almost 2 months now.

[chasem]

I have to tell you those are true beautys.

[2nd Bat]

Which style do you prefer? The traditional, classic WW1 or WW2 M1903 A1 or the A2 style? In the course of doing this project I learned so much more about the Springfield 1903 rifle then I ever knew.

[YankeeDiv26]

I'm a fan of the original m1903's myself. The ladder sights aren't the most practical in the world, but I can still (and have) been able to hit targets several hundred yards downrange.

[Seff]

2ndbat said:

Which style do you prefer? The traditional, classic WW1 or WW2 M1903 A1 or the A2 style? In the course of doing this project I learned so much more about the Springfield 1903 rifle then I ever knew.

Prefer the A3 myself. Peep hole always worked for me. I prefer C-stock though.

[jimseery]

Here's a picture of the 03A3 I've been working on. Right now one of my rotten kids is helping me learn to post pictues. If I manage to retain any of his teaching I will try for a more thorough post.

[101steasykid]

Good Job Jimseery, I know you'll be one "Happy Camper". I also love the A3. It just looks more up to date with the other WWII weapons. The ladder sites have never really worked with me. My grandfather owns an A3, and I love everything about it.

[elder90]

how much for the A3??? (that is if it is for sale)

[KRaddatz]

around the same as an M1

[jimseery]

Well I'll tell you what elder90 you're in Denver and I'm in Loveland and that's the Mk 1. I'm currently working on the Mk 2 which I expect to bring in somewhere in the $200 - $250 range plus some sweat. If you really want one and if you can find your way North I can probably show you how to build one. I'm retired and I have all kinds of free time. It's up to you.

[elder90]

Great ;D!!!! I'll have to ask my dad I wish i could drive so i could just go

[jimseery]

Bring him along, I have all kinds of toys to play with. Is he interested in blacksmithing? We can fire up the forge. I never go anywhere on weekends because that's when they let all the people out to interfere with my playing with the world. PM or call 970 669 0692.

[2nd Bat]

After building now six conversions using mostly actual Springfield components and painstakingly dremelling things out and filling and sanding to make everything fit I have learned one thing. If you're going to go to the time and trouble of doing a conversion spend a little extra on the base rifle. I have mostly been using the AGM MP001 which is a great value for the money but is so inexpensive that of course there are going to be potential weak points.

The gun is a surprisingly hard shooter compared say to a stock Marui VSR-10. They shoot .20 grams at over 400 FPS. The trigger seres I suspect are truly not up to the power of the Springs over time. I've had one fail and have heard several other reports. If it was just the rifle alone I would find it well worth the potential but when it fails inside a conversion you spent weeks on (or paid a lot of money for) It is enormously dissapointing. For that reason I highly recommend spending a little extra for a higher quality VSR Clone. The BAR-10 is reputedly quite nice and I have been real impressed with the TSD 700. Both are perhaps 35.00 more in initial investment but I think are well worth the extra cost.

I have a customer who has ordered a Springfield conversion and wants it mounted on an actual VSR-10. I'm sure he'll be delighted with it as after the upgrades and modifications it will produce somewhat greater power then the VSR Clones but at a cost that is roughly 300.00 higher. If money is no object that obviously is the best way to go.

[CharleyNovember]

I have the VSR, USR, Bar 10 and the AGM guns all in house in various stages of being converted and I find the AGM to be really cheap compared to the others. I perfer them in th eorder I have written. It is a toss up between the USR and Bar10 They are both fine copies of a VSR and the BAR10's I have both chronoed in right at 400FPS out of the box. The USR is around 300FPS. The AGM compared to the others just seems to be built a little more on the cheap than the rest. I have shot the TSD in game and I didn't really care for the one I had. Maybe it was just that one but it was not a winner for me.

[2nd Bat]

I'm awaiting receipt of an ordered Marui VSR-10. Dan are the demensions the same? The reason I ask is I'm hoping that if I cnc A Springfield stock for production it'll accomodate any and all of the VSR and VSR clones so the customer could readily choose which base gun they want to use.

[CharleyNovember]

From eyeballing them closely I would say they are all pretty much the same. The MP001 is slightly different in the magwell area and on the upper reciever there is an extra "bump" the others don't have. I put them together by hand so slight differences don't bother me much.

[Ersatzjack]

2ndbat said:

After building now six conversions using mostly actual Springfield components and painstakingly dremelling things out and filling and sanding to make everything fit I have learned one thing. If you're going to go to the time and trouble of doing a conversion spend a little extra on the base rifle. If money is no object that obviously is the best way to go.

I agree with this conclusion in spirit. Actually, if money were no object the way to go is with the USR hop-up (throw away the rest of the rifle) and then PDI VSR-10 upgrade parts (very pricey and hard to locate all from one supplier). That's my logic when doing a conversion because 2nd Bat is correct. You don't want to spend all that time and money on a project when it's underpinnings are cheap and breakable. That's a loser for the customer. But since money is an object people have to decide for their own what compromises they are willing to accept. There... another perfectly good fence-sitting response. I'm proud of myself.

[2nd Bat]

The difference between the very least expensive base rifle that provides decent performance(MP001) and the next few up the scale (Bar-10, USR, and TSD 700) is very minor ($25-40.00). With that in mind I highly recommend the minor bump in costs.

The choice comes if you are contemplating using an actual Marui VSR-10 where it's over a $200.00 bump (with upgrades) to end up with matched performance but greater durability and precision.

[2nd Bat]

Looks very nice 3rd Infantry. Where did you source you C stock? I have been unable to find any at affordable prices and worried about ruining an expensive stock doing the conversion.

[wade]

Hey, thanks for the comments 2ndBat! I got mine from e-gunparts.com, it was expensive, but it was the only C-Stock I could find. :-\

[Ersatzjack]

C-stocks? What about these?

www.boydsgunstocks.com/BrowseEbus/Militaryall.asp

At $100 they seem reasonable. At least Boyds still makes the US stuff.

[camokid110196]

DO U Sell Springfields put all together or any other Ideas for a Allied semi auto rifle?

[2nd Bat]

Yes I occassionally sell them all put together and in addition I make AEG Garands (Lots of thread information on that) The Garand is of course a semi automatic rifle with a 12 round clip that due to the usual BB drop from magazines ends up being around a 8-9 round clip. The shortened clips fit in the Garand belt pouches and bandoleers.

[YankeeDiv26]

Your aeg garands also fire in fully automatic, an dcan hold a regular m14 magazine if wanted. For any more information I suggest reading the various threads on it.

[Young Blood]

Do you sell these 2nd bat???